A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Jim at Vinestops.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Jim at Vinestops in New York in America.  Good morning, Jim. How are you?  Morning. How are you?  I'm good. I don't know why I did that. I don't think there's New York anywhere but America, but whatever. It's okay.  How is the weather there today? It's beautiful.  Clear blue skies and it's not muggy, which is really awesome.  Yeah. think maybe, hopefully, dare I say it, we've turned the corner. Maybe. 00:56 It was, it was brutal. My tomatoes got decimated from the Sephora leaf spot.  And we get that when you have that a lot of rain and a lot of like mugginess and it was just like the worst conditions for it. So it's a little disappointing. Yeah. We lucked out. Our tomatoes are coming in hand over fist right now for the next couple of weeks. And it's been amazing because we didn't have very good luck last year or the year before. 01:23 The weather in Minnesota this morning is sunny. There's a very, very light breeze. Like you can just hear a little bit of a hiss through the leaves, but that's it. And it's 68 degrees and the high for today is only supposed to be 78. So I am tickled with the weather we're having currently. That's like ideal weather for me.  Mid 70s, I'm there all day long. Yeah. It's been gorgeous the last few days and 01:49 The one creature on my property that is most thankful is my dog. She had such a hard time with that heat wave that we had.  And she's been so much more comfortable the last week or so. Oh, that's great.  I always love it when the animals aren't stressed out, right? Yeah, she was so sad, Jim. She kept laying on the tiles on the bathroom floor. And every time I would go in the bathroom, she'd look at me like... 02:16 can you fix it mom please and no I can't fix it I don't know how I'm sorry.  So you and I spoke in September last year about this project called Vine Stops and you couldn't tell me you couldn't tell me a whole lot about it because it was in the works. So do you want to tell me what it is and give me an update.  Yeah.  So you know we talked about my farm stand and my farm and having the issues that lot of 02:46 of farm stand owners and vendors have, which is like, how do we get people to our farm stands,  especially with people that are out there,  like way out there when they don't have a lot of traffic.  And so we came up, I came up with this idea about Vine Stops. Originally it was to, to make pre-built farm stands to sell in big box dealers,  like Home Depot and Lowe's and Tractor Supply. 03:14 And I ended up getting a patent on a farm stand I developed.  And then what happened was we really, we kind of transitioned it more to a platform to be able to find farm stands and vendors.  And it's not nothing new, right? There's a lot of apps out there that, you know, you can pay five to $50 a month and be able to get a platform to sell your, you know, your show your 03:44 your farm stand or your or your if you're a home baker or vendor.  But that's not what I wanted to do. I didn't want to just throw together another app that,  just, you know, people like us pay have to pay for a lot of money for and then there's nothing behind it. Right. I truly wanted to create an ecosystem that brings everybody together. But a company that is face face forward, meaning 04:13 You know, I want our company to be there with the users, not just kind of have them pay a monthly fee. then, you know, we're, we're on an island somewhere running a business from our laptop, you know?  Um,  and so the fine stops since I talked to you last has, has blossomed. It's so incredibly, uh, you know, I'm excited.  We, we thought we were just going to be farm stands. 04:40 vendors and farmers markets, kind of a management platform.  We ended up turning it into just a true ecosystem where we have home bakers and food trucks accounts now that have features that were specifically designed based off of feedback from the users.  And that's the best part about VineStops is we're having meetings with the users and saying, what do you like? What do you don't like? 05:09 what do want to see? And we're making it for them in the system.  So, Vistops has truly kind of developed into this whole ecosystem of being able to find farm stands, vendors,  farmers markets, food trucks,  events, and even more. And we're continuously growing. So, it's fun, it's exciting, and we're meeting great people. And the best part about it is 05:36 we're accomplishing what I want to do, which was create a company that helps farm stands and home bakers and vendors be found, but also doing it alongside with them as one, as a farm stand owner. 05:53 Very nice. And it's been accomplished in, well, under a year because we're not even at September of 2026 yet. Yeah.  We're humming along.  And, you know, we haven't even started advertising.  We're doing no advertising whatsoever.  Everybody that's joining the site is word of mouth. And it's also like finding us on Facebook or 06:22 you know, comments or, you know, people saying, Hey, check out Vine Stops, you know,  and that's the way we wanted it now for a little bit because we, still are learning. And I think the feedback from people that operate farm stands and the home bakers and, and, uh, farmers markets, uh, is, is very important for us to kind of tailor products, uh, that really, uh, fits their needs, not create a product and tell them what it is. 06:51 And then they have to pay for it, if that makes any sense. And our goal is to be no cost, low cost. I would love to continue to build out VineStops where the users aren't paying for it.  And the money that VineStops makes comes from other sources that doesn't make somebody baking out of their house pass along 7 to 8 % user fees to the customer. 07:20 you know, because that's what some of these platforms do. And it's a lot of money when you're paying a couple of dollars for a cookie or, or, you know, a muffin already. And then all of sudden you have to pay almost 8 % user fees on top of that transaction.  Yeah. Yep.  And I feel like I harp on this constantly, but with the cost of inflation on everything right now, it's getting harder and harder. It is. 07:48 And there's, know, and we can do a whole nother show on this other topic because over the last three or four months, especially now that AI has become like ingrained in everything,  my team has identified probably 10 to 15 new farm stand,  farmer's market apps that are getting pumped into the, the, 08:17 social media world, you know, as having tens of thousands of users and people on these platforms. And they're tricking people because what happens is, you know, this app was just kind of thrown together with AI, right? And then it gets pumped on social media as a farm stand, farmers market app that has, you know, 10,000, 30,000 users on the system worldwide. And then it 08:47 tells you, hey, know, free trial for seven days and you're paying 10, $20 a month after that. And then when you get on it, there's truly actually no users. And, you know, I started learning a lot this year about the whole tech world and, and, um, AI and, and what's called API's in, and how they kind of connect with different sites. And all they're really doing is they're taking an app, they're throwing a platform together. They're connecting it to Google and to other. 09:15 platforms that kind of collect where these farm stands are or farmers markets are and then showing it on their platform like they're users but they're actually not users. It's just collecting data from other platforms.  And so as a farm stand owner, I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to join this platform. I'm going to pay $10 a month and look at all the users and people around here. But you get there and it's like, you start clicking on it and then 09:43 You realize they're not users. I'm just clicking on what's already on Google.  so I feel bad. I feel bad because in our journey and talking to some single moms and home bakers and people really struggling to get this off the ground,  it's sad to see them fall for these quick pumps of AI tech companies and platforms out there just to grab. 10:11 money from them without offering really truly what they think they're getting.  So that's why we're doing this slow.  We're not. And that's why we don't.  We're trying to keep this low cost, no cost, because I don't want to do that. I want to build a platform that truly is a platform of users and truly is a community of people and that we can actually help people save money and make more money by not charging them what the fees are that are out there. 10:42 fabulous and I talked a lot about AI on my other podcast because I started a new one back in January and my co-host has a a bee in her bonnet about AI worse than I do and the problem with AI is that a lot of people over 50 cannot discern what's real and what's AI and it's just sad 11:11 And it just, I said this yesterday, chaps my ass that there's always got to be a bad guy looking for a way to make a cheap and fast buck.  listen, I'm not going to lie. You know, we're a tech company. You know, I am a farmer and I am a farmstead owner.  You're not building a tech company in this world without utilizing AI somehow. know, buying stocks utilizes AI. We utilize it in a different way. We created a, we created a leaf. 11:41 that's his name.  And Leaf is kind of like your plan. It's our platform like helper and why we created him to help.  So when when people are on social media saying, am I allowed to set up a farm stand in my in my neighborhood? We want them to be able to just ask Leaf that, hey, Leaf, I live in, you know, Guapiners Falls, New York. What are the laws around setting up a farm stand? And Leaf will help you find them. 12:07 Or,  Leaf,  find me peaches within 30 miles of my house and Leaf will pull up the farm stands and farmers markets and pull up the peaches that are for sale. So that's how we're utilizing the AI with VineStops.  But again, we're not just a total AI company and you're not going to see the people behind it. We are very much going to be front forward and having 12:35 community meetings via Zoom and touch bases with our vendors and even farmers markets.  We've set up a VineStops booth at one of the farmers markets and they're like, no way. I was like, yeah, that's one of our goals. We want to actually be out there. We want to sponsor farmers markets. We want to try to get money for them, whether it's for grants. 12:58 Yeah, AI is here, unfortunately, and it's tricking a lot of people, unfortunately, especially the elderly who are not used to it. And it's sad and I hope they figure out a way to manage it a little bit better than they are now.  it's unfortunately a runaway train and it's not being managed properly.  Well,  they let the horse out of the barn too soon is what happened,  as it typically does. 13:29 And I am not bad mouthing AI. We've been using AI for years in many ways, shapes and forms.  Just not in the ways that people are using it now. So if you're going to use it, use it for good.  Be a superhero, use it for good.  So I was looking at your website earlier this morning and I saw that you have a calendar feature on there. What is that about? 13:58 Yeah, so you're seeing half of it, which is, you know, I last time I told you I couldn't tell you stuff.  So the calendar feature is going to be really awesome.  That's going to live throughout the site through all the accounts and especially from a user perspective, what you're looking at, right?  So there's a couple of ways of landing on that calendar now. You're going to have your farmers markets. 14:24 your community events. like if my town puts up like a fireworks show on Saturday, they can throw an event up on there.  And what's coming, what's built, but we haven't released it yet because we're doing a different part,  is that you can now set up mini events for your farm stand or as a home baker especially. And we actually got this idea from a home baker in Virginia.  She sat with us for two hours and really went through everything. 14:52 Uh-huh. Bree's Bakery,  she, she's, the way she runs her bakery is that she, she sets her, her menu and then everybody has to get the orders in by a certain time. And then she has a specific pickup time at her farm stand that she'll be at for people to pick up their orders. And so what we did was we built vine events, they're called. And so she can create the pickup window as an event. And then when you, when you purchase it from her. 15:23 from her storefront, you can actually click on that event as the pickup window.  And for her on the back end, it helps her organize what she needs to bake for that day. But it also can land on the community calendar as like, you know, as an event where, where you can pick up fresh produce or bakery items, but also for farmers markets.  if, if Bri decides she's going to be at the farmer's market next week, 15:53 and that farmers market is on five stops,  well, Bree can actually put that event,  that farmers market as an event in her checkout so people can order it and then tell her they're going to pick it up at the farmers market that day.  So there's those are a couple of the uses that we're going to have for that community calendar. But the goal again is no matter where you are on the site, if you're on the Discover tab or 16:22 or whether you're in your consumer profile, that you can go to that community calendar and use the filters. If you want to see what's going on just within 30 miles from you,  then you do that and you can see what's going on within 30 miles from you. And then you can click on each day, it'll show you all the events.  And we also, I'll give you a sneak peek.  You're not gonna see it on there, but it's already done.  We're gonna have what's called Vine Clubs. 16:51 And I'm trying to get to see the theme, right?  So we created this community within Vine Stops that's not live yet, where let's say I run the Tomato Club of Wappengers Falls and I have a Facebook group and you know, we do our thing. Well now I can put that group on Vine Stops and we're going to have a whole section for people to be able to put their... 17:20 their clubs on their manager clubs, but also tied into the community calendar.  So, and, and in leaf.  So, um, you know, I have my, my club in, in, in in vine clubs.  And let's say you love tomatoes.  You're looking at the community calendar for the, you know, the next two weeks. And, and I have our meeting on there and it says, you know, Oh, look, next Friday. 17:47 The tomato club of Wappeners Falls has got their meeting here.  You can click on it and go right to our club page.  But also if you use Leaf and said, hey, Leaf, are there any clubs near me or hey, Leaf, I want to join a tomato club, he'll pull up my club and say, there's the tomato club of the Hudson Valley or Wappeners Falls right there.  And so that's not on the site live yet. It's built in the background, but you can kind of see 18:17 how over the past year we've morphed from just like a farm stand locator to a true community style organization. And we want to really build a site and a company where people can explore and just get lost and like going through the site and finding other people and other groups and not feeling like they have to go to Facebook for one thing,  YouTube for another thing. 18:46 keep on bouncing around and, and, and that's, that's, that's the whole, that's the, that's the vision right there is to get everybody really just utilizing the site as a source of knowledge and community.  That is amazing. And that's not what I heard when I talked to you almost a year ago. So this is great.  So as you're telling me about all this, for some reason, the library that I went to in a very small town where I grew up, 19:16 is coming to mind. They had a big bulletin board and they had pins and they had they had pieces of paper you could actually just write on and put up if you wanted to. And it had community events in the three or four towns around my town and for my town. And they had, you know, people who wanted to, I don't know, rake leaves or babysit or whatever. And they had 19:42 just all the little community things that you would expect back when the internet didn't exist.  And this is what that's what this reminds me of except that it's the internet.  So is Vine Stops national?  we've got users worldwide already. Okay. Yeah.  It's it's it's it's we haven't really tried to dig into why we have some accounts and where we do.  Because right now we're just not 20:11 truly worried about where they're coming from or more worried about what they're looking for, what they're, how they're using it,  what account, you know, what accounts are being open and really just continuously building the product based off of feedback and my vision, you know, um, I think very, very soon in the next 30 to 60 days, you're going to probably start seeing advertising pushes going out. Cause I think we're, we are at the point, we've been at the point where we could, we could, you know, say, Hey, here's our site. 20:41 join, you know, and here's advertising pushes and, and, know, let's get a lot of people on there using,  but boy,  we, we truly love the feedback we're getting it. And honestly,  we'd rather fix it and, and, and really dial it in and then launch then to launch and then have people disappointed.  So we're, we're, we're here.  People, people can go on and sign up right now and, and they could be very happy. 21:10 It's certainly not perfect.  What we're doing is we're actually taking four or five different products,  vendors, management platform,  a farm stand, a locator app,  a community.  We're bringing multiple products into one place.  that's not easy to do to where it feels like you're not just looking at five different businesses, that you're truly looking at one organization or one ecosystem. 21:39 So that's the tricky part we're trying to do right now is try to really make it feel like a true ecosystem,  not just five different companies in one.  Yeah. Integrating all of this is a trick to make it feel user friendly and comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. And we really could use all the feedback we can get.  Anybody that's listening that wants to just go on even 22:08 create accounts as test accounts and just tell us we're happy with that. We can always delete them.  But you know, it's, it's, uh, that's the thing is we want to know where, where people are getting lost. I'll give you good example.  The consumer side of these farm stands and home bakers,  we underestimated the, what the consumer wants to see on their end when they're logging in. Cause a lot of them will log in. 22:36 do the transaction, right? A little scan of barcode at the farm stand,  do the transaction, it completes, and then it's kind of like done, right? Out of sight, out of mind. Yeah.  But we didn't have anything behind that.  Like, know, then what? Right? That was like, you know, nobody knew what was next.  So that's why we built out the consumer profile more.  So when you go to your vine stops, you might have a farm stand, but you also have a 23:05 consumer profile and that shows you all of your purchases, your messages between you and the farm stands and the vendors that you're buying from, as well as some featured farm stands, farmers markets within your area and some other things below it. But we wanted the consumer to kind of have a landing place where they can see their past transactions,  they can manage their orders, they can see 23:34 where they like to order from, you know, they're, they could, you know, add favorites. Uh, there's a quick button now, like if there's one favorite farm stand that they constantly use, you know, they can press that and it takes them right to that farm stand instead of having to go search for it or click a QR code or anything like that. So, you know, just a lot of features.  Some, some, some say it could be feature overkill and it could, we'll probably disappear some of them, but we won't really know until we have like a true solid. 24:04 user base,  like I would say next six months to a year, at that point we can see,  hey, all right,  10 % of this population is only using this feature,  but 70 % is using this feature. So let's make that feature a little bit more better or find out if we even need the other feature that nobody's using.  Yep, that makes sense. 24:32 I question while you were talking and of course it went bye bye as soon as I started listening again.  I don't remember what it was. Oh, now I do. Now I do.  Do you have a rough estimate of how many users you have now? Yeah, we're almost at a thousand. Nice. And when did it go really live? Well, we really haven't had an official launch yet. 25:02 I mean, we,  remember when we, when I spoke with you last, I mean, it was live for you to use. You were able to create an account. We were testing, but ever since then, we really just, uh, we've been live and just changing actually almost daily. We, we, make changes to the platform.  Um, but we have not had a official of Einstein's kickoff mass marketing event yet. 25:31 Okay. think that's going to be the next 30 to 60 days that we were talking about. Okay, cool. I love this so much. There are so many people doing something like what you're doing, but I feel like yours covers more basis for people.  does.  You know, some of those other platforms might be more detailed and might have features that we just don't know about that we would want to put in. 26:00 And we'll get there. I'm not worried about that. I think, again, the main thing is really want to put something together that's going to reduce the costs for some people.  know how hard I work to make 30 to 50 bucks a day at my farm stand. It's a lot of work.  to pay $25, $50 a month for a platform on top of that, along with 26:30 You fees, just I don't see it realistic, you know But hey people pay it so it's there must be a demand for it But I'd like to keep that a lot lower if not free for for the users here And we'll have to put something in it, you know, we just don't know what that looks like yet but my commitment is We're gonna be cheaper than anybody if we even put anything in there Yeah, that's awesome and 26:59 The other thing here is that this is a very symbiotic relationship between the customer and the producer. And I am a huge proponent for this.  We need people to grow food or raise food. know, beef is expensive right now.  We need people to raise and grow food and we need people to support those people doing that by buying the products that the people have. 27:28 The fact is, if you buy locally, you are getting much more nutrient dense food to put in your body to support your own health. And that's the big thing here. You're absolutely right. Listen, I'm a huge support local business advocate and, and,  uh, and then the of living.  I look at this past just supporting locally. I actually look at this as 27:57 supporting your neighbors financially.  Because there's a lot of people that rely on their second, third or a little side gig to just make that extra buck to pay that bill that they barely can pay.  Right now, yes.  And so that's the important thing is how do we do that as a company? How do we help support the mission of shopping locally, but also support the mission of 28:27 helping people that need to do this, help them make more money.  So like for me, like I'll tell you the interesting transition I saw from when I started this to now with my farm stand is like, I'm a cash,  it was cash only farm stand in Venmo.  And it's an honor system. you just, know, people walk up and they drop off, you know, they pick up what they want and they take, you know, what they get. 28:56 drop cash in the box and that's it.  And I would run out a lot because I don't grow a lot. And what this did for me was I saw my customers transition very fast when they realized they can just order instead of going to my farm stand constantly and not seeing anything.  there's certain things that I know now next year that I have to grow a lot more of. 29:22 Because the demand through the orders,  I was, I was, had to say, I'm sorry, I can't fill your order for like a week because I got too many orders, but it really opened my eyes to where I was missing in the sales and with the volume.  But also for them, they were, they would come flat out like, listen, I love coming and sitting there in your driveway and talking to you sometimes. 29:47 But they're like, this is great that I don't have to drive there four or five times to see if you got eggs out of the stand.  So it's really helped me in that sense.  And running a honor system farm stand on a platform is not easy at all because there is a very difficult balance of putting inventory on your platform, but also understanding that people are showing up to your farm stand and buying stuff. 30:15 without, without using the system.  So there's a, there's a, there's a balance and a management of it that has to happen to where you're not putting stuff on the platform and saying it's all there. And then somebody showing up and nothing's there. Uh, and that's a frequent problem.  So I've continuously tried to alter this to where it's the best, I guess it's the best of both worlds to where. 30:45 your your if you buy something if you see something that's online right on on the app and it's it's an honor system farm stand they they know my customers know that most likely it'll be there if they do the order online the way i set it up is i'll acknowledge them hey listen i have your order ready it's ready for pickup you can just go pick it up or i i need i need another day 31:14 I do need to get a couple of things free and let them know without them coming.  that's, that's, think really where, uh, where it helped me this year. And I think that's where it would help a lot. Other people that operate these honor system farm stands that don't, don't utilize platform because as you build that customer base of orders, you can actually running an honor system platform or honor system farms in, you can actually organize yourself better. 31:41 and not feel like, you know, everything's so chaotic. What's going down there? Who's buying it and when they're buying it? Yes, with our farm stand, if we were going to do it the way that you're talking about,  we have enough room that we could set up a little partition and be like, OK, everything on this table is free game.  Everything on that table is pre-orders and it has their name on it. Ah, I like that. We'd be able to do that because it's big enough, but 32:11 If you just have a little farm stand, that might be hard. don't know.  I built a, when I built my farm stand, I actually built a pickup cabinet on the top of it. Yeah. So I have, uh, you know, you just open the drawer and it's got little areas and I put the, I put the orders right up on top there. And so I say, you're, you're, your orders ready. It's on top of the farm stand. That's my separation, but you're right. It could be anything really, uh, on, on,  um, on, uh, 32:42 how you want to set that up.  I mean, yeah, the water thing was big.  It's just, you know, the, the profile itself, we, there's a couple of good learnings. We learned that photos are actually important.  Some people are setting up farm stands or businesses that are buying stops and not uploading any photos.  And visually to customers, they actually like to see that personal connection. They like to see where they're 33:12 going to or maybe even a logo, right? It gives them a little bit more professional touch and a good story of knowing like where they're buying from and who that person is, right? And so these little things that when we did our customer interviews, like, you know, what do you like about when you shop at these,  let's say we showed them two different farm stands with the same product and one's really nice, one is just basic, right? 33:39 That's the feedback we're getting. So now what we're doing is we're actually creating learning videos,  training videos, and there's going to be a learning library in every account to teach people,  if you're running a farm stand on VineStops, here's your best practices and here's what the customers told us why you should do this. I love this so much. There's so much here that's good, Jim. 34:09 As I told you last time, I try to keep these to half an hour, so I'm going to wrap this up.  Where can people find you? Well, now they can go to Vinestops.com. It's live. Yeah.  And I am very interactive with it. My team is interacting with it. So they can message me right at Hawk Valley Farm as my farm is on there. If you go to Vinestops homepage and scroll all the way down, you'll see the little link right to my farm stand and they can just send me a private message if they want. 34:39 but I'm not, I'm not, I don't hide my phone numbers around.  I'm an open person. love talking to people.  So anybody can call me 518-227-7266. They can find me on Vine stops. I'm on social media, Jim Glorioso.  And anybody out there listening,  I welcome the phone call or the message. I'd love to talk to you. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you again. Oh, absolutely. I love this. 35:08 You can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Jim, thank you so much for your time and thank you for everything you're doing. Oh, no problem. I look forward to talking to you again.  Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Dylan at Allegedly Absurd Bakery.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Dylan at Allegedly Absurd Bakery in Janesville, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Dylan. How are you? Good. How are you doing today?  I'm great. And normally I would say, how's the weather? But considering that you're in southeast Minnesota, I think, and I'm in sort of southwesterly Minnesota, we both know it's been a lovely day today. Yeah, it's been super nice out.  Yeah. Did you guys get that wave of humidity yesterday afternoon? Yeah, it was terrible. 00:56 Yeah.  you just instantly start sweating. Yeah. I have no idea where that came from. I didn't even know it was on the radars. I was like, this is gross. Hopefully it's not a trend.  So I have to know about the name of your bakery. How did you come up with allegedly absurd bakery?  So I was actually trying to name the donut. Okay.  And so I didn't want something like jumbo or mega.  In one of the words I use all the time is absurd. I'm like, that's just absurd. And 01:26 So I was like, well, that's kind of, could name a donut that. Yeah. I got to thinking a little bit more and I was like, you know what? I say allegedly a lot all the time. And it just kind of came together. There wasn't, you know, this aha moment. It was just like, oh, that could work.  I love that. Go ahead. So we came up with, you know, allegedly absurd and we were going to do allegedly absurd donuts. And the more I thought about it, I was like, you know what? 01:53 I don't want to do just donuts. I don't want to be confined to just that niche, so to speak.  And so bakery was the natural fit and that's kind of the rest of just history.  Very nice. So now my, my usual question that I ask people is tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Oh, I do a lot of things.  So in regards to the bakery,  so we just started this. 02:23 So this is our third weekend, so three weeks ago. Oh, okay. And so we're, pretty new as far as this one goes. Uh, the Tuesday before we started it, I told my wife, I was like, you know what? We're going to do this this weekend. And so I filed the business. started the Facebook page, all that stuff.  And we opened up, you know, that Saturday and sold out within,  gosh, I want to say 30 minutes, 45 minutes, something like that.  Um, so it was. 02:52 crazy how fast it kind of came together just on my side of things.  Yeah, just kind of crazy with timeline response, all of it.  to that,  we had co-owned and operated Lollipops in the Legion, which was a bakery.  And we exited out of that, took about, I think it was about 14 months off and kind of re-established what we wanted to do, what we wanted to be. 03:22 in terms of a bakery, right? So yeah, that's kind of the story of, you know, how that came about.  you, you, you left a standalone commercial enterprise to go to Cottage Food. Is that because a standalone commercial enterprise takes up so much of your time? No, it wasn't even about the time or anything. We had partners. Okay. And the relationship with the partners just wasn't 03:52 good. Like we had different values, different way of operating, just a lot of differences. And so my wife and I made the decision to step away.  Okay. Yep. Yeah. So that was a good transition for us. Okay. I feel like I asked a question that maybe I shouldn't have asked. Sorry about that.  Okay.  So, um, I saw on your Facebook page that you guys do a lemon Long John donut. 04:20 And I wanted to transport myself to where they are because I love lemon beyond any other flavor. Yeah, you would love it. It is extremely lemony.  So we have four kids and our oldest absolutely loves lemon. Anything lemon, he's like, yep, I want that. And so he tried it and he goes, you know, dad, you really captured the essence of I was like, what 10 year old talks like this? Like what's going on? 04:50 This is when my daughter who's two years younger than he has tried it and she kind of puckered up and was like, oh, that's so sour. So you have the one side who loves the lemon, loves that sour, sweet type taste.  the other one who's like, not quite for me.  Well, at least you have opposing opinions. And if she said this is terrible, then you would have had to think about it a little harder.  There is a lady, I think it's a lady who has a booth. 05:19 at the local farmers market here in LaSore and she makes lemon drop cookies.  They're about the size of a half dollar. And my husband brought some home when he was there last weekend.  And I had had them last summer and I liked them. And he brought them home this past two weekends ago,  not this weekend, last weekend.  And I knew what they were. And I was like, do you want any of these? And he said, if there's any left, he said, I will have one. And I'm like, OK, there's like six to a bag. 05:49 And I opened the bag up and I could smell lemon immediately. And I was like, oh, these might be way lemony than last time because I couldn't smell the lemon like that the first time I had them. And I took one and I popped it in my mouth and I bit down and it tasted just like a raw lemon.  It didn't.  The sweetness of it didn't kick in until after the hit of lemon. 06:16 And I must have puckered up because my husband looked at me, he's like, are you okay? Are you choking? And I just put my finger up and I finished chewing and swallowed it. And he's like, are you all right? And I said, I'm fine. I said, she changed how much lemon she puts in it. I said, that is the most lemon lemon cookie I've ever had my whole entire life.  It was delicious. I love lemon, but even for me, I was like, wow, that is getting right up to the line of almost too much for me. So. 06:44 It just depends. It just depends on how much you love a flavor and how what your tolerance is for it.  Yeah. And even the lemon itself, right? Like the recipe will call for the zest of three lemons or something. And so it's how big is your lemon? Because some of those are, you know, can get pretty big. Yeah. So you're trying your best to like weigh it out and measure and do all the things. And it really just depends on the day. It does. And it also depends on the age of the person eating the thing you made. 07:13 Because most people don't know that as you get older you lose taste buds they die So as a child number one, you've never tasted anything lemon in your life the first time You have it and you have almost every taste bud you were born with So that flavor is going to be more intense to a child Yeah, if you're 60 you probably had lemon flavored things before and you've lost about a third of your taste buds so 07:43 it's going to take more lemon to get that same reaction.  Interesting. Yeah. I didn't know about the taste bud thing until probably 10 years ago. I read it in something that was reputable and I went,  Oh my God, that's why older people really like their food to be saltier or sweeter.  Yeah,  exactly. And that's part of the reason I love my podcast because either I teach something to somebody they didn't know or you guys teach me something that I didn't know. I 08:12 freaking love it. It's my favorite thing.  So what else do you make besides donuts?  Dylan? So right now we're just doing long johns and cookies.  What kind of cookies?  So we do a dark chocolate chip. The last few weeks we've done a Northwood's butter cookie. So it's like a take on the Itasca butter cookie. I don't know what that is.  It's oh gosh, it's like a sugar cookie, but there is probably double, I want to say double the amount of butter in it. Okay. So 08:42 don't even know how to describe it to do it justice.  Yeah, it's really soft and silky almost.  Is it kind of like a shortbread only more fatty than a shortbread? Yeah, and a little bit softer. Yeah, okay. That would be a good way of describing it. Okay, because I love shortbreads. I think those are great.  Just so you know, I didn't grow up in Minnesota. I grew up on the East Coast, so I haven't even been to Itasca. 09:11 So, okay. It's super cool out there. We finally made it up last year and loved it. I would go back in a heartbeat to it. Itasca out there. Okay. Yep. North.  And the scenery is beautiful. It just feels calm and peaceful and peaceful, at least at the state park.  Yeah. Just cool experience. Yeah.  Um, it's interesting because Minnesota is beautiful everywhere. 09:41 And this is coming from a woman who did not want to move here over 30 years ago because I grew up in Maine. And I will always say that Maine is the most beautiful state because that's where I grew up. But Minnesota is a damn close second. 09:57 Yeah, it'd be cool to get out to the East Coast. We've done a lot of the West Coast.  We've never been out East. So that's on our, on our list of things to do.  Can I make a suggestion if you're going to go to Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont? Sure can.  Go at the end of May, 1st of June or go at like mid September to mid October. And the reason I say this is because in Maine,  mosquito and black fly season starts about the second and a half 10:27 week into June and those black flies will carry you away. They will leave welts on you the size of dimes.  They're nasty and they hurt and you will bleed. They're not fun.  And the reason I say September, October is because that's when the trees are starting to change and it's really, really pretty.  Good to know. to know. Yeah. And Maine in July and August is hot and muggy, just like Minnesota.  So 10:58 So if you want to go when the weather is temperate and the bugs aren't too bad, the times I just said are really, really good. Yeah. No, I like it. Yeah. I try to tell people this because I've had people I'd say I grew up in Maine and they're like, Oh my God, I was there in August and it's so pretty, but I got so heat sick. And I'm like, yeah, cause you went in August. Yup. Yup.  So anyway, I keep talking about geography on this podcast. I'm like, am I supposed to push this into a geography podcast? I don't want to. 11:28 So you said a double, a dark chocolate chip cookie. Does that mean dark chocolate chips in a vanilla dough? Or does that mean dark chocolate chips in a chocolate dough? Yeah. So dark chocolate chips in just a cookie dough. So I like to use the 60 % Ghirardelli.  Yes. I found that those are the best tasting in part two, cause of our kids. So we don't 11:55 Our kids have a hard time with a lot of processed sugars.  And so that's why I use the organic cane sugar in the donuts and all the cookies. Nice.  So a lot of that was just from a necessity on our end as parents. We see different behavioral things. Our son's eyes will actually switch if he has too much processed sugar. So like he'll get dark rings under his eyes. And this is all within a matter of like 20 minutes. Oh, wow. Dark rings. 12:23 His eyes are kind of glaze over. just the most interesting thing. Um,  until we just made the decision we're not going to do as much as possible, right? Obviously, you know, we go different places and eat different things, but when I'm making it, you know, that's just the standard in our household.  You're, you're a good dad.  We try, we try.  Okay. So I was looking at your Facebook page and it looks like you just set up a table and put the little display. 12:54 cubes, know, the plexiglass or whatever they are cubes on your table. And that's how you sell your stuff. Is that what I'm seeing? Yeah. So we have that. And then we also do pre-orders. Okay. So pre-orders have been the bulk of what we've been selling the past two weeks.  Um, which is amazing to me.  Um, you know, like I said, we sold out that first week within, you know, 45 minutes. And so we really pushed the pre-orders after that. Cause I was like, I want to make sure people can get it. 13:22 but I also don't want to have a bunch of stuff left over.  And that's taken on really well.  Yes. One of the problems with having a farm stand or a porch stand or whatever you're doing, we have a farm stand, so we have produce and eggs for sale all the time in the summer.  The problem with both is that if you pick, let's say lettuce and you put it in the farm stand and nobody buys it, it's no good the next day because it's going to wilt. 13:51 same thing with your baked goods. If people don't buy it, you're stuck with it.  Yep.  Nobody wants to be stuck with baked goods. mean, it seems like a really cool thing like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory fun, but I don't think that it's actually that fun. Yeah. You get sick of it after a while. So, know, you can freeze stuff.  Like we've done that where we'll freeze the cookies or freeze the donuts or wrap them up really good and then take it out as you want it. 14:20 But even that, gets to be a lot of donuts or lot of cookies. Yeah. And unfortunately you can't actually live on that because it's not good for you no matter how good the ingredients are.  you have, did you say you have four kids? Yeah, we have four kids. What are their ages? Oh, 10, nine, four and three.  Wow. Okay. So you've got the different developmental stages going on like I had with my four. Yeah. 14:50 Yep, isn't it fun Dylan? Isn't it busy? It is busy. It's good.  I would say I enjoy Being a dad the most now than I probably have in my life I'm actually able to be present be around when I'm home, which is something that's relatively new to me. I feel like I in the past I've I Would come home and want to not not escape, but I just wouldn't be present And I really worked on actually being home when I'm 15:19 If that makes sense.  Yes, it is the time immemorial problem with being a dad. And up until the last, would say 10 to 15 years,  most dads have a job that keeps them out of the house from seven or eight in the morning until five or six at night. And you guys are busting your asses, doing your job, trying to do it well to make money to support your family. 15:46 proud of every dad that works hard for their family.  But it definitely takes a toll. And I can say this as a 56 year old woman who has an 83 year old dad living in Maine right now. 16:01 It was really hard not seeing him.  And I still miss him terribly. He's great. He's doing fine. But dads get... I think they get a hard time because they're not changing diapers. They're not giving baths. They're not doing the things that the moms do because the moms are the ones who are with the kids.  I don't... I'm not saying that every dad... 16:31 is an angel because I know that to not be true. But I have real respect for the dads that try hard and work themselves hopefully not to death to spend time with their kids.  Yeah, it has been a real gift.  So I do asphalt full time in the summer. Yeah. So I've been doing that since I was 11 years old. And I've done some stuff in between there, but that's always been kind of consistent in my life. 17:01 And so some weeks I'm 60 plus hours, you know, depending on the week. Sometimes I work weekends. really just depends. And so I've had to choose to make that, you know, one of my top priorities.  And, know, you talk about like the diapers and all that stuff. The rule in our house has been the wife handles the input and I handle the output.  So I'm like, dang it, I got all the diapers. But again, I. 17:31 I had the opportunity to do that.  And whether it was the middle of the night in the morning, whether I had to get up for work or not, that was just the rhythm in our house when the kids were little.  And I always just wanted to be present or there as much as possible while also providing. What? While also providing too.  Yes. Yes. I have two things about diapers. One's about diapers and one is about sleep. 17:59 diapers changing diapers duty will make it so that you can handle any disgusting thing and not vomit.  Yep. Yep. And that's gross but true because I had four kids. I changed a lot of diapers in my lifetime.  And then the sleep thing. My last child who will be 25 in December. That kid did not sleep through the night until kindergarten. 18:27 And I was the one who nursed him and I was the one who got up with him because I was a stay at home mom. My husband had a job. So I didn't get more than three or four hours of sleep for the first two years of his life. I didn't get more than three or four hours of sleep a night for two years straight. I had friends who would say to me years later, do you remember when we went and took the kids and did this? And I'm like, no, I don't remember because I was a walking zombie then. 18:57 Kids are amazing. Being a parent is the most difficult but most wonderful job on earth if you want to be a parent.  Yes. Yep. So, again, drifting off into psychology because I have that too.  So do you get the kids involved in the baking?  Not so much right now. They do help sell. So when we sell, we're actually out there. 19:24 you know, boxing the stuff up and interacting with people. Yeah.  So they enjoy doing that, you know, the past couple of weeks.  Eventually, I do want them, if they so choose, to get their own cottage licenses. Yes. And then they can sell something as well. So then, you know, we'll figure out what percentage of the profit help teach numbers, all that type of stuff with them,  Again, it's as much or as little as they want to be involved.  Right. I don't want to push it on them, but the opportunity is there. 19:54 And our daughter definitely loves baking. She's always asking to help with different things that we're making here just for our family.  But as far as the donuts go, I do 95 % of it just because it's really early morning stuff.  Saturday morning, I'm up at two in the morning and, you know, rolling out the dough, cutting it, frying it, letting it cool, frost it, boxing stuff up. You know, there's a lot of steps and 20:23 They're not up. I mean, they're actually really early risers, um, but they don't come out of their rooms until seven o'clock in the morning.  If they had it their way, they'd be up at five 30. They're just early risers.  Your house must smell so good on Saturday mornings. It does even throughout the day. Like we took our daughter out for her birthday yesterday and went bakery hopping. So we went to like four different bakeries up in the cities and we came home afterwards and. 20:52 was like, dang, it still smells like donuts in here. I kind of like it.  Yeah, we made donuts from scratch four or five years ago, and we hadn't really done it before.  And I told my husband, I said, we can't make these very often. And he said, why not? And I said, because they're really good when they come out of the fryer, as it were.  said, but two days later, they're not very good because all that fat. 21:20 The dough just collapses on itself.  And he was like, yeah, I noticed. said, they're not as good a couple of days later. And I said, no, they're not.  I have a real problem when there's grease on my lips and on my teeth after I eat the donut half an hour later. It's just gross. can't handle it.  So fresh donuts are amazing. Oh my God. I am a donut fanatic. I... 21:47 I lived in Crystal for a while, many, many years ago in Minnesota.  they had a really nice donut shop there. And I had a friend who worked there.  And she called me one time and she said, do you and your daughter want to come down early and see how we do this? And I was like, I know how you do it. But my daughter, who was three or four at the time, I said, she would probably love to see how it works. 22:15 So we walked down to the donut shop and we went in the back door of the donut shop and my friend showed my daughter how they cut the dough and they did the frying and they had some that were cooled down and she showed her the machine that drizzles the frosting over the top and my daughter was just in wrapped.  She was so interested and I know that's not how you do it in your home kitchen because that you probably don't have the same kind of equipment but it's really interesting how much work 22:45 goes into this stuff. Yes, it's an insane amount of work. And I think, you know, doing one batch of a dozen is totally different than doing, you know, 12 or 16 dozen. Oh, yeah. Because you have to time it out, right? You have to make sure that the dough doesn't over proof after you cut it. Or, I mean, there's a myriad of things that you have to think about.  And. It's cool, at least for me to see. 23:13 how many different cottage bakeries there are.  They're all over the place.  And just for people like me or whoever to have the opportunity to do that, I don't know, it's just cool. Like, yeah, you have the commercial spaces, have, you know, we would drive all the way down to Red Wing to Hanisch to get donuts, which is an hour and I think it's an hour and half from us. Just because I like a really good donut. And I was like, you know what? We could do that. 23:43 I think we could figure that out.  But just being able to have the opportunity, I guess, is what I'm trying to say that I think I, at least in my life, have taken a lot of those things for granted. Yeah. Where I'm just like, oh, yeah, it's just normal.  And it's actually not. You know, we were talking about startup the other day. And I was like, you know, it's not that expensive to start it up. And my wife looks at me and she's like, are you, are you being serious right now? 24:10 I like, don't know. didn't think it was like that bad. I mean, we're not spending $100,000, you know? And so my perspective compared to her perspective was just totally different. I was thinking, you know, big plus numbers commercially. And she's like, no, for a normal person, this is a lot. I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right.  I'm glad that you brought that up because my husband has noticed that the attendance of people who are going to buy at the farmer's market this year has been way down. 24:39 And I think it's because money is very, very tight for a lot of people right now because inflation is so freaking high and people just don't have the extra expendable income right now. And what I want our listeners to know is that cottage food producers typically don't have deep pockets and they don't have the same. I don't know what the word is. 25:07 When a business, when a big business is going to buy supplies, they usually get some kind of discount because they're buying a whole lot of whatever the thing they need is in bulk.  And cottage food producers don't necessarily get that kind of discount.  So the reason that cottage food producers charge, I don't know. I don't know how many 12 cookies is right now from a cottage food producer, but I'm pretty sure it's not five bucks.  Not even close. I don't even know that you can make it for five bucks. 25:37 Yeah.  And so I think that people don't understand, number one, the heart that goes into doing what you do, Dylan. And they don't understand how much it costs you for the ingredients and your time to do what you're doing to provide it to the customer.  And so I am really impressed with what you do. 26:03 If I was going to be in Janesville, I would be stopping in for a lemon donut, but I'm not going to be in Janesville anytime soon.  So yeah, it's the other thing is that I am pretty sure that your donuts taste way better than the box of donuts I can get at Walmart for three bucks. I would agree with that.  You know, there is something about. 26:32 the type and quality of ingredients that you use. Yeah. You you brought up, you know, getting stuff in bulk and that's accurate. You know, what we're paying now for ingredients is a lot more than what we've paid in the past. Oh, yes.  Absolutely.  You know, we still use the 26:51 like online kitchen stores, you because we have access to some of those things.  So we do get a touch of a discount, but it's not like what we were getting before. Right. And you're right. People are having a tough time across the board financially.  And it is a splurge for a lot of people to go out to eat anywhere. Yes. You know, like we don't really eat out that much because it gets to be expensive. I like to eat out because I don't have to make the food. 27:20 Yeah. But also it's cheaper to do it at home.  And even with our price point, I wanted to go a little bit higher than what we decided on. And my wife was like, no, you need to be considerate. And I was like, okay, you've never steered me wrong before. Like I will always trust your gut and your intuition.  And you she's been right.  And you're not going to pay, you know, Casey's prices are higher than your Walmart. It's going to be more, but. 27:49 I think the feedback has been that it's worth the value overall. Um, and we've gotten some feedback here and there on different things, which is valid. And I appreciate the feedback because if don't know if something's wrong,  then I can't fix it. Right.  Yep. Yeah. And I don't know, people seem to be liking what we're doing and there's not really a good donut spot around here that I'm aware of. Like I said, we have the one in Redwing, which is an hour and a half away, but outside of that, I don't. 28:18 I don't know of any that are within an hour's drive. You're it Dylan. You're it.  I have one more thing that I want to say. I used to make a recipe called outrageous brownies for my kids for their birthdays.  It's a recipe by Ina Garten. I don't know if you know who she is. And these are like ooey gooey dense yummy double dark chocolate brownies. 28:47 My kids weren't really into birthday cake. And I said, what do you want for instead?  my, I don't remember one of my sons said, can you make a really good brownie? And I was like, I can try.  And it's a huge batch. It's probably 15 or 16 big deep fat brownies.  And we all would have one cause it was so decadent and so heavy that you didn't want more than. 29:15 And my husband would take some to work with him the next day. And he kept getting questions from his coworkers that had them. They were like, where did you get those? And he would say, my wife made them for my child's birthday. And they would say,  you gonna bring more in?  And my husband was like, probably when she makes them for a kid's birthday again.  And they were like, no, no, no. Can you bring in a pan of them? 29:43 And my husband said, do you have $50?  And they said,  for what? And he said, that's how much it costs for a pan of those brownies.  And people were like, how? And my husband explained the cost of all the ingredients and my time. And people were like, I think I'll just wait until you bring couple in again.  Yep. That's exactly what it is. Yep. 30:11 And they're delicious. I haven't made them in years because they are incredibly fattening and so, so sweet that I'm at the point where I'm like, I don't think I can eat it. I don't think I can do it. I think my stomach would hate me. I'm old. Don't get old, Dylan, because your stomach doesn't handle things the way it used to.  So yeah, it's crazy. People love things. They love cheesecake. They love really good brownies. They love really good donuts. 30:40 But right now everybody has to make a choice on what they're spending their money on. Yep. Yep. So I'm thrilled that you're doing this. And I was so excited to see that you were a cottage food business doing this. Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's been an experience. I would say a good one overall.  yeah, I'm I'm just honestly grateful for the opportunity. I didn't know, you know, what it was going to look like. We didn't know what the demand was going to be if there was going to be a demand. 31:10 And people have really shown up and supported and it's just been cool to see.  have, I have one more question.  Are people coming from towns around Janesville? Um, a little bit. Yeah. Yep. We kind of pull in from, I would say maybe 15 miles or so, which is a pretty good size radius for where we're at. And what's the, what's the population of Janesville? Maybe 2000 people. 31:40 Okay. So you have, you have a captive audience.  Yup.  That's a good way to put it. Awesome.  Fantastic.  I can't wait to see where you go with this. I will follow your Facebook page until it's no longer on Facebook. I promise.  So can you tell me the name of your Facebook page so people can find you? Yeah. It's allegedly absurd bakery and same thing on Instagram. 32:06 Okay. And if people want to pre-order, they can just contact you through that. Yes. Yep. Messenger is the easiest. Otherwise my phone number is on there too.  So text message works fine.  Okay. When are you going to build a website? You know, I have the domain and everything ready.  I just, I wanted to take it slow and I want to do it all debt-free.  Yes.  Anything that we can do, you know, saving, reinvesting, all that stuff is going to be debt-free. Yes. Cause I don't want to be beholden to 32:36 other people or other institutions.  That's a good plan. If you can stick to that, you'll do really well.  All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Dylan, thank you for taking time on a Sunday chat with me. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Jennifer at Bayou Magnolia Homestead and Ranch.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Jennifer at Bayou Magnolia Homestead and Ranch in Louisiana. Good morning, Jennifer. How are you?  Good morning. I'm fine. How are you? I'm good. How is the weather there this morning? Brutally hot.  It's only, it's not even 10 o'clock yet. It shouldn't be brutally hot. Well, we have the super thick humidity down here to deal with too. So it adds on to the brutalness of the temperature. 00:57 I'm sorry to hear that. I'm up in the north in Minnesota and it is 75 degrees right now and it's really overcast and muggy. It was foggy when I got up.  man, that 75 sounds pretty great right about now and overcast too. We're kind of in the middle of a dry spell. So we're dry, hot and humid.  Yeah, we had two to three weeks of really, really hot and humid. 01:27 I don't know, a couple of weeks ago. And it sucked lemons because Minnesota does not usually have a stretch that long, that hot and that wet. So we're real thankful that it's finally leveled out again.  Well, y'all's weather sounds a lot cooler than it is here and I'd kill for it right about now. I'm waiting for the cooler months.  I think we all are. This summer has been hard everywhere with the weather. So I think we're all kind of like... 01:55 Okay, two more weeks and then we should be rolling into fallish temperatures, hopefully.  Okay, so tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, Jennifer. Okay, so I am 29 and I am not originally from any kind of a rural life. I'm actually from the outskirts of New Orleans, so pretty big city.  However, 02:19 My family has always kind of been more of a self-sustaining kind of family, even in a more suburban kind of area.  I met my better half and together we bought a small five acre farm a little ways away from the city. And we just kind of jumped in on it, built a house and immediately the first thing I did was start getting birds and pigs and horses and. 02:46 So we kind of acquired just a little bit of a small but large farm here. And that was in 2025?  No. Yeah, well, we started building. We bought the property in 2021. OK. But we had done everything ourselves. So it was a wooded property that we ended up clearing ourself. And then as far as our house goes, we built that ourselves. We contracted out a few things, but for the most part, we did it ourselves. 03:14 Our barn was built by ourselves. So it took a lot of time. So we started our venture in 2021 as far as acquiring the property. And then we started operating a small business around 2025, which was, we moved here in May. So we started a few months after we moved. Okay, cool. So I'm going to ask at the beginning instead of at the end,  was it, is it? 03:43 a steep learning curve and are you loving it?  Absolutely.  And there's never, it's never ending learning. You're always learning something new. And I think that's really important and kind of anything that you go into is that you're always open to the idea of learning new things and believing that you don't know everything there is about what you're doing.  So it was definitely a learning curve.  Getting used to 04:14 I mean, I had a few farm animals in the suburban area, wasn't really supposed to, but as far as mass scale, that was a big learning curve. And it's a lot sometimes, I'm not gonna lie. It can be a handful and you always have sicknesses and illnesses and you kind of have to figure it out as you go. But I love every second of it and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.  Good. And you're 29. We need people like you coming up through the ranks to do this stuff. 04:44 We need you, Jennifer.  So tell me, what do you have at your homestead for animals? 04:55 So we started off with just having, had a horse beforehand that I was boarding. So we started off with the horse, but of course you're not really technically supposed to keep horses by themselves.  we did some searching and I came home with a feral Mustang that I've been training on the side.  She ended up being pregnant. So I have three horses. And then we had, we live in an area where unfortunately a lot of people kind of dump. 05:24 animals on our street because we're so rural. Yeah. So they think it's a good place where the animal won't come back to them, I guess.  So we found 15 chickens on the side of the  dumped chickens.  Someone dumped chickens and it was hens, roosters, everything. And they were young. They were probably maybe like four or five months old. So me, I come from a veterinary background. So I have a very large heart for animals. 05:54 and I don't like to see endless suffering or unnecessary suffering. So I couldn't leave these birds just helpless on the side of the road. So we took a dip net and started scooping as many as we could. There were probably maybe 50 birds on the side of the road and I collected maybe 15 of them. Oh, wow.  It was quite the adventure and I was pretty disturbed that somebody could do that. 06:20 Um, but we also have four dogs and three of those four dogs were also set found the exact same way on our street,  banded on the side of the road. But for chickens, I never knew that people would do that for chickens, but they do apparently.  So, um, I acquired 15 chickens and I absolutely fell in love with them. I had a hen as a child and I love chicken sense, but we weren't really pushing to add a whole bunch of animals at one time starting out. 06:50 but the 15 chickens kind of did me in,  then chicken math takes over.  So we ended up getting a few more, some friends had asked me to take a few birds. And then I got kind of really dove into the world of zombie chickens, which is an Ayam Samani and a white-like horn cross and the Ayam Samani breeds.  Uh-huh, yeah, I've heard about those. Yeah, so I thought those were really cool. I... 07:18 kind of ventured into maybe breeding those and producing my own stock of those. I acquired a very, very nice Ayam Samani rooster for a very good price. So we acquired him and I then bought a bunch of white leghorn hens that I have. So we originally wanted to start breeding Ayam Samanis and white leghorns.  And we are still doing that. We just kind of took the back burner on breeding birds and 07:45 are focusing more right this second on just selling eggs and kind of dipping our toes in the water to see what we can best serve our community with.  Okay, so your number one, thank you for taking in the chickens and the dogs that got dumped.  And I just want to take a minute and or a couple of minutes and say, if you're a person who has an animal you cannot keep. 08:14 I'm pretty sure that there are shelters,  there are helplines you can call to find out if there's places you can take your animal,  and it doesn't hurt to ask the property owner if they're interested in taking your animal before you dump it. So please, for the love of God and everything,  good. Ask some questions before you just dump the animal that you don't feel like you're equipped to take care of anymore, please. 08:43 because it is really hard on those of us who are not prepared to find animals on our property or right on the road outside of our property because we have really big hearts and we want to help them. But we may not have what we need to take care of them right that moment.  So Jennifer, you have anything to add to that? Thank you very much for saying that. But yes, there is always going to be it may be you know, you may have to, you know, 09:11 actually try to find a place that'll take them. But there are places that'll take them. Even the chickens, I mean, I would have rather seen the roosters go to somebody that can use them for food instead of dumped on the side of the road.  Yeah. And you can always, I don't know about Facebook, but I think on Nextdoor, the app Nextdoor or on Craigslist, I think it's free to put up a post that says, I have 50 chickens. Is anyone interested? So 09:40 Try everything before you just dump an animal because when you take on the care of an animal, once your animal, you are supposed to commit to the responsibility of that animal.  And please be responsible in trying to find a new home. I understand that times are hard right now, but please try before you just dump them. Right, right. I definitely agree. And we live in a 10:07 world full of technology and resources and there's always another way for that.  I hope so.  I we just had an animal show up at our property last week was a probably four month old female orange tabby cat and we were we were fine letting her stay here and be a barn cat and somebody pulled into our driveway too fast and hit her and broke her and my husband had to put her down. 10:36 She'd only been here two days.  So number one, somebody dumped her. They picked a good place to dump her because she was welcome to stay. And then somebody else hit her. It was a very rough couple of days here last week. Wow. Yeah, that is rough. I can't imagine. And I don't know if you know this, but most orange cats are male.  Yeah. A female. And I was I was hoping that it was female because we have other barn cats. And I was like, 11:06 Yay, we can add to the gene pool, but no, we're not adding to the gene pool because she's no longer with us. So yeah, the whole dumping animals thing, I've got a tiny little burr in my butt about the whole thing. So let's not do that if we can avoid it.  So I was looking through your Facebook page and one of your horses or both of your horses are Mustangs, is that right? One of them is a Mustang that was caught in Nevada as a yearling. 11:35 and she went through some pretty bad stuff before I got her. A lot of people that really didn't know what they were getting into. I had been around horses pretty much my entire life and I had worked with alongside trainers and actually trained horses to get free riding lessons as a teenager. So I was very familiar. But she had gone through a lot of hands that weren't very kind to her.  She still kind of has an issue with men. 12:03 But she has come a very, long ways. But she was pastured with a stallion quarter horse and she ended up bred. But nobody could do anything with her. Nobody could touch her. Nobody could handle her. You couldn't put a halter on her.  And I was told that she could be, but they didn't think that she was because the stallion supposedly had broken out one time. 12:31 I learned later that was not the case. She was housed with the stallion. So she came to me pregnant.  So I have a Mustang cross baby and then a Mustang mare. And my other horse is a 22 year old quarter horse. Okay. And the foal is it like, like beige colored? So she is actually gray. So she was born a very, very dark Bay. 12:58 with gray horses and the way that gene works is they're born the color they would technically be as an adult if they did not carry that gray gene. And as they get older, they start lightening up. So that baby, while she's kind of beige looking right now, she's gonna end up pretty white. And she actually started graying very, very early on and very, very quickly. So I suspect she'll be gray within her first couple of years versus maybe five or six that they usually gray out at. 13:28 Okay, cool.  So I know nothing about mustangs except that there are wild herds in the southwest and that they can get out of hand population wise and people go capture them. Is that accurate? That's what I've read. Yeah.  So essentially mustangs were descendants of 13:53 Spanish conquistadors that came to the US early on when the US was first starting to get established.  And they are essentially a bunch of domestic horses that were escaped or let loose by early settlers. So they can range in different breed types.  So when you say Mustang, you could end up with a very large Clydesdale looking horse or you could end up with something very pony like. It's such a large gene pool that they have. 14:22 But they're broken into different sections that the Bureau of Land Management kind of organizes and names.  And when each herd kind of gets overpopulated is when the BLM will step in and round up a bunch of the horses and put them through.  They'll vet them, they'll trim feet, they'll do teeth.  And then they are put on an online auction. 14:51 for people to bid on and buy. For the safety of the horses, there is a one-year kind of, it's kind of like a contract where you're not allowed to sell or do really anything with that horse until you have a notice from a veterinarian and farrier that you've been taking care of this horse for the year and then they issue you a title. 15:17 that makes that horse officially yours, but you technically don't own the horse that you adopt for a year after you actually acquire it.  I love my podcast so much because I learned something new every single time I talk to somebody.  That's awesome. I didn't know any of that. Thank you.  So you also have a garden. Is that right? 15:44 I do.  So we are not very savvy in the gardening world, but it was definitely something we wanted to dip our toes in.  My fiance is very big into okra, wants to pickle okra, so we did a lot of okra. This year we did not open our garden up to any public consumers. We just kind of wanted to dip our toes in and see what we could do, what we can manage. But yeah, we did have a really good garden. 16:10 And we did have a lot of production in it. I was quite surprised because the ground here is so much different than what I grew up with. It's very clay-like versus a soft soil that you would typically think of. So I was really surprised that we had success in it, but we did. Good. Did you... I always have to ask about tomatoes because we've had two years of terrible luck with our tomatoes because it was so wet. 16:39 This year is a banner year. We have so many tomatoes already coming that we are probably going to have at least a thousand pounds by the time we're done. So do you grow tomatoes?  Yes.  So I, my family grew up with Creole tomatoes. I kind of gave that a swing this year. They did not do too well and they're supposed to be a very heat tolerant tomato, but they did not do too well.  Even with daily watering and 17:05 Very rigid care, they just did not thrive here.  I had tremendous amounts of luck with cherry tomatoes this year. I had cherry tomatoes coming out of my ears. I could not keep up with them. Were they good?  they They were very good. Very, very, very good. Good. Did you do something with them or did you just eat them and give them away? I did not do anything with them. mostly... 17:34 put them in like my salads and stuff or cook. I would cook them in like maybe burritos and stuff that we would make at home. And I did give some away to like family members and friends, but nothing special that I did with them. But I definitely want to look more into that because if I can grow cherry tomatoes like that every year, I would, I could probably come up with so many different things I could make with them. Oh, absolutely. And I 18:01 I could not find the recipe. was talking to somebody else a year or so ago and I swear I've seen a recipe for tomato pie and it's like a cherry pie, but you use tomatoes.  You use some cherry tomatoes. So I'm going to have to do some more digging and see if I can find that recipe because I know it exists somewhere.  Oh wow. That actually sounds pretty good. Well, yeah. mean cherry tomatoes, if you quarter them and 18:31 Follow a recipe for it. I assume that if you put more if you put sugar in it It's probably gonna taste like a sweet cherry pie And I mean obviously cherries don't have as much acid in them as we as cherry tomatoes do but I think it would work I'm gonna have to do some real dig and I swear to God I saw a recipe for cherry tomato pie at some point So I don't know it may just be something I dreamed up and I may just have to make the recipe myself. Who knows? 19:01 We'll definitely share if you do.  will.  I'm being really silly.  And also,  you bake?  I dove into baking even before I moved here, actually. I was pretty big into sourdough.  Lately, I really haven't had the time to keep it up for the demand that I would have for it. But sourdough was really big on my list. I was doing sandwich breads and 19:29 The whole spiel, everything you can imagine I was trying to make.  I was I still am very into homemade is probably the best you will ever have.  I really my goal is to eventually be able to support me and my family mostly on things that we can make here at the farm.  Fabulous.  I have a thing about bread. I actually love the smell of baking bread. 19:58 more than I like eating bread. Is that weird or is that not weird? No, I can relate to that actually. I think the smell is probably what triggers us to really want to eat bread.  Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is that first warm slice of a loaf of bread is astoundingly amazingly yummy. After that, I'm like, eh, it's bread. It's better than the store bread, but it's just bread. 20:27 Right, right.  I'm also not a big fan of bread. I don't like to eat it just to eat it. So that might be part of my issue. 20:37 Well, I can relate. It was definitely very exciting when you first get it, but then when you've had it sitting for a minute, I'm kind of like, meh, it's bread. So I can relate in that sense, definitely.  I do like the homemade bread a lot better than store-bought bread. I can say that. I do too. The only thing that, I don't want to say it sucks, but the only thing that's not great. 21:03 is with homemade bread, it's going to mold a lot faster than store-bought bread because homemade bread doesn't have preservatives in it. Right. And that is the downfall. I hated that while making bread because I couldn't enjoy it as long as I would store-bought bread.  I would.  It kind of made it difficult actually because you were trying to find a lot of things to use the bread for before it went bad.  Yeah, exactly.  And 21:28 The thing with bread is you can't just stick it in the fridge. If you want to retard any growth on it, you have to freeze it. Right.  the fridge, it just dries the bread out and it doesn't taste good and the texture is really bad.  Right, right.  And I wish there was a way that we could preserve bread a little bit better without adding all of the artificial preservatives. 21:58 Yeah, and the thing is, you know why this doesn't work,  right? Mm-hmm. The reason this doesn't work is because people in the old days,  made bread every day and their big families ate it. Right. There was no time for the bread to go bad because by the time the bread would have been bad, it's gone.  Right. And bread was a very big staple. Yeah, and these days we don't have big families and the bread just, you know... 22:26 half the loaf sits for three days and then it's moldy and it goes in the jarash. Right. Which is very wasteful and I don't like wasting. I don't think anybody should like wasting right now the price of ingredients and pre-made food. Let's not waste it. Oh, I know.  It's kind of hard for your average person to really survive right now. It really is.  We're having our first batch of this year's bruschetta. 22:56 for dinner tonight or for lunch tomorrow. Do you know what bruschetta is? Yes. Yes. We live for this day. We finally have potatoes that we can make a batch of it. And my husband bought the big French bread loaf when he was picking up groceries yesterday. I was like, I'm going to be eating bruschetta for three days because I don't want that bread to go to waste.  Right. Right.  Now. 23:21 This is not a hardship by any means, but I won't want bruschetta again until at least October.  I know.  There are lots of things that we've had to live off of that. I'm kind of over at this point.  Mine is Cheerios growing up. That's what we had for breakfast every day for years. I can't even handle the smell of a box of Cheerios being opened these days. 23:48 Mine is probably rice. I think rice was always the cheapest and easiest thing to make and have around. So I am very, very burnt out on rice.  We didn't do a lot of rice and I actually love brown rice. I will make brown rice and just eat it with a little bit of butter and salt. That's how much I love brown rice.  So let me think, is there anything else? 24:15 I don't think there's a whole lot more here.  So do you have plans to keep adding to the homestead or are you pretty good for a while? So animal wise, I think we're good for a little while. We're kind of up to our ears on animals, but we've been doing pretty well with the eggs. I think the chickens are kind of paying for themselves at this point.  But we don't have any plans to add any more animals.  We are adding some fruit, fruiting. 24:43 shrubs and trees on our farm that hopefully we'll be able to offer things like jam and syrups in the future. So really excited about that.  We just got to kind of organize ourselves a little bit better because we're still pretty new here.  So when you say syrup are you talking like fruit syrups? Yeah like a fruit syrup. I had years ago made a really nice blueberry syrup that you could 25:11 pour on pancakes, you could also mix it into like a lemonade and make a very nice blueberry lemonade. I was drinking that like crazy.  So that's something I kind of want to experiment a little bit more with and see if that's something that I can offer people.  didn't, I wasn't sure if you were talking about maple syrup or fruit syrup, and I'm glad that you're talking about fruit syrup.  We had a banner crop of black raspberries like three years ago, and we tried to make black raspberry jelly. 25:42 and it didn't set up, so it was black raspberry syrup. It was amazing on Belgian waffles with real whipped cream.  was the most decadent homemade dessert we've ever had.  I can imagine.  really, when I had made that blueberry syrup, I was just amazed at the fact that I could make something that tasted better than store-bought. 26:09 satisfied my sweet tooth and I could use it for just about everything. 26:16 Yes, and you made it yourself. You made it yourself. And this is why I do this podcast. I want people to know that almost everything that is made or fixed or built, people did it long before we had places to go to to get or have somebody fix something.  Right, right. And I unfortunately feel like we 26:45 as a society have kind of stepped away from being able to do things and be more self-sufficient and kind of rely on other people to do things for us, which kind of hurts us as human beings tragically.  It sure does. And I live in fear of the day that the internet goes down, you know, for more than a day. Right. Because people are going to lose their minds. They're going to riot. They're going to loot because 27:12 they won't know what to do with themselves.  Right, right. And we rely so heavily on the Internet. See me, I'm a very, very big book person.  I will sit down and read books and acquire information a lot that way. But I feel like so many people nowadays rely heavily on the Internet for their sole bits of information that that's all they know. If the Internet went down, nobody would know how to do anything. Well, that and all of our shipping. 27:42 systems would go down because that's all reliant on satellites and information being texted and emailed and it would just be a disaster. And I can remember when landlines became digital. There are no actual regular landlines anymore that I know of. They're all voiceover internet protocol, the OIP. Right. And if the internet goes down, 28:11 None of us are going to be able to get hold of anybody through our phones.  And my parents live in Maine. My sister lives in Maine. My brother lives in Massachusetts. I live in Minnesota. I won't have any way to get hold of my parents or my siblings if the internet goes down. It used to be that if you had a regular old landline that wasn't VOIP, 28:37 You could still get hold of your loved ones to make sure they were okay using a telephone. So I'm dating myself. I'm 56.  was alive before internet was a personal home. Internet was a thing. 28:54 So I just worry and we have books, we have at least five books sitting on the bookcase downstairs that are all basically back to basics skills like how to butcher a rabbit, how to butcher a deer,  how to can, how to preserve food, how to salt preserve food even.  So yeah, you can't, I keep saying this, you cannot rely on. 29:21 the internet to provide you information immediately if the internet isn't available and you cannot rely on your local or federal government to bail your ass out when you need it right now because that's how it works.  whoever is listening to my little rant here, I should have a power rant thing, I don't have a noise for that, but if you're listening to my rant here,  really try to commit some stuff to memory and try to do some things that 29:50 might just save you if things go wrong.  Yes. And as someone that does live in South Louisiana and deals with lot of hurricanes and has gone through a lot of major hurricanes, I can attest that when you're in a state of an emergency, you really can't rely on the government to come and save you. For Katrina, I remember pretty much every man was for himself for a very long time before even the National Guard came and started issuing out MREs. 30:20 It's very important to be able to manage on your own and not rely so heavily on technology and your government. You need to be able to self sustain at least to some kind of extent.  Yes, I've heard, I've heard in general it's good to have two weeks of supplies on hand. 30:44 just in general, not when there's bad weather predicted, but just to have some water put away,  some canned goods put away, some rice and beans put away so that if something does come up, you're covered for at least two weeks. And I think that that is a very good suggestion. Yes, absolutely.  All right, Jennifer, I tried to keep these to half an hour and I feel like we got a little off topic, but I feel like preparedness is part of home settings. I think we're good.  Where can people find you? 31:15 You can best reach me on my Facebook page by you Magnolia Homestead and Ranch. Okay, and do you have a website? You do. I do have a website and it is the same by you Magnolia Homestead and Ranch,  but it is at I think it's GoDaddy. I haven't messed with my website a whole lot. I love that it is.godaddiesites.com 31:41 So cool, so people can find you if they have questions or if they want to talk to you about all the things that you're doing.  As always, people can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Jennifer, thank you for taking time out on a Saturday morning chat with me. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for inviting me. You're welcome. Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Katie at The Little Farm in the Forest.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Katie at the Little Farm in the Forest in Indiana.  Good afternoon, Katie. How are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to have me. How are you? I am good. What is the weather like in Indiana today? It is very warm. I think we have some rain that is much needed on the way, but hopefully not too stormy.  I am hoping we don't break the 90s, but it looks like we're going to.  Yeah. Yeah. 00:58 I thought we were through all of this really hot and muggy weather, but apparently we're still in August.  I'm in Minnesota and the last few days up until yesterday were really lovely, like 79,  low dew point, nice breeze.  And then yesterday the humidity started to climb again. I was like, no, because I thought my air conditioner in my bedroom was broken. 01:24 And I mentioned this to my husband because he's doing a training class working from home this week.  And he came up and looked at it and he came downstairs and he said, I think I know what's wrong with the AC. And I said, what? And he showed me the filter.  The filter was filthy.  So PSA people, if your air conditioners that are window air conditioner are not working right, first thing to check is the filter because now it's working fine.  I'm so glad to hear that. You know, being born and raised in Florida, 01:53 I would imagine you are not equipped or used to that weather. know you guys had some heavy, some hard hitting temperatures a couple of weeks ago up there.  yeah. Yep. My poor dog.  Oh my God, Katie.  She's okay. I don't want to spend too much time on this. talk about her all the time, but she's an Australian shepherd with the double coat and her top coat is all curly. 02:20 And you're supposed to Aussies because of that double coat. Right. So we don't. And that two weeks, she just laid around and looked at me like, save me from this. And we were giving her ice cubes every couple hours to chew on.  she loves ice. So that was great. But I knew she was miserable because she would go outside, go potty and come right back in. 02:47 I'm like, I'm so sorry, honey. I can't fix it.  And she's so dumb because she could have just been in one of the bedrooms where the ACs were on, but no, she wanted to lay by the toilet in the bathroom.  it at least tile? Is the tile cool? Yes, that's why she wants to be in there. Okay, that makes sense. So she's not actually dumb, but she could have been in a 69 degree temperature room, but she chose the tiles instead because they feel good on her tummy. 03:14 So anyway, tell me a little bit about yourself and the little farm in the forest. love the name.  Thank you so much.  So we it is a family operation. It's my husband and I and his mother and grandmother have moved up here. We are just outside of Louisville, Kentucky. So, you know, we're just across the border in Indiana. And it's kind of a family operation, first generation sort of family compound set up. 03:41 And my mother-in-law actually kind of came up with the name when we were thinking about what we wanted to name our little farmstead or homestead. And I wanted to include something with the forest in it because our property is heavily forested and we're working on restoring the forest while moving into market farming. And so that's kind of how the name came up to be was it was kind of just a mashup of conservation meets agriculture. 04:11 Okay, so I was looking at your Facebook page, because I do this every time I talk to somebody.  And the one post you've done in the last week really stuck out to me was about the SpaceX debris hitting the moon.  Do you know anything about that?  Were they just trying to shoot a rocket at the moon for funsies? 04:36 I, somebody had commented, didn't know too much about it. It was just sort of something that was like popping up all over my feed.  Um, and I guess it was already kind of like up there. weren't aiming and it just sort of got off track.  And I guess the gravitational pull or something had caused it to go there. Um, but it was, it was just something that kind of hit me kind of hard because. 05:00 As somebody who's really interested in conservation and being a little bit more self-sufficient and sustainable in my life choices,  just the thought of launching debris into space, it feels like another form of littering to me that we're taking it to the next level.  This isn't necessarily in regards to SpaceX specifically, but 05:29 just the thought of us launching things into space and then they just get locked there and it's like another form of pollution.  Well, we've already tried to ruin the ocean. So why not try to ruin space?  Right? Yeah, it just, you know, it really like it had caused me to sit there and reflect and think a lot about, um, just because we can, does it mean we should kind of questions?  Absolutely. Um, my 05:56 I have two podcasts. have this one and I have Grit and Grace in the Heartland Women in Agriculture that I do with a co-host.  And my co-host, I love her. She's fantastic. And one of her things right now is AI,  that it's not good. And I agree with her. I don't think it's good.  And that's another thing that's really screwing with agriculture and conservation.  just, we don't need 06:26 to do all this stuff. Why can't we embrace what we have, you know? Right.  It's kind of just this reminder.  You know, they talk about living in the moment a lot,  enjoying life, you know, especially this lifestyle. It comes with that, that mentality of having a slower pace of life, really being present in your life and with your community, your family, your friends. And it's like, now we have all of this. 06:55 this opportunity through technology to kind of instantize things and make everything accessible. That it almost feels like just the creativity of life, the mysteriousness of life is really just being pulled from us. Because now we can just type a few words into something and it can dream it for us. we're, it almost feels like we're being robbed of our ability to dream.  Yes. And that's not okay. And part of the reason it's not okay is because 07:25 We have little people watching us all the time.  And little people have big imaginations. And if we rob them of their creativity, we're robbing them of the joy of life. And I don't want to talk about this too much further, because I could talk all day.  I just, I'm the woman that still gets a pitter patter in my heart when my husband brings in tomatoes from the garden, the first tomatoes.  So I'm very much. 07:53 I wouldn't say I'm crunchy granola, but I am right below that, you know?  Right.  Right. 08:03 But either way, I just saw that on your Facebook page and I was like, oh, Katie and I are going to be friends because yeah, that's okay.  All right. So you have a humongous garden, right?  So I don't know if humongous would be the word to describe it, but it is the biggest one I have personally done. We are operating it as a market garden. So we're coming in at about 8,500 square foot, which I think roughs out to like a fifth of an acre. 08:34 Yep. So I guess it's a decent size.  That's a really good size. Don't sell yourself short.  Yeah. It's been a lesson this year. I've never done a market garden.  I've always just grown food, you know, for myself, my husband, friends, family when they're around.  And yeah, I'm learning a lot from this garden. It has definitely been the garden of lessons for me this year. 09:01 And what lessons have you learned so far? What are the biggest ones? I think approaching the market garden the way I would a personal garden was kind of one of my biggest mistakes.  love kind of the potage garden, the interplanted garden, the very wild and chaotic gardens. But when it comes to market gardening, there needs to be a little bit of organization there. And that is not my strong point. 09:31 So it got really out of hand really fast. I've just got like basil plants that are like two foot wide between my tomatoes, making it hard to pick right now, kind of hitting peak harvest season. And then I am not super familiar with this area. We just moved here last year. So I'm still again, being born and raised in Florida. I'm still navigating seasonality and like season extension. And that's something I've never really had to do. 10:00 on a scale when it comes to making money because this has always been a personal hobby. And so now that we've commodified it and turned it into a business, I have to start approaching it like a business rather than a hobby. Yeah, it does change the view of it. It really does.  My husband's garden, he's the gardener. His garden is 150 by 100. 10:28 feet, think, 150 feet by 100 feet. So that's a 5,000 square foot garden.  And he has a hard time keeping up with it.  I'm not the gardener, and he doesn't want me messing with it.  So right now, we've got a lot of beautiful cucumbers and tomatoes coming in for the first time in two years, because last year the garden was bad because of weather here.  The first cucumber he brought in, I was like, can I eat it now? 10:57 Do I have to wait till dinner? And he was like, no, you can eat it now. And I cut that thing up in slices and started eating it. And I was like, do you want any? And he looked at me and there was a beat of time. And he said, I would like a bite. He said, but it's yours. He said, cause I know you know how much you love cucumbers. I was like, okay.  So they're really, really good this year. They're just starting to really come in now. And our tomatoes are finally starting. He's picking like 20 to 30 a night right now. 11:26 And we're north of you by quite a bit. I'm sure you're picking way more than we are right now.  I, you know, I am actually kind of starting to peter out on the tomatoes and I'm out of cucumbers.  I've replanted cucumbers and I'm hopeful that I'll get a second round in before our first frost since they seem to grow so quick here.  But my tomato plants are kind of, I planted those back from seed in February. So I got them in the ground probably 11:55 Um, and April or May, I remember taking a chance and thinking, I'm going to bet that we're not going to have a late freeze. And thankfully it worked out for me this year, but that doesn't always happen up here. Sometimes the freeze does come late.  Yes. those are our least favorite freezes here because we have apple trees and last year they were calling, they were calling for like snow on Derby and I was like, but I have my tomatoes out. Like, what do you mean? 12:23 Yeah, we really watch the weather when we know the apples,  the apple trees are starting to blossom.  If there's a frost, we will get no apples at all. It's done.  And we have two trees loaded with honey gold apples right now. And we have a Harrelson and a Regent variety that we've never gotten apples from in the six years we've been here. And they're covered in apples too.  So we did not have a late frost. Thank God. 12:54 The last two years have been so rough with the weather that I was like, please just let us have a moderate season, please.  it's been lovely here other than that two weeks of hot. Yes. So you got your two weeks of summer.  You didn't even have to go to Florida. Boy, did we.  And I don't know if you know what Minnesota is like in the summer, but we don't get two and a half weeks of temperatures in the high 90s and tropical dew points. We just don't get that. We get a couple of days, if that. 13:23 So yeah, I don't want to live in Florida. I want to live in Minnesota where the weather is supposed to be temperate in the summertime. It's funny because my husband and I joke, we didn't move far enough north. We did a brief stint in Connecticut a couple of years ago. did 10 months.  And while it was lovely, we just, we really liked the Kentucky area, the Ohio Valley.  But now that we're currently like facing a hundred plus degree weather in the upcoming days, we joke all the time. like, yeah, we did not move. 13:54 far enough north, like this is not far enough. But I don't know if we can really go anywhere that doesn't get a heat spell anymore.  Even Alaska gets hot temperatures now in the summer, like hot,  hot.  yeah, I mean, you could move to the North Pole, but you're not going to be growing a lot of veggies in North Pole in the summertime. No, I've considered it though. I've considered it.  I'll find something to grow. 14:19 Well, you could have an indoor greenhouse, but it would cost you a lot of money to keep it warm.  would. I've looked into it. Not exaggerating at all. Yeah, my husband's dream for a long time. was like, we're going to end up in Alaska. And I was like, hell we are.  No, no, no, no. I don't want to live in Alaska where it's dark all day long, except for an hour and a half in the wintertime. I can't. I would die. 14:43 Yeah, I don't. That's the only thing that I think keeps me from wanting to move to Alaska. I know it's gorgeous. I have a cousin that lives out there.  But I don't know if I could do the constant darkness.  No, no. And it's bad enough in the wintertime in the lower 48. Can you imagine?  I couldn't do it. There's no way. I like it when it starts to get dark. 15:12 around Christmas time, you know, just before Christmas when it's dark at four o'clock and we get candles lit because it's pretty and it smells good.  we have, we have some kind of bread or something in the oven smells good and it's all cozy. But if I had to do that all the time, no. I don't think I would be productive. I think I would be very cozy in my house all the time. I would not be contributing to society.  Yep, exactly. And I mean, 15:41 I have the utmost respect for people who can live with those kinds of extremes. I'm just not that person.  I agree.  I think that's why the Midwest for us worked out like, well, I guess I use the term Midwest very loosely. There seems to be debate if, if the Kentucky and a region would be considered Midwest.  Um, I don't know. 16:04 You know? Yeah, I don't either. I'm like, I'm from Florida.  Florida is a weird state, you know? It's kind of southern and it's also very northern at the same time. So I was like, you know what? This seems like a good middle point of the country where I get the seasonality, but I'm not so far north to where I'm buried under feats of snow, but I'm not dying from the heat or alligators.  Right. Yeah.  And... 16:32 The thing that's really interesting to me, this is, I don't know, we're talking about a lot of stuff that isn't homesteading, but I used to take the road trip from Minnesota to Maine every few years because I grew up in Maine, my parents still live there.  it's Minnesota to Wisconsin to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio to Pennsylvania, I think is the route. 17:00 Indiana feels like it's right literally right in the middle of all these different seasonal changes because I consider I Consider Illinois to be sort of kind of part of Wisconsin because of the route we take so same kind of feel in the climate and Then you get to Indiana and Indiana has always seemed hot to me because when when I was growing up My parents lived in we lived in Maine my parents and I my mom's parents lived in Illinois 17:30 So the road trip was from Maine to Illinois and Illinois to home. And so I'm familiar with driving through Indiana in June and July and August. And it just always seemed kind of hot and sweaty.  And we would get to Illinois and for some reason, I don't remember the weather ever being bad when we would visit my grandparents. I'm sure it was, but I don't remember it. And Illinois always just seemed to really moderate and there was always just a nice breeze blowing through. 17:59 And then Ohio is where it starts to not be so flat. You know, just the inkling of, we're getting back into trees and some hills here.  And so Indiana has always been this really weird outlier for me from my childhood memories. And I know it's really pretty because my grandpa's brother lived in Indiana. So we would go visit them when we were in Illinois. 18:25 I know what it feels like. know what it smells like. I know what it looks like, but I think it's all very colored from the trips I took as a kid.  You do remember things I think differently in childhood. will say Indiana is an interesting state because where we're at in Indiana, right on the Kentucky border, we're only about 50 miles outside of Louisville. So we're very much in the hills here of Southern Indiana. 18:54 I don't know if you've ever been, it is, it is beautiful. And it's funny because, you know, just you go an hour to north of us, that's when you start hitting the plains of Indiana, the flat, not much to see,  just fields. And so we really got lucky when we moved to at least live somewhere where it does feel different topography wise and not necessarily so just vast and expansive. 19:24 It is gorgeous though.  I do remember that.  My least favorite part of the trip was the Illinois part and has been my whole life because Illinois is very, very, very flat. Yes, we recently made a trip. just did popped over to St. Louis and that's only a couple hours for us.  We're only a couple hours here near the Louisville area. 19:51 to a lot of major cities. So Cincinnati, we're not far from Detroit, we're not far from Indianapolis. So we made a little trip out to St. Louis a couple of weekends ago and Illinois was like, we didn't even have to go through that much Illinois, but it felt like forever because it was just like one straight field that we drove through.  Yeah, drive if you're driving it, it's you don't want to drive it by yourself or you'll fall asleep at the wheel. 20:18 Right. Yeah, we were like, wow, okay, we know we knew we had left southern Indiana and got into Illinois because there was not a single hill, like a cave, nothing. We very much live in cave country here in the hills. We actually live by two major cave systems down the road from us within miles.  Most of my neighbors have caves on their property.  Our property slopes down, like we're very much built onto the side of a hill. 20:46 And so, we were like, okay, we are in Illinois because there is nothing out here. Yes, absolutely.  I shouldn't say it because my mom grew up in Illinois, but I will never live in Illinois. It's too flat for me.  is.  So we have now touched on weather and geography. Let's get into growing things.  Did you? 21:12 Did you grow up with parents or grandparents who grew things? Did you say that at beginning?  Kind of.  So I grew up in a very rural part of Florida, kind of really some of the last part of real Florida that still exists, which is now, of course, being developed like most of the state.  So I grew up in one of the biggest peanut producing counties,  big monoculture right outside of Ocala, Florida, which is big horse country. 21:41 And like most rural people, like we raised hogs, we had chickens. I had a garden with my grandparents, um, one year, uh, a couple of times we did some canning, you know, things like that. wouldn't say it was a, we weren't a gardening family. were more of a raising meat and eggs family. Um, but I was very ag adjacent my whole life. Um, just growing up in a, a very rural place where there's nothing but farms and Florida's, um, 22:10 because it's so southern, the growing season is so long, you're just kind of surrounded by so much agriculture.  Okay, cool. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you and I'll forget if I don't ask now.  You had something on your Facebook page about making comfrey salve or salve. 22:32 Is that something new for you or have you been doing that for a while?  Comfrey is something new that I'm working with in the past couple of years. I started making home remedies probably in my early 20s. I think like most women,  I kind of got into this lifestyle when I started getting some health issues and I wasn't getting a ton of help from the doctors. 23:01 quite an extensive medical history for being in my 30s. And I had really started struggling with some autoimmune issues. And it was kind of a, I approach this lifestyle wise? Can I do this a little more holistically before I have to take the medications they give for those kinds of illnesses? Because I really didn't want to end up on like any type of like rheumatoid. 23:30 medications, any type of immunosuppressants, and I already have a cardiologist, things like that. So I actually got into making a lot of my home remedies for pain as a medical marijuana patient in Florida. It was cheaper for me to buy medical marijuana and make my own lotions to use topically than it was to buy the lotions. So that's actually where I started was as a medical marijuana patient. I didn't know you could do that. 24:00 I never really like I was like, if you can infuse oil, you know, with lavender, like, why couldn't I do it topically? I wasn't interested in necessarily like, you know, the mind altering aspect of the medication, which, you know, I'm very pro like, you know, that's, that's a choice people have to make.  That's not what I'm sorry, I'm a little topic here, but you're not you're anti pot. 24:29 Right. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say.  But it was, you know, just, I needed something more for topical muscle relief, nerve pain.  And I was, know, at the time on a very limited budget, I, know, I was newly married. We had bought our first house, you know, money was tight.  And after going the pharmaceutical route and not getting a ton of relief or my insurance would only pay for X amount of treatments. 24:56 I was like, you know what, if I'm going to have to pay out of pocket anyways, let me try this. And I just, kind of came to me one night. Like I was in the dispensary. saw lotion.  I was like, I don't have the money for that. And I was like, you know what? I know how to make lotion. Like let me, let me see if I can just figure this out. And so I just, that's where I started. I love that.  Um, I have a story that has nothing to do with pot, but it has to do with making a sap.  My youngest son, he is 20. 25:25 Born in 2001, so he'll be 25 in December.  He does not live with us anymore. I am an empty nester. I've raised four kids.  He had some dry skin happening on his face like three or four years ago. And he was using my Burt's Bees lotion, which is expensive.  And I was like, why don't you let me figure out a way to make something for your face? Because it's not going to cost $20 a thing. 25:54 it's going to cost about four because I have all the ingredients probably that I need. So I looked up what I thought was a lotion and it was a lotion but it set up as a salve and I said, can you just use it as a salve? And he said, sure.  And basically it was cocoa butter,  raw cocoa butter, which I didn't know smells like cocoa.  I thought it, I didn't realize that it would cause I'd never dealt with it before. 26:23 And I used that and some other things and made him some face cream and he loved it because he smelled like hot cocoa.  And I was so impressed with myself because he really, had spots that were just flaky and it was just like a minor psoriasis thing.  And it worked.  after like three or four days of him using this every night before he'd go to bed, 26:49 He came to me and he showed me his face. He's like, touch my face.  And you know, boys don't... Boy men, men boys, what are you gonna call them? Boys in their twenties don't really want their mom touching them in any way, or form other than maybe a hug now and then. And I said, touch your face. And he's like, yeah, touch my face. And he said, put your hands flat and just put them on my cheeks and then slide your hands down. And I was like, okay.  And I did. And his face was so soft. And he's like,  you fixed it. 27:20 And I don't know whether he was like, thank you, mom, and you fixed it. Or if he was just like, how cool is this? You fixed it. But I was so excited that I had made something that really worked for him. Yeah, that's amazing. And when you really do start kind of having to take your own health into your own hands.  It's funny how much we seem to be able to do for ourselves without needing 27:49 to necessarily take the steps to go to the doctor, handle insurance and pharmaceuticals.  Sometimes it's just you need to moisturize, you know? Yeah. And I knew that and he knew that too, but I was like, you are not going to use up all his Burt's Bees stuff that I still have. Stop using my good stuff. That I still love. And when I'm out of it, I'll use the other stuff I make too. But in the meantime, 28:16 Here use this homemade remedy that's probably better for your skin than the Burt's Bees stuff I have.  Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And it's so dumb because Burt's Bees was my go-to for a long time, you know, growing up and young adult and in my 20s and 30s Burt's Bees lip balm was my favorite thing.  I now have lip balms whenever I want them because I can just make them. I know how. You know, it's funny being in the the ag world because I never 28:46 realized how 28:50 how much you jump into when you start this lifestyle. And for me, like I've kind of jumped into the cosmetic stuff. Like I like to make like little tinted chapsticks or I make my own facial moisturizers and I'm like, oh my gosh,  I could just make this. I don't have to buy it. It's going to cost me $500 to make it, but I can make it.  the outlay, the beginning of anything is always the most expensive.  Always. Like when you want it, when you decide you want to get chickens for eggs, 29:19 Those first eggs are going to be thousand dollar eggs.  But six years later, they're not thousand dollar eggs anymore because you already have the coop and you already know how to take care of them.  And hopefully you found people you can barter with for hay for their nesting boxes.  And you start selling their eggs. If you have enough chickens, you sell their eggs and that pays for their food. But that first egg is like a golden egg, I swear to God. 29:46 For sure.  It's funny.  And you you find ways to get scrappy and frugal.  And it really, this lifestyle really does kind of lead you down the path of non-  I wouldn't say anti-consumerism, but it is easier to get more into a minimalistic habit, like habits. Because when you're not having to go to the store for, like you said, eggs or something, all of a sudden you're like, wow, like I'm not spending 30:15 as much money or gas or I'm not buying impulsive things.  it's really just I didn't realize how much of my life this lifestyle it would affect.  it impacts everything in the best way possible.  And and I'm going to say this again, I try to date. try to do this every third or fourth episode.  Homesteading, farming, gardening, whatever you're doing. If you 30:45 are a soft heart and you have animals, you're going to have to get a stiff upper lip because animals don't always make it on a farm. We just lost a barn cat the other day. We lost kittens two years ago because their mom flaked off. She left four week old babies. We don't know if she got hit or if she was just too young to have babies and she didn't want to raise them and so she went somewhere else, but we lost babies, kittens. 31:14 So you've really got to be able to roll with the punches and you will have some of your highest highs in this lifestyle, but you'll have some of your lowest lows too. Yeah, that was something I learned very young and early on with my parents raising hogs and chickens. I actually had a really hard time. I was vegetarian kind of on and off into my adult life. 31:40 And even though my parents had tried to explain it to me as a child, like, you know, we want to know that our food was raised in humane conditions, where it came from, what was fed, you know, they were very transparent about some of the horrors that exist in modern agriculture and how removed we are from our food sources.  That really impacted me at a young age to the point of vegetarianism. And it took me a really long time to, I guess, to accept it and be comfortable with it. 32:08 And I think a lot of people jump into this lifestyle and don't realize how much it does affect them.  Yep. And it's, it's really wonderful when you're starting out, when you're like, Oh, we're going to get bunnies and we're going to raise them for meat or we're going to get chickens and have eggs and we're going to have meat chickens too.  And we'll raise those up and butcher them for meat. And we're going to get a steer at whatever four months old and we're going to raise that for meat and we're going to butcher him. 32:38 The problem is you get to know those animals, you get to know their personalities, and it is really hard to not be attached to an animal you take care of all day long every day. And then you are the ones going end their life and you're going to eat them. It's a hard, hard shift.  And being so far removed from where our food comes from, people think nothing of picking up a nice ribeye steak at 33:07 the meat counter because they didn't know the animal.  didn't know that animal in particular really liked being scratched behind its left ear six times. 33:19 Mm hmm. Yeah,  absolutely.  As I got older, the wisdom kind of came where I was like, you know what, this animal is only going to know one bad moment in its life as long as I'm responsible for it. And we currently don't actually have any animals outside of our dogs. And my husband and it's funny you mentioned rabbits, my husband and I are getting two Holland Lops this fall. 33:45 We've never had a pet together outside of my dog that I had when I was 18, who recently passed in October, but we've never had a pet together as a couple. So we're like, you know what, we really want Holland Lops. And I told them, I was like, I know we're doing this homesteading thing, like bunnies are friends, not food. I don't want to get into meat rabbits.  Like I got to have a boundary and it's not the cow. It's not the pig. It's not the chickens. It's the bunnies.  Cause they're sweet and they're soft.  Yep.  Yup.  It's, it's such a. 34:15 It's such a satisfying way to live, but it's also heartbreaking sometimes. And I just, I want people to know that when you decide to do this, there are lessons you're going to learn and some of them are going to be hard.  Yes. And I, you know, it really puts, um, a lot of those hard questions that keep you up at night sometimes, like it puts a lot of things into perspective. 34:44 doing this,  you kind of, I wouldn't say understand the meaning of life, but a lot of things become much more apparent and seem much more trivial when you're, when you're having to put the responsibility on sourcing your food and raising that animal, knowing that it's living to nourish you and to sustain you.  Yes. And the way that I justify it in my head is 35:13 I have to remember to say thank you.  And if I don't say thank you, I feel really, really bad because that animal,  I mean, yes, you took care of it and you fed it and you raised it, but that animal gave its life so that you can live.  And I was watching something a while ago and somebody incredibly intelligent, I can't remember who it was, said something about everything needs to eat. 35:42 So we're not being mean or monsters in raising animals for food. This is how it used to work.  So I just, just, it's so hard and it's so great at the same time is what I'm trying to get at.  Katie, thank you. 36:05 So much for coming to visit with me. try to keep this to half an hour and we're already over that by five minutes.  Where can people find you? Yeah, I'm on YouTube at The Little Farm in the Forest. We do weekly videos, anything from herbalism to the garden to showing you how food is grown. And I'm also on Facebook, same name, The Little Farm in the Forest.  Not on Instagram? Not yet. I've been meaning to set one up, but my first market year, I had to drop the ball somewhere. 36:34 Yes, because you're a very, very busy lady.  All right. As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com. Katie, thank you again for your time. I really enjoyed our chat. Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Vicki at Roberts Rabbitry Homestead.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Vicki at Roberts Rabbitry Homestead in Indiana. Good morning, Vicki. How are you? Good morning. I am good. Good. How's the weather in Indiana today?  It's all right. I think it's going to get hot again, but right now it's not too bad. Went out and did my morning chores and didn't break a sweat, which is always great. 00:51 Yeah, did you guys have, we had over two weeks of tropical dew points a couple weeks ago. Did you guys have that too or did you just have like a few days?  Honestly, we had such bad humidity that I don't know. It was bad for,  honestly, most of the summer, our humidity levels have just been insane. Yeah, I don't like it. And I keep saying that on every episode and I need to stop. Fall will be here soon. I know it will be. And then I'll be like, man, it's cold again. What happened? 01:21 Today in Minnesota it is 72 right now and it's sunny and it's pretty and it's very little breeze and it's supposed to be high of 85 and I don't know what the dew point is supposed to get to.  Probably,  yeah we're going to be back in tropical dew points today 72 at 3 o'clock this afternoon 72 degree dew point. Yay, oh yay here we go again.  Yay. 01:50 So, tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Robert's Rabbitry.  Well, rabbits. Yeah, I do. I got lots of rabbits. I love my rabbits for sure.  But really, I'm just a normal person.  I'm a mom. I got four boys from... Oh my. Yeah.  The oldest is 15. He just got his learner's permit.  Then... 02:19 The next one's 11. He just entered middle school, then seven, and my youngest is five. And he just went into kindergarten. So my youngest went to kindergarten. Did you cry?  You know, a little bit, but honestly, I've been raising kids for the past 16 years, my whole adult life.  My husband and I married straight out of high school. I was pregnant with 02:48 and had a kid within a year, sorry, a year of marriage. So I've been doing the parenting thing my whole adult life.  And while it never stops, but they go to school and you get a little bit of more time to yourself.  And it's, you know, that time is like, oh man, what do I do with myself now? You know, I've never had, I've never had all my kids at school at one time. I've always had at least one home.  And when I 03:18 kind of started to realize that these kids are getting a little bit older and I have a little bit of time myself and I can, you know, start to explore some of my other hobbies that are a little more time consuming that I wanted to jump into.  So I'd already been doing some of these other skills, you know,  when my kids were little, I learned to sew so that I could make them baby clothes because that's cute. 03:48 And so I did that. learned to sew and I have gardened on and off my entire adult life. Some places we could garden where we live, some places we couldn't.  And when we got out here to the country, out to the family farm,  now I have the ability. I don't have to ask permission from anybody to have a garden. So that's been really great. But you know, I've just been learning some of these skills.  do. 04:18 I obviously I raise rabbits.  I have chickens and we do pig feeder pigs, but we don't breed them. just get them from a local farm and raise them out for the pork. But I don't have a business.  don't have,  you know, I'm not like big,  huge social media star or anything. I'm just... 04:48 just a normal person who I'm here.  you know, I didn't grow up learning any of these skills. And as I got older, I was more interested in them. And now that I have this time, I'm diving a lot deeper into them.  That's fabulous. You're in it for the satisfaction and the self sufficiency.  Exactly.  Good. That's amazing. And I think everybody should be. 05:12 I know it's not everybody's cup of tea. There's a lot of people who don't want to do what you and I do in our daily lives and that's okay too.  So I saw on your Facebook page this morning when I was looking to see what you're up to a post from June 4th and it says, going to lie, this was pretty entertaining. And it's a string of messages back and forth about somebody wanting rabbits from you. 05:39 Was it a bot? Was it somebody just being stupid? Tell me the story on that one. It's a scammer. Yeah.  So a lot of times, I don't know if it's a bot or not.  I think it might be.  I get them from time to time.  But it's funny to me, you know, when you type back to them because 06:06 It's just like they're responding to whatever, you know, they're not like actually seeing what you're doing because they don't actually want whatever it is you have. They want your account stuff. You know, they want your financial information and to be able to get money from you in one way or another.  So it was just funny. was just playing. I like to do that. You'll see it on a lot of my posts. I get tons and tons of trolls and 06:34 I mean, I haven't even been doing this that long and they hit me very quickly and they hit me very hard.  Yeah.  And I mean, to me, I just laugh about it and I'm going to put something,  if I even respond, the trolls, it's going to be probably something witty or funny.  It is witty. 07:00 It is witty and funny. read through the whole thing. And for the listener, if you want to see it, go follow Robert's Gravatory Homestead. It's the first pinned post. And you will definitely giggle, if not pee your pants laughing at Vicki's responses.  Yeah, I mean, I'm not here on social media to take things like super serious, you know?  So I'm here.  I live in a very, very, very small community. 07:31 Honestly, it's an hour before you get to a city with a population over 18,000.  So it's very, very small and I'm an introvert and I like to stay home. So I don't have a lot of friends really, you know, and I wanted that community too. 07:58 Honestly, I was having a really hard time finding any resources that could kind of help me learn in the way that I learned.  So that's kind of how the whole thing was built. Really the whole page. I was bored and lonely and just looking for people who shared the same passions as I did. And that's what I ran across when I started my page. And that's a really great 08:27 thing to do, really great way to do it.  And I know that people think that social media is a terrible entity.  It's a monstrosity, but if you use it for good, it can be really good.  I think with your voice and the fact that you're an introvert, you should start your own podcast, Vicki. I think you'd be great at it.  Oh my.  I don't know about... I just like the... 08:56 learn, honestly, I love to learn.  And I will spend my whole life learning something new every day. That's my goal is just to learn more and more. You can never know enough, you know, or at least that's how I feel. And I just have a passion, I guess, for sharing what I learned because when I started looking for resources and stuff to 09:25 on like online because I couldn't find it in person.  I just, I was having a really hard time coming across a lot of those resources that were helpful, especially in the rabbit world.  That is just such a world full of so much good and bad. 09:53 That's what I'll say. There's tons of good and there's tons of bad.  Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that rabbit people can be kind of a pity if they show their rabbits, if you're not a show rabbit person.  I've heard that if people are raising their rabbits for the hides and for meat and for rabbit's feet, they can be a little more forgiving. I don't know if that's what you expect. Yes, absolutely. Yep, that is true. 10:23 All right, we will get to the rabbits, but I want to ask you a question. You have an Australian shepherd. I sure do.  What is her name? Her name is Renly.  Renly, okay. And you said she's five. She's about, she turns five next month, yes.  Okay. I don't want to talk on and on about mine. I have done it too many times on the podcast already because I love her so much.  What I want to ask you about her is why did you get her? Did you get her as a puppy and did you have a reason? 10:52 Um, I did get her as a puppy.  Um, we,  I had a Yorkie that I'd had since, um, I was pregnant with my very first one back in 2010.  Um,  and she was sick.  um, I knew that when that time came, would lose and I would lose my Yorkie.  It would be devastating. Yep. 11:22 And I didn't want another Yorkie because that, it wouldn't compare, you know? Like I just felt like I knew I couldn't get another Yorkie and that would save the heartbreak that I would feel when I lost her. So we were out here at the farm and I wanted a family dog that had the energy. 11:51 to keep up with all my feral kids.  Yes.  So I wanted, you know, but I didn't want a giant dog because our house is not that big.  um,  honestly, and I had just seen Australian shepherds, you know, here and then at one point I did work for a vet for a short time. And I mean, I saw some of the most gorgeous dogs and cats and, animals that you could just imagine. 12:20 And the Australian Shepherds always just really, they were just so pretty.  I started looking for one and I just happened to run across an ad for a guy in the town next to ours, in the Amish town next to ours.  I went, well the whole family, we all went in to look at her and she's actually not the dog I wanted out of the litter. 12:50 Okay. But the dog that I wanted was already spoken for and she was the next pick for me. But man, when I saw her, fell in love and everybody else fell in love.  I mean, it was just sealed that moment.  So, but we brought her home and you know, actually she was a puppy at first, but when she started to get a little bit older,  she just really took to the everything. 13:19 um, everything about the whole farm life.  She loves the rabbits. I'm not even kidding. I can't tell you. She goes up to every one of their cages every day. She goes and she checks on them. If one is loose, by golly, she lets us know.  time I even had a kit managed to get out of one of my hutches and she, she brought it to me uninjured. In her mouth? 13:48 Oh,  a good girl. mean, she is, she is just an insanely great dog. She goes on all the four wheeler rides and walks on the property with the kids. So I don't have any kind of fear, you know, that they're out there by their, their selves walking around or riding. She's always with them.  She, she helps us catch chickens.  She's a very good herder.  So. 14:18 I mean her role really is just to be the family dog and the little farm dog that we have. So she's just perfect about it too. We just love her to death.  so you had reasons for choosing her.  Yes, yes I did.  Yeah.  We ended up with ours sort of by happenstance, which is a weird way to say it. 14:44 We knew we were going to get a puppy at some point when we moved to our place that is, we've lived here six years now, but we didn't know what we were going to get.  And our neighbors for, you know, it's about half an hour away.  She, the lady, the wife taught our kids in elementary school. So I knew I followed her on Facebook and her her mated pair, as I call them, of Australian Shepherds had a litter on August 3rd. And I sent her a message and I said, 15:14 we finally have moved or we have some room to have a puppy, a dog, and we'd really like to have one of Diesel and Daisy's pups. And she was like, oh, okay. And she talked a little bit in messages and I assumed that she thought that we were serious.  And about four weeks later, she posted and she said, we have a couple puppies left. If you want one, let me know. And I'm like, she didn't think I was serious. 15:42 So I messaged her and I was like, Jean, I'm serious. How much are you selling the pups for? I said, we want one. And she was like, oh, I thought you were just like, it would be nice to have one. I said, no, we're serious. How much?  And that dog cost us $500.  I can't believe we paid $500 for a puppy, but we did. And we didn't really have a purpose for her. We don't have animals for her to herd or anything. We wanted a house dog. 16:12 that was really good at watchdogging because we live in the middle of cornfields and soybean fields.  She has lived up to being a watchdog beyond all measures. She has no off switch.  What I want to say about this particular breed, whether they're small, medium or large Australian Shepherds, I have yet to hear anything bad about any of them from anyone I know who has one. 16:40 they seem to be a really good all around dog for a family. I mean, as long as you can get their energy out, that would be the only thing that I would say if you can't get them to run and stuff,  I mean, Renly would be extremely wound up if she couldn't chase after the four-wheeler all the time, and she didn't have her space to roam.  and... 17:07 And it depends on their own personalities. I keep hearing from people, you're like the 30th person I've heard that from.  Our Maggie is a loaf when she's in the house. When she's outside, she wants to play. And so we have a frisbee that she loves and we have the little balls that look like mini basketballs and she will chase those and she gets her yas yas out and then she's fine. 17:33 But she is very much like a Labrador Retriever in the house. She's a loaf. She wants to lay around and eat snacks and drink water and just hang out. She's not too bad in the house. So we lucked out big.  Yeah. Renly does great in the house, but she's lazy inside. She just wants to come in here and lay down and, you know, cool off and stuff. But then she's right back outside.  We actually found out here pretty recently that she has a thing against raccoons. 18:03 They all do.  all do.  Yeah, it was, and that wasn't on purpose. So she goes out with my son every night to shut up the, you know, the feed shed and all that stuff and close the chicken coop. And apparently there was a raccoon and she took off after it and it was a rough and tumble kind of thing. 18:29 but we were having just such a bad issue with raccoons at that point. So, I mean, it was probably good for her to scare them away some.  Yeah. And this is why it's really good if you're going to have an outdoor dog, well, any dog, but definitely an outdoor dog, make sure they're up to date on the rabies shots.  Absolutely. She is.  Okay. So I had to ask about that and I want to hear about your rabbit story because did you 18:55 Did you know you could raise rabbits or was this a new thing for you?  I have actually been raised, like I've actually had rabbits and have been breeding rabbits since 2022 or the end of 2021. I can't remember.  And I did basic research before, you know, and I had 19:23 cage an actual rabbit cage and Willow she's my longest rabbit but I got her from a pet store I walked into a pet store I was thinking about getting a rabbit and I went in there and they had her in a fish tank oh okay at the pet store and I mean I was walking around looking for the treats and food for Renly and 19:53 everywhere,  every time I would have to walk by, she was just like, take me home.  And I have a bleeding heart when it comes to animals. I took her home.  I would have too, because a fish tank is not a home for a rabbit. No, I knew that even not having rabbits that that wasn't okay.  And I took her home.  And shortly after,  I, you know, I got a mail too. But really, 20:23 I didn't have enough knowledge when I started, but who does? You know, who does? And that's kind of the point of why I do a lot of the stuff I do is we don't have the knowledge when we start. Nobody starts with it, you know? So you're going to make mistakes and that's okay to make mistakes.  As long as you're doing it out of 20:52 true ignorance and not willful ignorance.  You know, so I mean, I did lots of things that, well, I know now isn't the way to do it, isn't the way to raise rabbits or things that are not good for them or safe for them.  Over the years that I've had them, I've learned that, you know, I've learned a lot. But it was up until this year. 21:22 Um, well, last year, up until last year, I kept a very small, uh, stock. I only had six rabbits and three were females. Three were males.  And while the goal, when I very first got rabbits was meat rabbits, I just, I needed somebody to do it. I'd never killed an animal before.  Never, you know?  so. 21:49 Well, okay, I take that back. I had to kill a chicken once,  a juvenile chicken, because there was a loose dog that got a hold of it and I could see its insides through its back.  obviously that needs to be dispatched. So I did dispatch that one, but I didn't watch when I did it. 22:15 You know, it was really hard. That was incredibly hard for me.  I love animals. I have a bleeding heart. When it comes to animals, I have way too many strays and just, you know, I love them basically. So when I saw these cute cuddly rabbits being born, these tiny little things, I'm like, oh, I could never do this, you know? And I didn't have anybody who gave me the confidence. 22:46 and you know, who would actually show me in person how to do it and then let me do it with their guidance. And it took years to find somebody for me locally who would do that.  And that was before I had really started my Facebook page.  And but I did find somebody through 23:15 rabbits here locally and she's a very good friend of mine now.  So we connected through rabbits, which is how I have most of my friends to be honest.  that's good. You've grown your tribe.  Yes. Yes. But she showed me,  you know, she showed me and she helped me and once I did it, I think I went with her twice and did it. And 23:45 And then I told my husband, was like, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it here. I'm going to, you know, this is, I'm going to do this all myself without the help and direction from somebody else. So I actually recorded our session, me and my friends,  of dispatching the rabbit and butchering it out. 24:14 So I went back and watched it and then I went and I did it myself. 24:22 And that's how I learned.  Super proud of you because it is really hard to take a life no matter what the purpose is for. 100 % to every single one.  Still now, it's hard. It's incredibly hard. it's a rabbit that I enjoyed, you know, having around or one that I didn't, I don't care. It's very hard to do it because I have so much respect. 24:51 for my rabbits and my animals in general. I have ton of respect for them and their purpose for why I have chose to bring them into this world.  And then when I go to take their life,  they're fulfilling their purpose. So I'm grateful and I'm sad and it's an emotional experience every single time. 25:21 It really is. I have not.  The things I've killed so far are bugs because I don't care about bugs. But I have watched my husband dispatch chickens because I made myself stand there and watch him do it because I was like, if I can't bring myself to do it, I need to at least stand here and watch it being done. And I did not throw up, but I wanted to.  It's. 25:47 Some people can do it and it's not they don't feel bad about it, but they can just do it. My mom and dad are both deer hunters. They have both gotten deer all their lives. I am really good at spotting deer on the of the road or in the woods when we're hiking or whatever it is we're doing. I'm really good at spotting deer. I don't want to shoot them. I would have to be starving to shoot a deer. I think that they are beautiful. 26:13 I think that that men, most men see a deer and they think, ooh, food. I see a deer and think, oh, that would make a really beautiful photo for my phone saver, screen saver, whatever you call it.  So there are just some people who are totally into raising and butchering their own food. There are people who are into raising and not butchering their own food. They will take it to someone who can butcher it for them. I don't care. 26:41 how you do it, I care that you're trying to do it the best way you know how.  Exactly.  And a deer is actually how I learned to process meat on my own. So I'm very thankful for deer hunting because we do usually try to get one at least a season and that puts a little more meat in the freezer.  in the end, 27:10 Because we process it out ourselves, the only thing we have to pay for really is the tags and those hunting license. Right. Yeah. And it's a lot of meat.  It is. It definitely can be a lot of meat if you if you get a halfway decent deer.  Yeah. The best deer meat I've ever eaten came to us as a gift. My ex-husband had brought my son back from his weekend with his dad. And on the way back, my ex-husband hit 27:40 a probably four or five month old fawn. And he called us and he said, I can take it. You know, the officer that's here says that I can take it if I, if I pay for the tag.  He said, do you want it? He said, cause I'm not going to have any time or any room or any know how to butcher it. And my husband does know how to butcher deer. And I was like, yes, we do.  And we stayed up till like two in the morning dealing with that. 28:09 fawn that was basically free food. Yep. best venison I've ever had in my entire life because I was so young. And I felt so good that it didn't just go to waste or end up getting thrown into the ditch and rotting.  Yeah, that's one of those things. see something on the side of the road or, you know, especially deer. Man, we have tons of deer here. So when I see a deer on the side of the road, I'm like, oh, what a waste. Yeah, it really is. 28:40 And I think here in Minnesota, I'm not positive, so don't quote me, but I think if a deer has just been hit and the person that hit it doesn't want to take it home and deal with it, I think that there's a group that will take it and take it somewhere to have it butchered and then they donate the meat to people who need it, I think.  I've heard the story, I'm not sure it's true, I hope it's true. I hope it's true. 29:08 I've heard that around here you can get it processed and donate it to the food donation, the food banks, there we go, the food banks. But I don't know for sure if that's true or not either.  Yeah, and with the chronic wasting disease that's really popping up in the upper Midwest, I don't know if they're still doing it the way I just said. 29:34 but I know that they used to try to use the animal if it was still good. know they tried.  So, but anyway,  long story. We're getting way off of track here.  So I would ask you a whole bunch of stuff about rabbits, but I just talked to a lady a few months ago about rabbits on the podcast and she told me more than I ever thought I needed to know about bunnies. Oh, you're wrong there.  Was it Amanda? I don't remember. It might've been. 30:04 It probably because I listened to the podcast. I bet it was Amanda from my and Justin's homestead.  It might have been. Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to be really honest with you, Vicki. I do these interviews. I enjoy the hell out of talking to you guys, but I do so many. If I haven't talked to somebody just in the last week or so, it's all in the very back of my brain. So I would literally have to scroll through the list to tell you who I talked to about bunnies. Well, 30:32 If anybody listening doesn't follow her, go follow her because she's awesome. She's one of the people that gave me confidence to actually, but she doesn't even know it, but she gave me the confidence to start making the videos that I make, the educational videos that I make. She is. Shout out her name and her place again.  It's Amanda at La La and Justin's Homestead down in Florida. 30:59 Yeah, I think I did interview them. If I didn't, I should. Let's put it that way.  So I try to keep these to half an hour. And I feel like we talked about a lot of things, but we didn't really talk about a lot of things. You want to come back sometime?  Absolutely. I'm having fun.  Okay, cool.  Where can people find you, Vicki?  At Robert's Rabbitry Homestead on Facebook. I mean, I'll be real honest, that's about the only place I hang out social media wise. 31:29 That's probably good because I have Facebook,  have Instagram,  joined TikTok because my daughter posts on TikTok.  I can't keep up anymore. I'm like, oh my God, I can't spend six hours a day looking at social media unless it's literally for work. I can't do that.  So one place is good. It's easy to find you.  I'm there on Facebook. Come find me and come follow along. We're having fun there.  So you'll see. 31:58 Yeah, you'll see I'll find stuff. It's fun and it's fun-y,  know, like in the best way possible.  Alright. I like to laugh.  Yeah, me too.  As always, you can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Vicki, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Have a great day. You too. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Raven at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Raven at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet in Idaho. Good afternoon, Raven. How are you? I'm good. How about you? How are you? I'm good. How's the weather? It's actually pretty good. We had a little heat wave for a bit, but it's starting to calm down a little. Little smoke in the area from the West with some fires and stuff going on, but everybody's dealing pretty well around here.  Yeah, I'm in Minnesota. It is sunny. It is muggy and it's getting a little warm. 00:57 been nice the last few days, but I think actually I can tell everybody exactly what the temperature is because I'm sitting here looking at it. It is 76 right now, but it feels like 76. So we're good with that because I don't know, three weeks ago we had tropical dew points for two weeks straight and I was just like, Minnesota is not supposed to do this. Yeah, we had a little bit of humidity last week. We're not used to that up here. 01:22 Yeah, it's not fun. I don't love it. As I keep saying, I hate high summer and we are basically in it.  So I don't want to wish away the summer, but I'll be real happy to see apples coming in and winter squash coming in and fall arriving.  Absolutely. I agree.  So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, ma'am.  Okay. Well, I am originally from Southern Louisiana,  grew up in Cajun country down there. 01:51 My husband is as well, but we actually never met. He went into the military at early age and I went off to college and I became a nurse, been nursing for 30 years.  And over time, as we've gotten older, we ended up meeting while he was actually on leave and we just sprung a long distance relationship and it worked out. He got out of the military, we got married, but he wasn't used to being in one place. He had left Louisiana a long time ago. 02:21 So he was used to being stationed around the country deploying.  so we, I had never been anywhere. I was a Southern girl, never been anywhere outside much of the state. And we, you know, decided we needed to find a place to call home. And we ended up in Arizona for a little while, cause I have a sister out there. They love it out there.  And our daughter was born there, but it was just too hot. It was too hot, too brown. Didn't care for it. My sister loves it. Her family loves it, but it wasn't for us. We missed the green. 02:50 You know, we missed being outside a lot because it was too hot to go outside most of the year.  So we did a lot of research, ended up in Southern Idaho and we loved it. We took a few vacations, ended up loving it and we just said we dropped everything, made the move. My husband got a new career, ended up here loving it.  I slowly started to develop some health issues in my late thirties. 03:17 thyroid, skin issues, just hormone issues, going through that perimenopause. And so I started doing a lot of research, and know, as a nurse, I started digging and found a lot of stuff, natural ways and, you know, changing up our food. And we have a lot of awesome,  friendly, regenerative farmers here in Idaho,  small businesses that do a lot of your meats and your fruits and vegetables.  And so we started buying locally, it's to support our small businesses, but also to support our health. 03:44 Yes. And then I kind of started getting into, was like, you know what, my skin, had like severe melasma acne scars and just discoloration from being in the sun all the time. was a softball player years ago and, you know, getting older stuff. I really don't care. I love growing old. It doesn't bother me at all, but I just, could tell my skin was taking a toll.  So I started looking at things of how, you know, transitioning our house into like a more natural home. 04:13 So I started slowly but surely transitioning all of our cleaning products, everything, instead of buying from the stores, just buying the ingredients to make myself.  Excuse me, and over time,  it was great. And then I started looking at labels with products, shampoo, with soaps, and I was like, okay, I'm having some hormonal issues here. Maybe these are contributing. 04:41 I started digging and then I started actually buying some, know, tallow goat milk soaps and stuff from other people, whether locally, whether other farmers in other states. And then I'm like, how easy or how hard is this actually make myself? Because I do a lot of homemade food, lot of whole grain food and stuff. I said, I could do this myself, you know, while still working at a corporate job, basically I was working from home as in leadership. However, I was still able to like maintain that home cooked meals. 05:11 you know, making everything for our home, for ourselves.  And so I started digging into it and just got into it for ourselves. And eventually my husband was like, you know, there's a lot of people, especially moms, look into really natural products for their skin and their kids, you know,  and don't want to have to deal with their kids growing up with the hormone issues and everything. And he's like, maybe you should kind of look into getting a business and something you think. And he was like, yeah. 05:39 So I did, I started very small a couple of years ago, after a few years of doing it myself with just our family. And it just blossomed. took a while, of course, to get my name out there. And I've met a bunch of lot of local artisans like myself. We collaborate,  other bakers and friendly small businesses.  And we help each other out and do things for each other at the markets and promote each other. And it's just turned into a really, you know, 06:08 fun.  What started as like a hobby in my kitchen just became this big thing, you know, nationwide.  I ship everywhere across the US and my locals, they'll do local pickup or they'll come see me at the market.  So I have a lot of support behind me and yeah, it's just, it's been a real blessing to be able to take what I learned from nursing school, you know, the chemistry background, biology background, and just doing a lot of research and looking up a lot of 06:38 holistic remedies and stuff to use.  And it's helped my skin. I suffer with psoriasis and eczema. My daughter had eczema for a little while. We don't have any issues anymore. I go to my dermatologist and she's like in shock. She's like, why don't we need to see you for six months? know? So, and she's like, what are you doing? And I told her and she's like, that's amazing. You know, so there's a lot of dermatologists that'll be, they're kind of on it, but mine, she loves it. She loves it. You know, the... 07:04 act of making things homemade and natural, knowing what's in your products and using it on your skin.  And it's been really big for our health. My daughter is a gymnast.  She's a competitive gymnast. They travel all over the country and her skin is beautiful. My husband loves my stuff. He even uses it. He has a beard, he has hair, he uses my shampoo conditioner, he uses my soaps.  I make a ton of homemade remedies for the skin. 07:32 And we have a little bit of pantry items too. And I like to share some recipes as well. You know, like I make homemade granola or vanilla extract and I'll share my recipes with customers as well. Okay. So I'm going to say this out loud. Isn't it amazing how your doctor will tell you not to eat fast food and to cook at home with whole foods, but your doctor won't tell you to find somebody who makes homemade skincare and things that help you. 08:00 Absolutely. Yeah, I did it all by myself. You know, just doing it for us and doing the digging and we still have get pushback. You know, we'll still get some pushback on things with certain doctors, but I tell them, hey, I do my blood work like I'm supposed to. I see my PCP once a year. I see my dermatologist twice a year. I have a hormone holistic doctor who treats me naturally because I have Hashimoto's with the thyroid. 08:27 and I have to use, I don't use any synthetic hormones, everything's natural, and I take care of my skin and my health and eat whole foods and it is completely transformed. I mean, I am 49, I'm about to be 50, but I feel like I'm in my 30s. And my daughter is like, mom, you look like you're in your 30s. Like she's, know, my husband looks like he's in his 30s. It's not really about looking younger. I don't feel 50, I don't feel 60. don't, you know, I feel like I'm in my 30s and I want to be able to keep. 08:55 going and not have to suffer because in southern Louisiana they deal with a lot of heart issues, deal with a lot of diabetes and we don't have to deal with that because of how we eat, how we treat our skin, how we treat our bodies.  So and we stay inactive, that's a big thing too, of course. Getting out in the sun, know, people, oh sunscreen, da da, yeah, but you know, there's a lot of sunscreens out there, we don't buy sunscreen, I'll make, I actually make a homemade sunscreen. 09:21 that's natural and we don't use it all the time. We only use it if like we go to a beach and if we're at a big swimming area that we're going to be out there all day. That's the only time I really use it. But being outside,  like just doing chores outside or gardening or anything like that, we don't use it. We're more exposed to the sun. And you know, now there are studies coming out that are finding that typically your skin cancer develops from not being in the sun enough. 09:50 and then you choose to go out in the sun and then you're exposed.  it's, you know, there's people, old people that have been in the sun for years farming and doing everything outside that don't have skin cancer, you know? So it's like, everybody's trying to go back to the old traditions, the old roots kind of way. And I love it here in Idaho. We loved our home state. We did. The food, the culture, the family is just, we really enjoyed not having to deal with hurricanes, floods,  humidity. 10:19 You know, that kind of thing over there. have, you know, really good, we live in a really good area and it reminds us of home because the people are like a Southern mentality around here.  It's amazing. And we have people from all over, you know, the people that moved from California, from all the West coast, from the East coast, even from the South that come and work here. And yeah, we meet a lot of wonderful people and there's a lot of people, locals that are very good people as well.  Awesome. So. 10:48 Tell me why tallow, Raven. I don't know enough about tallow other than I have a bag of it in my freezer from when we got a half a beef.  Well, tallow is a big one. We actually used it years ago when I was little.  My family used it to cook with.  And I kind of vaguely remember when I was little grandparents using it as like a moisturizer. I didn't know why. So I kind of dug into it. And it's one of the most like 11:17 not only shelf stable, but also with the vitamins and the nutrients in it that support the skin. And it's almost like a jojoba oil. It's like closest mimics your skin's DNA, you know what I'm saying? And the vitamins,  the minerals that have in it, and it goes into the skin so well. And so we not only use it in my skincare, we use it for cooking as well. But you know, the fat, but you have to get the right kind of tallow. Cause anytime you render a fat, 11:46 it becomes a tallow. That's how it transforms.  So we have companies that will, you know, small forms of stuff that will render their own tallow and sell it, or they'll sell the beef, it's beef kidney suet, is what it's called. And it's the fat around the kidneys in the cow.  People do it with buffalo. People do it with sheep.  The pig fat, it's called lard. And when you render it, it turns into a tallow. 12:12 and it supports that skin barrier on your skin. absorbs quickly. You don't have that messy greasy last behind. And if you render it correctly, some people wet render, but we actually buy the suet from the local farmer here, because we don't have any cows. And what I do is I dry render all our tallow here slowly over time and strain it and put it in the freezer. If you put it in the freezer, it'll last forever. 12:41 refrigerator it lasts a long time and you can use it in anything. But tallow is like kind of our biggest ingredient in almost all of our products. I have a couple of products that don't have it because it's specific for certain for hair or something otherwise. But tallow is big with skin. Yeah. Isn't it amazing that we used to use tallow all the time before the 1900s? Yep. 13:09 all the time.  I remember my grandparents, my grandmother,  even though there was washers and dryers available, my grandfather refused to buy her a set. And she was still doing clothes on a washboard and homemade washing machine outside in the barn when I was little. That was back in the 70s and early 80s. So she was still doing clothes that way. And that's what they used. They didn't use any Crisco or anything like that. They went to the farmer. They bought all kinds of beef fat. 13:38 You know, and they took a lot of the pig fat and stuff, made cracklings. There was a lot of things they cooked with and they would make soaps out of it too, just simple little soaps with some lime water.  So do you source your ingredients locally for what you make or do you actually grow or produce some of what you use to make your products? Right now I source locally and then I also work with a local family company that's based in Oregon. 14:06 who does a lot of my extra supplies, like if I need some coconut butter or if I need some colloidal oatmeal,  just a couple of extra little things that they, they're a small family business and I like to support them. They support me. So anything I can't get locally, I try to look out for the smaller businesses like that are near me to source any ingredients, but I try to keep the ingredients low, you know, low volume. 14:32 Because the more you put in there,  it just makes people think. But we're very transparent about our products, what's in them, what they do.  There might be some ingredients you never heard of,  like babesu oil.  Babesu oil is an old oil where it's similar to coconut oil. But some people are allergic to coconut oil or they're more sensitive skin. It doesn't tolerate coconut oil well. So I use a lot of babesu oil in my soaps, especially. 15:01 because it's made for sensitive skin. It's made for people that have,  know, that it's not so harsh as the coconut oil. So we'll use that. And, you know, in our ingredients on our website, we list each ingredient specifically, whether it's organic, whether it's raw and cold pressed or whatnot, and what it does for the skin, you know, what to look for, how it helps the skin, like the benefits of it as well. And then of course they can reach out with any. 15:29 you know, questions or concerns that we we have a direct contact out there on our website and it gives a little bit more detail, has our story on there.  But yeah, my goal is to try to utilize our local little companies around here to source our products and give them a high five and heads up, you know, and tag them in our post on social media and recommend them as well. 15:55 I am so glad you said that because a rising tide lifts all ships. know this.  Yes. So tell me what colloidal oatmeal is because I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. Colloidal oatmeal is like, oh, it's like your oats, like your ground oats. And it's finally ground in a way where it is so powdery to where when you mix it into any type of batter, you can. 16:22 It's very soft and it helps feed this, not only feed the skin, but it helps with any blemishes. It helps absorb and get into like areas for you have discoloration on the skin,  the acne scarring.  It's helped my melasma for sure.  You know, so it just kind of basically oatmeal in a way, just more finely. 16:49 a ground up to a powder form to where there when you mix it even into a balm or into a lotion of some sorts You can't even you cannot feel the grittiness at all Okay, thank you. I learned something new every time I do this podcast. I love it Do you guys do you do any kind of homesteading stuff Raven or is it just your business? It's just my business right now, but we're looking into doing the homesteading because we 17:18 When we first came to Idaho, know, trying to get to know the areas, the right school we wanted to put our daughter in. And now it's getting to the point of, okay, I need more, I need a bigger garden. You know, I need some chickens. I need some few goats and stuff like that. So I source a lot of my stuff from the farmers right now. But within the next two years, we're looking at getting more property to get, to be able to, you know, house a lot more animals and more sources. That way I can actually. 17:48 not only do vegetables but also herbs and ingredients and all the botanicals like the lavender that I use.  I do a lot of the botanical infusions with lavender, rose,  peony.  There's just so much. Calendula,  chamomile.  Those just benefit the skin so much and it's nice to add those into your soaps and it's also nice to add them into your like face creams and body butters. You get a little bit of the smell but you get all the... 18:16 natural minerals and the vitamins from those plants as well.  I have something small at the house right now, so sometimes I have to go out and store. Yesterday I was at a market, I had a farmer's market yesterday, and then after that market we went eat, and then I went to another market and purchased some fresh organic lavender, because I needed some to do some more refusions.  So I'm looking to get bigger that way, but I still want to keep the business a small business. 18:45 you know, incorporated like here. I, you know, I don't want to make it that big. I want to be able to be involved, you know, 24 seven consistently.  That's exciting. Um, I'm going to give you a minor suggestion for when you get your, your homestead. Okay. If,  there's a space where there's no animals that grows dandelions, you know, in the, in the lawn or in the weeds, yeah, the calendula.  Yeah.  Don't ruin that patch. 19:13 And the reason I say that is I tried dandelion coffee a few years back. The dandelion root, basically dig out the root and you break it into pieces and you roast it in the oven and it tastes like coffee in hot water.  That's amazing. I'm going to have to try that. Yes. But you don't want to let your dog, dogs or your cats go to the bathroom. Okay. 19:38 where the dandelions are because it's just, it's not, I don't want to eat dandelion. Yeah. Yeah.  I hear you about that. Yeah.  I get that. Yep. And we, um, we partner plant, like, you know, like with lavender, with, um, you know, different plants to keep everything more organic in the area. Cause we don't use any pesticides at all. So actually behind my home, there is some acreage. 20:06 a nice little old couple that lives there and they have some grassland out there that is an organic grassland where they grow a vegetable out there and I see them all the time at their tractor.  So it's nice to have someone out there that's doing like similar things we're doing in our yard. So I know that I don't have any pesticides around, you know, the area. Good. And then the other thing that I would say I would share because we learned this lesson yesterday. 20:36 If you have a long driveway at your new place when you find it, put up slow signs so that people will slow down. Oh yes. We lost a barn cat yesterday. Oh no.  Yeah. It showed up. I'm going to cry. It was a stray. It showed up here three days ago.  Orange Tabby, really friendly, really wanted to come in the house and we don't do house cats. We do barn cats.  he didn't.  She did not come in the house. 21:05 And I really was of two minds on this cat because she's so friendly. I wanted to get to know her. Well, I'm really glad I didn't because somebody pulled in our driveway too fast yesterday, we think, and hit her and broke her back end. My husband had to put her down. Oh, that's terrible.  Yep. And I didn't even know this cat and I had tears in my eyes. I was like, you know, this freaking cat was probably dumped by somebody who had her as a house cat. 21:35 She ended up here. We were totally fine having her join the barn cat brigade, as we call it. Yeah. And then up dead anyway. I'm like, you know, universe, could you just not do that? I know that then, you know, when that stuff like that happens, I have to explain to my daughter, you know, God needed them more than us, you know,  and their angels are sitting with our dog Riley and my dad, you know.  So my dad was a big hunter fisherman and he would he raised Labradors and had a garden and everything. 22:05 He taught us how to fish and hunt. He taught us how to do a garden. He taught us how to skin wild animals and cook them.  it's like that part of life. But definitely, yeah, that's hard, especially when people have kids.  It's like slow down in the driveways,  The kids don't just play in the backyard. They go out in the front, too. Yeah, I posted on Facebook and explained what happened and basically said, please slow down when you pull in our driveway. We have other cats and we have a dog. 22:35 You know? Yeah, definitely. Maybe that'll help. And we want people to come here. We have a farm stand and we are in we're going to be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes here next week. And we want people to come and get tomatoes, but just slow down a little bit. Yep. And one good thing about Idaho, I have to say the drivers here,  they're pretty good about, you know, not. 23:01 flying through neighborhoods, not flying down highways or even the freeway, they're pretty good about driving.  And most of them tell us, you know, the reason being is because they love the scenery and it's just a relaxing thing for them to go out for a drive.  So they really big on,  you're going to have your few, it's always going to happen.  But a lot, most of them are really big on, you know, just taking your time. You know, there's like, there's no rush. Like why rush? 23:29 You know, it's beautiful here. Slow down and just enjoy it.  Yes. And not everything has to be a hurry.  Society has become so fast. It's like we just need to take a breath and slow down. Stop and smell the roses and have some respect for other people's property.  And I'm not even necessarily mad about the situation yesterday. I'm just I'm very disappointed.  Yeah. And heartbroken. Yeah. Disappointed and heartbroken at the same time. 23:58 Little bit. I mean, this was a female orange tabby. There are very few female orange cats. They're usually male. Right. And I was like, yay, new genetics for the barn cat brigade. no, no new genetics for the barn cat. Our cats keep out the pests, guys.  And I think that's something else that people don't realize is that we don't have a bunch of cats for funsies. We have them because they keep the rodents down. Absolutely. 24:29 So yeah, when you take out a barn cat, that's one we have to replace.  And if we're lucky, we know people who have kittens and we get a couple every summer. But if we had to go get cats, it would be $50 a piece. It's Humane Society.  Yeah, absolutely. And then they want them in your house. When you adopt, they're like, oh, they need to be inside.  And it's like, let me just go find some people that had some kittens somewhere and just grab some cats and put them in the barn. Yep. 24:57 We're really lucky our humane society that's near us, they know that we're living in a very rural area.  So they have barn cats. They have cats that they don't really feel like would be a good indoor cat.  And they want them to be adopted to be barn cats, which is great. Absolutely good. Yep. They even when they post them on their website, they're like, this is a barn cat. This is not.  That's great. 25:26 And I've told the story a few times before, but I'll tell it again because you probably have not heard it.  We adopted a completely black male cat from the Humane Society when we moved here five years ago, six years ago.  And they warned us not to try to pet him because he was feral and he was mean and no one would ever be able to touch him. So my son at the time named him Satan, my son who's 24. 25:56 And he actually made friends with Satan. And now Satan is the loviest, friendliest cat with us. He comes right up, wants scritches. If you pick him up and put him against your shoulder, he'll drool onto your shirt because he loves being petted. So just because the Humane Society says it's a mean cat doesn't mean it's a mean cat. I agree with that sentiment, definitely. Especially a male. I find a lot of males are very lovable. 26:23 The females tend,  the female cats to me don't like to be touched as much or cradled as much.  And they usually attract like my husband, if we have female cats, they love him. They'll get on his shoulders, but they do not like my daughter and I to hold them at all.  They like to be petted, but that's about it.  We think that somebody was mean to Satan when he was younger. And we also think that he might've had an injury to his throat because 26:51 His meow is so rough.  It's so scratchy and low. It's like,  morning I go out with my cup of coffee on the porch and he's sitting there waiting because my husband will go out to feed him and I'm like, geez, do you not have another noise kid?  We think he probably had an injury to his throat and it messed up his voice. Well now he's getting all the love. Oh yeah, he's good. 27:18 He's a good boy. He might as well be a dog in a cat suit.  So let me know where people can find you please Raven online. You can find us on my website at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet dot com. We also have our Instagram page at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet and you can also find us on Facebook under Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  I also have I'm in the process of setting up 27:49 because we started so small in the process of setting up our business phone actually over the next few months. I've been so busy with the markets. I haven't like just sat down and set it up yet, but we do have our email system where anyone can email us at any time about our products, about if they want specific orders. I have a customer who is a vegan who does not like tallow products or goat milk in our product. 28:17 but I specifically make something tailored for her specifically and she'll order, you know, like loaves of soap and things of that nature for herself. And, you know, she's a very nice lady, just that's what she prefers. So I told her, I can, you know, I can work with you. we'll, we'll do custom orders as well. I love that. That's amazing.  So do me a favor before I let you go,  what run down, what products you make soap and 28:46 Yep, my biggest seller is soap,  mostly Tallo and Goat Milk Soaps.  We have them for adults, men, women, children.  My next in line is I'll do some face creams, some body butters. I also incorporated lotion bars this year because a lot of people I know travel and they love how they can just take a bar in its container, bring it in their purse or their luggage. 29:12 and all they have to do is warm it up between their hands to activate it. So I do a lot of lotion bars.  We do beard balms, beard oils,  facial soaps, specifically for the face for women and men, especially dealing with beards.  I'll do some organic vanilla extract that I get from local source, like 29:40 Organic vanilla beans as well as our organic vodka here locally.  That's basically the bulk of it that I use the most, but we're expanding a little bit, doing a little bit things at a time. Like we're looking into doing deodorant. I also have some soap curing for laundry detergent. I'm kind of getting into the cleaning aspect of it as well. So I'll be soon launching some laundry detergent. 30:08 Also like dish soap, dishwashing liquid,  that area. We're looking into that as well. So we'll be expanding a little bit on that side. And of course, my, well, my pantry side, my husband, you know, we're big, we make a lot of homemade tinctures and stuff. However, my husband's big on making his own seasoning and we're Cajuns from Louisiana. So he's actually perfecting a seasoning right now to kind of promote on the pantry side. Yeah, baby. All right. Um, 30:37 Better living through chemistry is what I say when it comes to all this stuff.  As always, people can find me at attenneyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Raven, thank you so much for your time.  And guys, go check out Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  Have a great day. Have a great day. Thanks. It's been a pleasure.  

Today I'm talking with Jennifer at Magnolia Morning Co.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:29 Today I'm talking with Jennifer at Magnolia Morning Company in Georgia. Good morning, Jennifer. How are you?  Good morning. I'm great. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather where you are?  Actually, it's a beautiful day. It's not so hot. We've had some really hot weather here in Georgia,  like scorching hot. But today is probably in the high 80s and it's calm. We might have some storms later on this afternoon. So it's a pretty nice day here. 00:58 Same here in Minnesota. Yesterday, it felt like September. It was 65 degrees for the high here.  That's beautiful. That's the perfect weather. think high 60s are the perfect temperature to me.  But then again, here lately, I'm cold and hot and cold and hot.  So I feel like I've got an internal thermometer that's going crazy all the time.  Yeah. It was a beautiful reprieve from the three weeks of tropical dew points we'd had before. 01:27 I bet, I bet.  We don't get that in Minnesota very often and my god was I reminded how much I hate humidity.  It's awful. So does my beautiful Australian shepherd dog. was dying.  She kept looking at me like save me and I'm thinking I can't save you. can't shave you. 01:53 I went to Michigan one time and got off the airplane up there and I immediately felt like I could breathe so much better. I was like, oh, the air is not heavy. It just feels wonderful. And I kept asking people, does it, is it like this all the time? Can you breathe? And the air feels, doesn't feel so heavy. And they're like, yeah, what are you talking about? You know, they just don't have a clue what it's like down here with all the humidity.  Yeah. 02:19 Like Minnesota is supposed to be like Michigan, but this summer has been ridiculous.  And I'm going to say it because I'm very excited about it. This heat that we've been having all summer has been wonderful for our gardens.  this week is tomato ripening week. The tomatoes are ripening in our garden.  Yes. Yes. My son has a little small garden as well, and he's been excited about his tomatoes.  So I can understand that. 02:48 I bet he doesn't have 190 plants getting ready to pop.  Holy cow, no. But if I would let him, he probably would.  He has a green thumb. I unfortunately have a black thumb.  I want to see things grow. I enjoy watching them grow. I especially enjoy, you know, fruits and vegetables, but I don't do well taking care of them. I don't. But he definitely has the gift of 03:16 My dad was really good with that. My dad could grow anything.  And my son has inherited that gene, I believe. So he grows beautiful things. He's got plants all throughout his room and a garden out here. And he takes care of all the flowers and all the things.  growing is a beautiful thing. a hundred, how many did you say? A hundred and eighty?  Over a hundred and ninety tomato plants in the garden.  Wow. That's impressive. 03:45 Yep. And our friends and neighbors will be very happy because they'll be buying canning tomatoes from us until probably mid September. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, we're excited because last two summers we haven't really had very many because the weather was not kind to us. So we've been waiting and crossing everything we have and holding our breath all summer to see how this crop did. And it's looking really, really good. We just brought in the first ripening. 04:14 They're not red yet. They're not ready to eat, but they are definitely blushed. So that's fantastic. Well, good for y'all. I'm glad it's going to be fruitful for you this year. I hope so. I hope so. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, Jennifer. Well, I am a mother of five and a grandmother to two. I have two little grand boys that are eight and four.  And I am 04:44 A full-time everything.  And I'm sure you know what that means,  but I'm a full-time mom, a full-time grandmother, a full-time worker. have a full-time job.  I've been working since I was 15 years old.  Work is just what I do.  I'm a worker bee.  Married to a wonderful man for almost 35 years who is also a worker bee.  And we just stay busy a lot. 05:14 you know, and there's always something to do or something to take care of or somewhere to be or some errand to go or some crisis happening. We seem to have a lot of crisis in our family. I don't know why that is.  but, you know, it's a lot of fires to put out a lot of a lot of the time.  So personally, that's that's me in a nutshell,  just busy all the time. And that is how Magnolia Morning Company came about. 05:44 I needed to slow down.  when I say needed, I mean mentally and physically needed to slow down. My body started screaming at me and I had some episodes of some medical things that made me take pause and go, okay,  I've got to quit stressing out so much.  I've got to calm this down. I'm a natural worrier. 06:13 My brain stays going all the time and I just think things through. think about every scenario and I think about it backwards and forwards and it mentally takes a toll on you, you know, and I didn't know how to shut that off. And I would, you know, be busy doing things for my family and taking them here and there and letting them do the things they enjoyed.  And when my husband, bless his heart, he almost works seven days a week. 06:42 When he gets a little time off, he goes to do some things that he enjoys with his friends.  And I'm standing around one day and I'm going, you know, everybody else is doing something and I don't really know what to do.  I don't know how to stop. don't know how to, I'm just, you know, nobody was in the house and I was there. I was, you know, cleaning the kitchen or mopping the floor or something. And I was like, Jennifer, just slow down.  Just stop. Just take a pause and just rest. 07:10 And I realized I didn't quite know how to do that.  And the more I thought about it and thought about it and had some conversations with my girlfriends and they were like, yeah, Jennifer, you stay going all the time and doing, need to slow down.  But I just didn't understand how I was supposed to do that. You know, and I've, guess I've grown up thinking that rest meant being lazy.  And that's kind of how I equated it for so long. 07:38 So I didn't, so when I stopped, when I would stop and try and rest, I felt guilty. And I felt like I didn't deserve to do that. There were other things calling my name that I needed to take care of this or do that or go somewhere and handle this. And it just became harder and harder for me to do. And so when I had these conversations with my friends and things and thought a lot about it and put some, some time thinking about it and reading about rest and relaxation, I realized, you know, 08:09 I need this.  I mentally need it, I physically need it, and it's okay. There's nothing wrong with rest.  And that I didn't have to have anybody else's permission to do that.  So I started trying to figure out what I could do when I rest. I that sounds crazy, but you know, sometimes it's hard just to sit still. And I didn't know how to sit still, but I also didn't know 08:37 really what I enjoy to do if I were to rest, if I were to find something that I wanted to do to entertain myself, to do something just for me, what would I do?  And so in thinking of all that, and I was talking to my husband one night and I was telling him about it and I said, you know, I said, I bet there's other people out there like me. I bet there are women that are my age and I'm in my early 50s and I bet there are women that 09:06 are like me that don't really know how to rest and don't know what to do when you rest and or even maybe don't even know what they like anymore because they've spent the entirety of their life taking care of somebody else, which is what I feel like I've been doing.  And not that I'm complaining. That's just, you know, what I did all my life. I took care of somebody, whether it be my parents or my children or my grandchildren or something.  And so 09:35 We were talking about it and I was like a light bulb went off and I thought, you know, why don't I put something together and share it with other women and let them know that it's okay if we rest, if we stop,  if we just take a pause,  if we just collect our thoughts or we just have some me time. It's so mentally important to have that me time. And I'm just now learning this because I've not 10:04 I've not done that my entire life. I've not done that.  I've always been a doer and a fixer and I wanted to make everybody else okay. I wanted to do whatever was necessary,  jump whatever hurdle there was to make somebody else's life easier.  And I didn't complain about that. That's just what I did. And I enjoyed it for many, many years. I enjoyed it.  And 10:33 But nobody ever stepped up to make my life better or easier. And I was starting to realize that maybe I needed some of that. You know, I needed somebody else to say, Jennifer, you don't have to fix this for me. Let me do something for you. Let me give you something. Let me help you take a pause. Let me make your life a little easier.  so long story short, that's where Magnolia Morning Company came from. 11:03 I wanted to give something to women to know that they can just take a pause,  that investing in their self is so utterly important that we can't give to anybody else until we give to ourselves first.  Because you can't give from an empty cup, can't pour from an empty cup.  And we do it most often. 11:27 We dip out of nothing and we take that lack of energy that we have and we take care of and we do for people all the time, every day. But we need to replenish that in ourselves.  So that's what this is about.  When I was little, I grew up for the lack of better terminology in the South and we were poor. And I don't remember living in a house that had running water. 11:57 I used an outhouse for many years as our bathroom.  And unfortunately, my parents were alcoholics.  so although they did not mistreat me in any way, but when they drank, mistreat or would mistreat each other. There was a lot of arguing and yelling and those kinds of things. So I spent a lot of time trying to hide. 12:26 per se and stay out of the way, not to cause any friction or problems.  And then I started my first attempt at trying to fix things for people, even when I was young, because I thought if I could do things for my mom and dad to make them happy,  then they would be nicer to each other and there wouldn't be any arguing that day or anything like that.  so when I would 12:56 try and hide and stay out of the way when they were, you know, drinking and not acting on their best behavior. I would go out to our front yard, which had this unbelievably big magnolia tree.  And I played under that magnolia tree. And I played, that was my home away from home. That was my spot. I climbed it. I played under it with all my cats. We had tons of cats in my house and 13:23 They were all outside cats, but I loved them. They were like my little kids.  We played store. played, you know, we rode, I rode bikes and put the cats in my little basket with me and rode around, you know.  But that magnolia tree was my home base. That was where I felt the safest. I took naps there.  I brought food out there. had picnics out there.  That was my calm. And so that's where. 13:51 the name came from for this business was because that was my calm space. If I had to think of any place in the world that was my calm space, that Magnolia tree was.  So that's where Magnolia morning came from.  Morning being just that each day is a new beginning.  And I wanted to project that in the name of my business.  So. 14:16 So with that said, put it all together and came up with this company and I want to give women permission every month to know that they don't have to have permission. want to give them the okay to say,  hey, you can just take a minute.  You can just stop what you're doing and you can just relax and enjoy something that is meant just for you. 14:42 You don't have to say, hey, do you mind if I go here? Or hey,  let me take five minutes here. Just do it. You've got something in front of you that's made just for you. I thought about it.  I've put these things together for women that I thought they would enjoy. And I want you to just take a pause. I want you to take 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, however long you want to, whether it's the first thing. 15:11 every morning or or if it's late in the evening after everyone goes to bed or or I don't know when you come home from work and you just want some downtime whenever it's convenient for you. I want you to carve some time out and I want you to open that box and I want you just to enjoy some of the things that I've put in there.  And that's what Magnolia Morning Company is about. 15:36 Very nice.  what will the people, what will the women get when they sign up for this? Well, every month is going to be different, of course, but there will be some few things that are staples.  I want to include some things that I enjoy,  like I have to say, I'm a coffee drinker.  Do you drink coffee?  Yeah,  coffee just calms me a little bit.  so 16:07 I'm gonna include some coffee in your box every month.  And because I also enjoy some hot tea, I'm gonna include that as well.  So you can try it. And it's probably gonna be some things that maybe you've never tried before, but I want you to be adventurous and I want you to try it one time and see what you think.  So each month you're gonna have something to drink, okay? And then you're also something that's gonna be a staple every month is you're gonna get a new scent of a beautiful candle every month. 16:37 I don't know if people realize how calming scents can be to you, but I can light a candle in a room and then walk by and smell that. And then all of a sudden just take a deep breath and go, you know. So I want you to be able to enjoy that each month. And I've taken a lot of time to smell hundreds of candles.  Matter of fact, I went one time to a store that sells 17:05 candles and lotions and stuff with my son.  And we were in there for over an hour and he looked at me when we left. said, mama, I think you smelled every scent in there. I said, I did.  And he said, and you bought only one thing. And I said, yep.  I said, because that's the only scent that resonated with me. Everything else, it didn't do anything for me. I wanted to do something for me. So I smelled of them all, you know? And he just laughed. He said, I've never met anybody like you before, mama. 17:35 I that's okay, you've got a unique mom.  But I've smelled of all these scents and all of them did something for me and I hope they'll do something for everybody else too. But I want you to be able to get this box every month and I want you to find your favorite cozy place,  wherever that is. For everybody, I'm sure it's different. It could be your front porch, it could be your back porch on a screen porch, it could be inside in your bed, it could be in a... 18:02 a chair or a rocker or wherever, or even in your front lawn, know, wherever is comfortable for you, that you feel the most relaxed.  And I want you to just open this box and I want you just to read and enjoy and experience everything that's in it. Um,  along with something to drink and something beautiful to smell.  want to include, um, a craft per se.  Um, 18:29 We're not talking something that you've got to go buy supplies for and all those things. Anything you need to do this craft is going to be included.  I want to make it easy for you. But I think women sometimes forget that doing things like being crafty can be fun.  If you've raised kids, you know that sometimes being crafty comes with school projects and last minute things and it gets frustrating and nobody wants to have to do all those things. 18:58 So sometimes we get a little bit of a bad taste in our mouth about being crafty. But I used to, years ago, own a business where I went around and did signs for people. We did craft parties where you made your own wooden sign for home decor in your house. And the number of women that told me they had no idea they would enjoy that was amazing. Every party we had, had women that would say, 19:27 I didn't know I'd enjoy doing this. I didn't know I would enjoy painting and staining and doing all these things.  And it's because we just don't take time. We don't take time to experience some of the things in life that are out there because we're so busy doing for somebody else.  So that's the purpose of having some type of craft in here is because I want you to experience the joy of making something for yourself and being able to see it and use it and experience that downtime. 19:55 And then there are going to be some other things in boxes that are going to come,  you know, one of the things that you're going to get in a box is a journal to use. Now I know not everybody journals and I know there are going to be some women out there that go, I don't want a journal. I don't, I don't write. I don't spend time writing. And that's okay.  I've never been a consistent journaler either.  But one thing I have learned is that if I take the time to write down some thoughts, 20:25 I can one,  possibly see my thought process a little clearer.  And two, when I go back and read it, I understand a little better about where my mind was at the moment.  So it gives me some clarity that I may not always have had.  So I encourage women to use a journal.  I don't mean you have to put an entry in it every day or every time you do something,  but I would encourage women to use it when 20:55 maybe they feel a little conflicted or maybe even a little sad or down about something or confused or whatever. just, would encourage them to write their thoughts down and maybe go back at certain times and reread them. And I think it'll give you some clarity that you didn't know you could get from writing words on a piece of paper.  I've always been a writer. I've enjoyed writing. I used to write poetry. 21:22 I wrote poetry for a calligraphy company and had greeting cards from my poems. And the joy that I could see people getting from getting a card with a poem that I wrote on it is just wonderful.  I like to make other people happy.  And words sometimes can make people happy.  Sometimes people need to hear things they don't realize they need to hear.  I just did a video the other day about grief. 21:51 And I know that's not something that people talk about every day, but I had had some close friends lose someone that meant a lot to them. And I wanted to let them know that it was okay to grieve because they were having some conflicting thoughts about,  I know I feel like I need to be okay for everybody else and maybe not cry in front of somebody. And I wanted to let them know that that's okay. That's part of life. It's the way we do.  words mean a lot to people. 22:18 and they can heal, they can hurt,  but they can also give you clarity.  And so hence the reason behind the journal.  And there's gonna be some other things in and out of boxes that I think will be special editions. There's another special edition in the first box that I think is gonna be delightful that I didn't realize I needed to put in the box. And I don't wanna tell you exactly what it is, because I don't want to spoil any surprises for anybody, but it's, 22:48 It's kind of funny. I'll tell a story about it once the box comes out, but it's something that after I did it, I was like, I would have never thought in million years I would put this in for other women to enjoy, but I've actually really enjoyed it because everything that I put in the box, I test out myself. I do myself. I see how it makes me feel and do I get some joy from it? Do I enjoy it? Does it feel easy enough? Does it feel simple enough so that people can enjoy having that downtime? 23:17 And so this particular thing I did and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it and how much it made me smile. And I hope that's the kind of reaction that women get from this particular item as well.  so yeah, so that's kind of the things that I want the box to be for other women. I just want it to be your monthly pause that you, you get that it's 23:44 you know, been sent directly to you, for you, about you, not to share with anybody else, not to let your kids go through and look at it go, oh, I want to do this with you. I want to take care of this. No, I want you to do it. I want you to experience it. I want you to know that I set and thought about you when I put these things together. And I thought about what women as a whole needed or wanted to experience that they don't get to do on an everyday basis. 24:15 So yeah, that's a little bit about the box.  I call it the reset box because I want it to be a reset for you. I want you to just take that time and be calm,  collected,  enjoy, maybe giggle a little bit,  maybe make some mistakes or do something funny or write something down that you hadn't thought about.  And I just want you to have that experience. I want you to know that you're worth it and you deserve it. 24:44 and we should start taking control of our time a little better to reset our minds and our hearts and our soul. So yeah, that's about the box. 24:58 Sure.  So everything that I put in the box,  I test out.  I try to get the experience that you would have open in the box and doing these things because I want to know what it's like because if it's not going to be enjoyable, I don't want to put it in the box because I want you to have items that bring you joy,  that bring you some comfort, bring you some peace and some relaxation.  yeah, so I've, you know, 25:25 put something in the box that I would have never put in, ever thought in a million years, I would have put that in there.  But in doing it, I found some calm and some sense of accomplishment. And I found myself smiling and I was super proud of what I had done. And I was like, huh, I should have been doing this more often. I don't know why I haven't thought about that I could do this.  It wasn't hard. It was one of the most simple things I'd ever done. 25:53 And I think I had overcomplicated it in my head and I was super proud. So I'll certainly tell that story once everybody gets a box.  But, it's gonna seem so simple and so silly, but you you just, you learn things about yourself.  I think that's another thing about the reset box that I want people to experience is maybe learn a little more about some likes, some dislikes, some things that you didn't know whether you would enjoy or not. 26:23 maybe taste some things that you might not would have normally tasted.  I just want it to be a great experience for women. I want it to be just for you. I want it to be nothing that you share.  You don't even have to tell anybody about it if you don't want to. Let it be your box.  Somebody says, hey, what did you get? Just nothing. It's for me. Don't worry about it. But just take it somewhere and find some time. 26:48 to enjoy, even if you can't do it all at one time, break it up into minutes, know, 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and just have some good, good old fashioned me time. Enjoy. And then I'd love to hear what everybody thought about it and what you liked, what you didn't necessarily like, what you'd like to see more of, what you'd like for me to include. I'm always up for suggestions.  But I just want it to be a fun time, just a little time out for women to enjoy. We are so busy. 27:17 all the time doing the things and we deserve to have some me time. So that's what the box is about.  love this Jennifer and it might seem a departure from my podcast to be talking with you but I don't think that it is because women who are running their own businesses or their own homesteads or their own farms they're busy and they're tired and yes my piece is I get up early on purpose I'm usually up at 4 a.m. 27:47 so that I can get up and get a cup of coffee and go sit out on my little porch with the windows open,  drink my coffee and listen to the crickets sing in and watch the crickets come up and hear the birds start to sing.  That's my piece.  And my husband said the other day, said, do you get enough sleep? And I was like,  But you're up at four every day. And I was like, because I need to start my day this way. 28:16 It's the only real ritual that I have. And he was like, but if you slept till six, and I'm like, I can't sleep till six.  I feel like you're giving people a ritual starting place.  Right. Right. Right. A little bit of a purpose. You know what I mean? And I know that sounds a little crazy because women have so many things they consider their purpose. 28:46 but we are a priority and we don't take enough time to realize that.  And it's so important to put back in what you need to put out.  And that's what I want this box to be. I just want it to be a little bit of encouragement for you to stop and pause and enjoy some things and know that I have 29:16 I have put together these items because I want to see you smile. I want to see you enjoy. I want to see you take that deep breath and go,  that was fun. I enjoyed that.  So those are the things that I want for women. I so want women to feel included and purposeful, not just for somebody else, but for themselves. And we are 29:46 Our women are built strong. We are some very strong women.  We have broad shoulders to hold up most anything that comes at us.  But we also need to relax those shoulders too. We need to let them drop and just take that deep breath and just go, what do I need?  What can make me feel a little better? What can give me some pause and some relaxation? 30:14 because we worry about everybody else so much we don't think about us. So yeah, so I'm hoping everybody gets that from the box.  I'm sure that they will.  This sounds like something that would be a great present for a woman. Yes. Yes. So I know you have a waiting list on your website because you're not quite ready to launch until September. Right. So if a husband or a partner wanted to sign their 30:43 their wife or their partner up, they can just sign up for the waiting list? They absolutely could. And I want to tell you, your wife would think you were the best person in the world if you gave them this gift. Because, you know, it means you stopped for a minute, you thought about what they needed.  And women just want to know that you thought about us, that you think about what we need and put our needs first sometimes.  So yeah, it would be a perfect gift. 31:10 for your wife, your sister, your aunt, your mom even.  But right now you can go to, excuse me, magnoliamorningco.com and you can put your name on our wait list. It's actually only gonna be just a couple of weeks before we open the doors for you to purchase.  But if you're on that wait list, you're gonna get first dibs. I have a limited number of boxes to send out this first time. 31:39 And I want you to be one of them, to be able to get one. So that would be the quickest way is to get on that wait list and to know that you've got the information right there in front of you because I'm going to send it to the wait list before I send it to anybody else.  yeah.  Exciting.  I'm so tickled that you're doing this. And I know why you're doing this. As the adult child of two alcoholics,  you were taught to please people. 32:09 and think about other people. And you're taking something that started from a bad situation and reclaiming it for something good. I'm so proud of you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you so much for inviting me here today. I didn't realize that I would enjoy this as much as I did, but I enjoy telling the story and encouraging other women to take time for themselves because it's so very important. 32:35 It really is. And we forget, and especially the moms that are still in the trenches raising little kids.  You ladies have got to find time for yourselves, even if it's only, I don't know, half an hour. If you miss half an hour. I've told this story before, I'm gonna tell it again before I let you go.  There's 12 years difference between my oldest and my youngest. My oldest is 36 and she's a girl. My youngest is going to be 25. 33:05 in December. So he was a newborn and she was 12 when I brought him to hospital.  She's the only girl out of four kids.  And once he got to the point where he wasn't quite so fragile, you know, wasn't so new,  she was really good with him. She would change his diapers if I needed to use the bathroom, she would hold him. 33:31 She was a really good big sister. He sees her more as an aunt than a sister. Right.  when he was about two, I was really tired. Four kids is a lot in that band.  one day I just looked at her and I said, I just need, I need half an hour. Do you think you could handle half an hour with him? So I just go read a book or something for 20 minutes. And she was like, of course we'll play Legos. 34:01 I was like, okay.  So it was Duplo's not Legos, Duplo's are the big fat Legos. Yeah.  They had a blast and I got to go crawl into a book I'd been dying to start for two years and I got a chance to breathe. You have to, you have to ask for help. And I didn't feel bad asking her cause she adored him, but it's a really weird thing when you have spent your life being strong and independent as a woman. 34:29 And you just finally hit that wall where you're like, I just need 10 minutes. Yeah. And it's hard for women to do, think. It's always been hard for me to ask for help.  I have never, ever wanted to ask anybody for help because I did not because I didn't want help, but because I didn't want to inconvenience somebody else.  I didn't want to burden somebody else with what I had going on. So I would just try and do all the things.  And I got into overload really quick.  You don't. 34:58 you know, as you know, you don't raise five kids and not be an overload at some time.  so, so yeah, so, you know, I guess maybe the box can be that little bit of help.  It comes to you, you hear your front door to just say,  take a minute,  here's something for you. You know, just take a minute and enjoy and relax. Lord knows women need to relax a little bit. We're so busy, but. 35:24 It's funny that you said that about your kids because my kids are 10 years apart. My first two are 10 years apart.  So, so I know exactly how that is.  That relationship that they have. And then my other ones are kind of stair-stepped.  But,  but yeah, so my kids are arranged from 34 to 15.  And, but those teenage girls I got, got two teenage girls and I'm going tell you those, whoo, if I'd had those two teenage girls at the same time first. 35:54 I don't know that I'd had any more children because those girls are wearing me out.  It's so funny. My daughter was the easiest of the four, I swear to you. 36:06 Yeah, those girls are something else.  That's awesome. That's awesome. All right.  So where, where can people find you Jennifer online? Is it magnolia morning company.com?  Right. It's Magnolia morning co co and then.com and, um, uh, feel free to, um, ask any questions. can always email me at hello at magnolia morning co.com. I'll be happy to answer any of questions that you have. 36:35 But probably in the next, I don't know, 10, 12 days,  we'll be opening the doors.  Because I want you to get your first box in September.  And I want you to start enjoying some of the things that I've put together for you.  So yeah, I'd love to talk to anybody and love to get some feedback once people get some boxes of what you think and what you like.  I am so excited for you. I can't wait to see how this new project turns out. 37:03 Thank you. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed talking to you today. I enjoyed talking to you too. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Jennifer, have a great weekend. Thanks. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farms in Montana.  Good afternoon, Morgan. How are you? Good afternoon. I am doing wonderful. I mean, it's 100 degrees here, but we haven't melted quite yet. Well, I'm glad you haven't melted. And in Minnesota,  it is, I can tell you exactly what the temperature is because I'm sitting here holding my phone.  77 degrees right now feels like 77.  Can I switch you? You come here and I'll go there. 00:56 No, I'm sorry. I can't do that because we had two weeks of dew points that were tropical and temperatures above 90.  This break we've had has been beautiful. Yeah, I thought I moved up to Montana for it to not be Arizona weather, but here we are, 100 degree weather.  I mean, it literally raises, you know, 10 degrees as you're watching it, you know, the time. So if it's seven o'clock in the morning, it's 70 degrees and outside 80 at eight. It's just wild. 01:25 em I'm shocked.  I understand because  I don't remember a time in my 30 years of living in Minnesota two weeks of that kind of heat and humidity. It's crazy. We've had high humidity here too, which is out of dorm, know, but it's destroyed crops out here. Hay is  astronomical. can't even,  I four times as much. I'm just like, all right, well. 01:53 I thought Montana grew a little bit better hay and wheat,  we just haven't gotten the moisture. It's been really humid outside, but the rain is like coming later in the year. We normally don't get a lot of rain this month, but we have and it's way hotter than normal. Yeah, I don't like it. I would like things to go back to the night to 19. Honestly, if I'm being real, I'd like things to go back to 1985.  You know, 02:21 I have heard that a few times that like the early 1980s to early 90s was like the time to be alive. I wasn't alive until 1994.  So I missed that whole fun part.  Yeah, I was like 15 or 16 in 1985 and I hated school, but I loved my life in general at that age. So it would be nice to revisit it.  Yeah. You know, everyone said I was going to need all that, you know, all that school I was learning and like, well, I needed some of it, honestly. 02:50 wish I would have just started farming sooner. I understand why some kids would just drop out and go farm instead.  Yes. And don't get me wrong. I loved my teachers. I loved learning. I didn't like the social aspect of it at all. Yeah, that's right. Because like I'm a social butterfly and over the years I've learned you're kind of a homebody hermit.  like to be your space. I have been shy and quiet my whole entire life. I have been an extreme introvert and 03:18 I tell that to people in real life and they're like, no, you're not. And I'm like, you have no idea how hard I have to work to be social.  You and my husband are scup from the same cloth. Let me guess your husband's a bubbly extrovert. He is most of the time. Yeah. See, that's funny. Opposites definitely attract. So he does your farmers markets, doesn't he? He's the one that goes and sets them up.  Yes, he's very good at it. That's right. He was growing cabbage. How did that go? 03:45 That was our last podcast. talked about the cabbage and lettuce. it was. Yeah, it was cabbage. I think he's sold every single head of the cabbage he's taken so far this summer. See, it was smart of him to up his cabbage amount, but that's because you guys tracked your numbers and you knew what you guys were going to sell. We just started doing farmers markets and I've learned from what you guys told me.  Well, you specifically, because I talked to you, not your husband. Well, you talked to him through me, but yes. 04:13 Yeah, of course, you know, and he he had tracked his numbers. So he went three times as many as that. Correct.  I think so. Yeah. See, so I track my milk  and I've been making goat cheese  and I started making goat caramel also.  And it's been helping. So this week I had to have like a break because of the extreme heat.  get issues with the milk  animals in general. 04:40 you know, cows or goats. They just have a really hard time with the heat. It kind of bogs down their immune system.  It's also been really wet, which is like typical intestinal worm season. So we've just been kind of working through that and at a later time.  So we had to take two weeks off and man, I felt it. I felt it in our wallet. I felt it. You know, I was like, I can't wait until you're back in milk. So I ended up buying a second milk goat just to try and keep up with the demand that were. 05:08 already having our first year at this Red Lodge Farmer's Market. Mm-hmm.  So you said you're making caramel? Yes, it's called Kahita and it's a goat caramel. Yeah. It's so good. I sold out  in my first 30 minutes when I took it to the first uh Red Lodge Farmer's Market. I was selling pints for 15. I'm going to up them to 20 just because supply and demand. It takes one whole gallon of milk, you know, to make six uh 05:38 I think they're half pints. Sorry, not full pints. They're half pints. it's it renders down really far. But  I  added in cinnamon sticks to the  first half instead of adding an actual ground cinnamon this time.  And I like figured out my own recipe. Like, know, you kind of take a base recipe, tweak it a few times. So this was my first time taking it out. And I did free samples and everyone who tried it bought  a 06:07 bought a half pint of it. I even had two roommates and they were like, I'll fight you over it. They were going to just split it for their coffee. And they're like, no, I'll fight you over it. They were younger and they were real funny. So they ended up each buying a half pint and they wrote their names on them  so they could keep them separate because it was so good.  Uh huh. And the thing is not very, I mean,  I am ruining this. Sorry. Let me try that again.  That thing  is Kehita or Kaheda, however you say it. Yeah.  Is  unusual. 06:35 not a lot of people make it.  it is definitely a supply and demand thing. And I would pay $20  for a half pint of that because I'm only going to do it  once a year and I'm going to enjoy it.  And a lot of the people that go to this Red Lodge Market, it's a tourist town.  So a lot of them are traveling. So a lot of the people, it's almost 06:59 I mean, there's a lot of normal  farmers markets where they're not in tourist towns that I could go to, but my booth is $15 there. And so it's a very affordable booth  and you constantly have a new crowd and  every  Saturday during the farmers market, they have some type of event that's either going on before it. have Zuma this weekend and a car show, or they're doing like something after like they did Shakespeare in the park last weekend or the weekend before that. 07:29 Like they do this really cool. If you look it up, you'll laugh. It's called the Iron Horse Rodeo out there. And it's a bunch of bikers that are doing the barrel racing and all those types of events, but on their motorcycle. So you get a new crowd every week and they have, they all have different things they're looking for.  Or, you know, you're attracting a crowd that's maybe not used to some of the things that you're in the farmer's market doing. So having an item like I have, and also offering Chev. 07:56 um, which is just goat cheese. I didn't know that it's any type of goat cheese. I didn't realize that until after I started making it,  um, was one of those things that it's a niche, not a lot of people are doing it.  And so  I had people showing up, you know, from an hour away just to buy goat cheese from me because it was closer than where I'm at in Laurel. So it's honestly opening up to a whole new 08:22 I guess you could say atmosphere of folks, right? Like I'm getting to see a different market every week. So I feel that tracking my numbers is really important. So I'm able to kind of watch all those different things, you know, because the Iron Horse rodeo, I didn't sell any goat cheese. I didn't have um a lot of the products that I had because my goat was taking a break, but I'm almost glad I didn't because of the fact that, you know, we... 08:50 I wouldn't have sold them. Nobody asked for them. I talked about them, but everyone was like, oh, goat cheese. There's this like weird stigma around Shev, around Kehita, um and goat milk in general. So it's one of those things. I mean, we've talked enough times about it. I'm very passionate about it. I'm very passionate about kind of breaking the stigma because goat milk is going to be something with the way hay prices are going that I think we're going to start seeing a lot more of because it's almost unattainable to raise a dairy cow. 09:20 Yes, I have talked to a few dairy people in the last few weeks and it is becoming impossible to get in to dairy work unless you are part of a dairy family right now.  Correct. I've actually been looking at expanding into a dairy cow because I'd like to make my own cream cheese with goat milk, but it doesn't produce enough fat. It doesn't render enough. I actually went to my friend, so I want you to talk to her because it's really cool. She does dairy sheep. 09:51 Yes.  The sheep milk is so good. was 40 % cream in it.  40%. Yeah.  And it tasted just like goat milk.  Like goat milk tastes just like cow milk. People are so shocked when I give them these analogies, but that's the reality of it is that it just tastes like milk, right? But I think we all have these weird stigmas about them. So I'm excited to hear that more people are looking in other ways to provide dairy for the community. 10:20 Because you are right. The fact is, is that if you're not already a part of a dairy family, it's really hard or you have to go buy these young bottle calves and you have to travel states like my friend Hannah  Jones, who I encouraged her to talk to you also out here. She drove all the way to Oregon in the beginning of the spring and picked up these dairy calves and she got three heifers. She bought the whole group so she could get the heifers and she paid. 10:48 I don't know, $450 or something. I have no idea. But then she had a bottle feed them. So by the time this is said and done in these heifers or bread, they're going to be worth over, you know, her time alone, probably three or four grand, I would assume, with the way Hayes going before you even can breed them.  And if she got them at that lower price, she made out like a bandit because they are so expensive right now. Well, and I think she got them that low because they went through an auction and they were bottle calves. 11:14 They're bottle dairy calves and a lot of people if you don't have dairy cows to feed  the babies that you're bottling You know that you're feeding through the bottle. It's really expensive. So like  I think since last time we talked did I had I gotten into full-size dairy goats?  I Don't remember. I don't think so. don't think so. So I actually sold my whole herd of Nigerian dwarfs by the way Yes, yes all of them except for one princess Diane because she's just gonna live with me forever. She's my 11:43 She was a party goat. just, she's very sweet. I love her. And she's kind of goofy, right? So you always have one. 11:51 Yeah, she's your goat friend. Yeah, she's my goat friend. Like, literally, right? So I kept her around, but I bought bottle babies this year and I could not believe how much milk these little bottle goats drink. I was like, I almost need my own personal dairy cow just to feed these little guys.  And it could have been justified because I had three gallons a day of goat milk that are the red cat milk that I was going through every single day. 12:20 gallons for like, I don't know, 10, 12 weeks of that. If you do the math, man, was definitely an eye-opener for bottle babies  on goats and the cost of them and what really goes into it. How often do they have to be fed, Morgan? So it depends. You can go from, well, in the beginning, if they're on their dam, it's quite often, but most people will feed them three times a day. But bottle goats... 12:48 can get something called floppy kid syndrome because the ruminant kind of like cows. So you have to let them digest all of their milk. So I'd kind of look at them and see where they were at. Because we called it the milk zone. Like you do not want them to go into the milk zone. Milk zone means death is upon them because they're starting to curdle the milk in their stomach before like it's not emptying fully because they'll curdle it naturally. But they're not able to digest all of it before new milk goes on top of it. 13:15 which then means they're just making large amounts of essentially cheese in their stomach. So  you typically feed them in the beginning three times a day unless they're hogs. So like my Lamatra boar crosses, which is a meat and dairy cross, um they eat a ton. And they were the ones that tried to go into the milk zone as we called it, because they're just hungry all the time. Now my other goats... 13:40 Some of them would eat, like my purebred Lomacha, some of them would eat three times a day religiously. Some of them would skip a meal during the day, in the beginning. That's the first like three weeks of their life. Then you wean them twice a day. And then if you're showing them, some people will keep them on a bottle all the way up until they're six months because you don't want going, you do not want them going through what they call the ugly stage where they become gangly, they go through the stress of being weaned, their body grows a bunch more because they're bringing in a different type of nutrition. 14:09 from grains and grasses and weeds. So it kind of just depends on whoever is kind of running their own system and it's going to be highly based off the goats.  So kind of a loaded question.  It depends on the goats and where they're at in the milk zone.  So three times a day, ideally, some of them need it four times a day,  smaller meals, but we just try to keep it to a solid three and we would give them cold milk because they won't drink too much cold milk to become in 14:38 like to go into the milk zone. It's so cold that it cools them down and they have to stop drinking it to be able to warm their body up. Therefore they're not going to over consume. So we learned that like two weeks into it to stop warming up their milk and it helped quite a bit. Good.  Awesome.  So, um,  I want to jump in real quick and open up the discussion to, to shopping local for your produce and your meat because 15:06 You've been sick with something, a tummy bug.  A of people I've been talking to have been sick with things.  And I just heard on the news yesterday that there was a recall on eggs because of salmonella. And so I really want to encourage people to buy locally because a lot of the stuff that's happening is from the bigger producers.  And if you're buying locally,  you're not likely to run into as many problems. 15:37 Correct. Yeah, absolutely. So I've always been a big  supporter of cottage farms, right?  And that's something why I got into the Red Lodge Market was because there's a lot of bartering as producers that goes on. Like we bartered,  you know, I've bartered for Native American jewelry. I've bartered for, you know, gluten-free bread while I've been there with my cheese products. And when you're shopping locally, even as a producer, because I know a lot of producers are listening to your podcast. 16:06 there's room for bartering, which as most of us know, bartering is the way of life when you're a farmer because we're all poor, we have no money, but we have a lot of items and things and goods and skills, right? And so  as a producer, it benefited me to have the barter system that's right there at my fingertips.  And when you're shopping locally, you're helping us as a producer to continue to do what we're doing because when your food chain is local to you, instead of it being 16:34 you know,  a mass scale one like Walmart, if there's a trucking issue, which we've seen trucking issues, plenty of us, I know in Montana, we see it because of the weather, there's a gap in the community food chains, right? So you're depending on someone that's not local,  therefore it's coming in, and it's not as good when it's a large scale also, such as we've seen with the lettuce issue that's going on. 16:56 You don't know your products as well, right? Like you're not hands-on, your family's normally not eating it. If you're a big producer, maybe they are, but I know a lot of those  places, have heavy regulations. So a cottage farmer, it  is gonna heavily depend on your guys' area and the laws in Montana, the Freedom Food Act made it to where producers could produce a lot of stuff and they just had to pay a fee and then submit their recipes. 17:24 So when you're buying from cottage farming markets specifically, you're able to get in season vegetables and fruits, which is really important because we stopped eating in season. And that's why you run into a lot of these issues. There's seasons where certain parasites flourish on certain products.  And typically you're running into somebody that's going to be quality checking their own items. So we drink our own. 17:51 Right. I eat my own cheese. I eat my own caramel. I do all of that. So I'm always quality, you know, quality checking. To give you an example  is if you're at a farmer's market, there's typically going to be somebody with milk products. There's a lady at our farmer's market and she always has the biggest line. She grows the best produce and she's able to sell it locally. Now it is going to be a little bit more expensive, but you're paying for a higher quality food that has had somebody. 18:20 that is actually tending to it. They're aware of the inputs and outputs. So there's a lot of strengths when you're going to be buying from a farmer's market. Not only is the money staying in your community directly, because people that are buying from the farmer's market, you're normally within a hundred mile radius. So your money then is gonna stay there because most cottage farmer producers are very... 18:44 I guess we're smart, right? Like in the sense that we're gonna find where can we find our fertilizer locally? Where can we find an alternative? What does it look like during this season for  parasites or bugs that are gonna tear apart your lettuce or they're gonna tear apart  corn specifically?  And when you have that type of quality control, your product is typically going to be fresher. So instead of the tomatoes being shipped to Walmart and they're green, 19:14 and they're not even ripe, you're getting a red fresh tomato that has all the nutrition in it and is not gonna mold as quickly.  Like, I don't know about you, but my strawberries, if I get it from a big box store, they mold within two days because there's no nutrition. I don't even buy strawberries from grocery stores anymore. I don't either.  I refuse to because of that fact that it started molding. That's when I really started looking outwards because we, I mean, me and my husband are pretty... 19:43 well, educated in organic living soil, how plants are gonna fruit, where the nutrition is in the plant at that time, what is that gonna do for the product that you're getting and vice versa, right? So we've done kind of that. So when I started seeing the strawberries mold right away, because it's my son's favorite fruit, right? So it's something that he'll eat a whole canister of and when sitting, I was like, well, this is a problem because that means there's no  nutrition for the mold to, know, for the organisms or the bacteria that's on it. 20:13 to eat that it's just molding right away because there's nothing in it. It's just, it looks like a strawberry, but they don't even taste like strawberries anymore. They just taste kind of fluffy, right? Like air. And so one of the things that I understood from that was that these are unripened strawberries that are being sent to us and it doesn't have the same nutrition value as if it was right on the vine. Yep.  Exactly. The other thing is you were saying that uh a lot of the stuff at farmers markets might be a little bit more expensive. 20:43 How many times have you bought stuff at the grocery store and not even bothered to eat it because it wasn't very good and it just gets tossed? Oh, so many times. We just sold my son's pigs because he wants to move to a smaller one. And I'm so bummed because I don't have I don't have anything to help. You know, get rid of this waste. So now the waste is even more on my mind, right? Because I'm like, wow,  I. 21:08 can't even really justify it if it goes bad right away. It still is upsetting to me, but I'm like, well, at least the pigs can get it. And then later on, the pigs would have fed us, right? But now  there's nothing there. So now I'm even more attentive to this fact. So like I'm meal prepping so that I know what I need to get when I go to the farmer's market. And that's something that I'm encouraging people to do too, is that you have to... 21:32 You have to meal prep. There's more work that goes into buying from our farmers market, but the quality of products that you'll be getting is way higher.  and  if you're doing that, you're valuing what you're buying and you're going to eat it. Correct. Yeah. So there's a lot of there's a lot of love that goes into that plant. And I believe the energy is not lost despite anyone's religious belief or whatever. I just know the energy is not lost. It's been proven. Right. So if you 22:02 love these plants that you're taking care of the product that comes back from it is a lot better. I love my goat pearl. When I went away for two days, my husband had  one hell of a time with her. Let me tell you, she did not want to let down her milk. She won't do all that. My husband loves her, right? That it wasn't a love issue in that it was that it was out of her routine. But when I'm there, she knows that I love her so much that she produces a lot more milk. And it you know, it's not that I'm doing anything different than my husband. 22:32 But I have that feminine touch. I'm going to sing to her. sing about how she's so great and she produces milk, right?  And then I stroke her back just the right way because she doesn't like to be scritched with manhand. She wants, you know, gentle touches and stuff like that. And so that's where I believe that even applies with plants. They've done studies on talking negatively to a plant and what it does and talking positively to that plant and what that also does. Right. So. 22:59 At a farmer's market, you're not getting the same type of product. It's not just some worker, maybe even a migrant worker, because they work a lot of them, that is being treated poorly and below human standards because they don't make the same wages and all this stuff, right? Because corporation is about greed and money. Where at a farmer's market, you're dealing with someone's family and their income and typically they're the ones tending to it or their employees are highly valued because they're the backbone of that farm still running. 23:25 So you're just, getting a different quality of product all the way down to the energy that goes into it.  Yes. And the other thing about this is that when  our tomatoes start coming in, Morgan, please say a prayer or send a smoke signal or something that our tomato plants  stay as good as they are right now. Cause we have a hundred and over 190. Wow. the garden  and they've all set fruit. have all got tomatoes. That's so awesome. Like, wow. 23:56 when they start  reddening up, my husband obviously will be selling them at the farmer's market. But the other, cool thing about this is  if he sells out, he will be here on Sundays for people to just come and  ask him to pick, you know, however many they need for candy. See, and that's, that's where it's at. Like that, making a community, being 24:23 Involved in your community when you have a community chain. That's really tight like a farmers market There's not months of delay for trucks coming in somebody can just go to the house because hey I don't I sold out on Saturday, but please come and like I think that you pick it is smart I brought that up a few times people are looking for things to do that Kind of get two birds stoned at one time right like they can take the kids there go pick some tomatoes and now they have fresh tomatoes because we all know 24:51 The economy is a little struggling right now. I mean, I'm not really into looking at the news and all that stuff and watching stuff, but I can feel it. Like my dollar doesn't go as far. So if I could go pick some tomatoes with my son, that is such a cool experience. And it's not something you get to do every day. Kind of like, you know, we still do the goat parties and we still do the events.  And that's something that is valuable to people.  want what they can't. 25:20 have at their own home. So many people are stuck in a rental situation. So if they can go out to your house and pick a tomato, man, that's a different, that's out of their norm, you know what I'm saying? So  I find those kind of hands-on items very valuable to our community, almost more valuable than the actual food or item that it produces. Yeah, and I just, I'm so excited that people are going to be able to get a bunch  of tomatoes and can them. 25:49 for the coming winter this year from us. Because  we didn't have that last year or the year before because our tomato plants didn't do very well. Yeah, I remember that. you're like, we're not even sure if we're going to do them. I think we're going to give them one last crack and look at it. So I'll definitely send all the smoke signals and all the good juju your way on those tomatoes. We actually took the year off from planting  just so we could get  the milking. 26:14 essentially set up, right? Like I have all these babies for next year. I'm running two milk does this year. We're producing a gallon and a half with kids sharing on one of the goats that we just got.  And that's something we didn't have last year. I mean, we had goat milk, but we weren't going to farmers markets. We weren't able to go to farmers markets because I didn't have the product. 26:39 Yup. it's just one of those things, you know, you just sit back. just had a moment where I was sitting back. I'm like, wow, we've actually like completed. mean, when I first talked to you, has it been three seasons now, I think?  know,  the end of August is  the start of the fourth year. So three years in August. So yeah, I talked to you the first year, I think. Yeah. So you got to talk to us like from the ground up, right. And it was one of those things where 27:07 We, that was a goal of ours. So to know that before the five year mark, we've been able to hit  every single little thing that we've wanted to do. It just, I mean, it takes in a lot. I don't know if I told you yet, or if you saw online, but we were voted number one and number two with both of the foreign names because Groovy Grazers is more about goats. Culcane and farms is more about farming, right? We're voting number one for kids, entertainer and educator. 27:34 of the year and it was people vote. So it wasn't like, you know, a committee that voted on us. It was the actual community that said we earn that. So it was really cool because that's what we want to be seen as. We want to be the educators. I think that if we can show people that your food chain doesn't have to be 20 links, it can be just two, you and the farmer. Yes, you're going to pay a little bit more. The product is going to be way better than what you're going to get out the big box store  and 28:01 you're going to be supporting somebody in your community locally instead of corporate greed. Yes. Congratulations, my friend. Yeah, that was really exciting. Not expected. I just threw my name up there kind of as a joke, like, oh, all right, let's see what happens.  And definitely wasn't expecting coal canine farms to be thrown in there. But I mean, it is what it is. was really cool to see my community really supported us and they support what we do.  And it's because we're able to educate. 28:30 on what does food,  like where does your food come from? What should it look like?  And how can you go about getting it? I think a lot of people are really intimidated when they go to a big,  go to a farmer's market, they don't know how to ask the right questions or they feel like,  I don't know what to do, I'm not gonna go there.  I don't know,  a lot of people don't even know where the markets are or when they're happening. 28:55 And so I think if more people can start turning to these,  I'm going to tell my friend about it. So people in general, when they experience something new, they tell three people about it, good or bad. It doesn't matter. I think I've talked about this with you before. So every person that comes out to your guys' house to come pick tomatoes, good or bad, they're going to tell three people. So that's three more chances you have at somebody coming to you that maybe most likely did not hear about you before. 29:22 Yeah, we had a lot of people three summers ago. Three, four.  There were two summers we didn't have any tomatoes.  So the summer before that, so it must have been four summers ago,  we had people calling and asking if we had tomatoes. And then we did not have tomatoes at the farmer's markets last year and the year before, really. We had a couple, but not many.  And people didn't call because they would say, you going to have any at the farm? And my husband would say,  unfortunately. 29:51 no because of all the heavy rain we had in May and June.  as long as you can get the word out whether you have a surplus or a deficit, it's great because we didn't have a bunch of people calling us last year and the year before and us having to basically want to cry every time we had to say no. because it's dollars that you're not receiving. because we're not helping. Because we're not helping. 30:20 More than money, it's just you're not helping. I mean, it's dollars that aren't helping you or helping them or helping the community because you're going to spend your money locally. So it just it's this huge gap in the community chain. You know, when people call me, hey, do you have milk?  Oh, I'm out, you know, and it's like, well, man, that's one less person that's getting goat milk. That's one less, you know, that's three bales of uh small hay that I'm missing out on. 30:49 you know, that could be helping.  it's just like, all right, it kind of helps you gauge though, where, what you need to do, right? Like I knew I needed to bring in a second milk dough this year on a whim. I was like, I gotta do it. I just have to do it because even one week down is 120 to $200 worth of milk products,  right? And that's painful, but it's also more painful to me is that my community is not getting a product that they're asking for, right? 31:17 That means that they're going to have to go without this product. And even if it's caramel,  that may seem a little over dramatic to some people, but some people can't have any cow product. Right. So that's one more person that's going to have to go out with, you know, without a joy of life of having caramel, which that caramel brings a lot of joy in my life and my husband's and anybody that's tried it to be real honest with you, it puts a big smile on somebody's face. And it feels good being on the receiving end of having someone 31:44 get your product and enjoy it and find joy in it, but then also too, being able to buy from other people. I have a lot of joy when I go in and I support other  farmers at this farmers market, right? Or if I'm coming up to them and I'm like, I don't have any cash right now that I'm able to, because I got to make  my hay bill, but I do for whatever reason have a surplus of this chef, can I trade you X thing? And I'll tell you nine times out of 10, they're excited because 32:13 It's one thing they're not having to spend money on. And if they take that piece of bread home, OK, well, then that's one more piece of bread they're going to consume that they already have.  So it's really just an interesting way that  money doesn't even play into farmers markets as much as people would think, as much as it just being the gratitude and being able to feed the community. Right. Money is great. Don't get me wrong. It makes the world spin. Sadly, I wish it would go away in some senses, other senses, not so much. 32:43 But it's being able to fill a need in the community directly that I think people need to take away from farmers markets. You're filling the need of the buyer or, you know, of the producer. And then they're feeling the need of you needing an item. So the way that works, it's just this, believe it, what is it called? Osmosis, where it transmutes back and forth equally. Symbiotic. Symbiotic. Thank you. I always say the wrong word for whatever reason, but that symbiotic like relationship. 33:14 is really more beneficial to your community.  If your community makes more money, then they're able to do more things in the community. They're shopping more locally. They're going to invest in different projects around there. They're gonna invest in people that are around them. It's been proven that it helps your community. Every dollar you spend,  one dollar is like $10 when you're spending it with a small producer. So that's a huge. 33:41 like benefit instead of spending $5 at Walmart and it really only being a dollar that comes back into the community. If I spend it with a local producer, that $5 then turns into 50 essentially with how they're going to use it and spend it and it's directly in my community.  I am so glad that you are a proponent and  a fan and an ag, ag, ag, can't say it,  advocate for all of this because I'm right there with you, sister. 34:10 I know, yeah, it's been so exciting. What a season of growth. mean, we're still doing the damn thing, just like we always do, but it just changes. We just kind of, we see a need and we feel a need in our community. So instead of focusing so much on doing the agri tourism this year,  and then gardening ourselves, we found that if we can fill this need with milk, it really is just, it's gonna help us in the long run farther. And that's sometimes hard, right, to give up my passion of gardening for our family. 34:40 to doing milk, I see the need is more with the milk and I'm able to barter the milk for the produce that I would be growing anyways. So I'm just helping out all around. It's a good feeling. And I encourage everyone like Google on Facebook or not Google, do the little search bar, like type in your city, type in farmer's market and see where it's at. I bet you there's a farmer's market, if not four or five that are going on every Saturday. It seems like  more people, at least in Montana, are hosting farmer's markets. So I think... 35:09 I want to leave everyone on a challenge note up here, right? Cause I always tell people like your followers like, Hey, try something new.  would like, I'd like for you guys to go to a farmer's market in the month of August, because that's when a lot of places are going to have the produce all around from Montana, all the way down to Florida and spend $10.  That's all I'm asking.  Spend $10 of your money in the community and watch how that producer feels at the end of that transaction. And then,  then go home,  enjoy your item and see how you feel after that $10 been spent. 35:38 And I would guarantee that it's a more satisfying feeling. And if you really like what you bought, go back next time and thank the person that made it or grew it.  Absolutely.  Yeah, I have people that come up to me, other producers, and they tell me how much they love my item. And it just makes me feel so good. Like, it's just a very positive atmosphere. So I'm super excited that you guys are doing well with the, you know, the cabbage and you guys have a bunch of tomatoes. So I can't wait to check back in in a few months and see where we're all at. 36:09 I think we're all going to be doing just fine.  think  the more local we live, the better off we will all be because  you can't rely  on your state or federal government right now. Rely on your local  government and your local resources. Correct. And like uh some horse people will know her, but Trissa all 36:32 Trisha Aldridge, owns Audios Pantaloons, what a name, right?  But he's a million plus dollars  stud and what her Motivational Monday was is that no one's coming to save you, but also no one's coming to stop you. um  

Today I'm talking with Ronel at Zebulon Heritage Farm.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Ronel at Zebulon Heritage Farm in Tennessee. Good morning. Ronel, how are you? Good morning. Doing well. How about you? I'm good. Is it hotter than Hades in Tennessee this morning? It just about is. Yeah, I looked at the map that was on the news yesterday and the whole country was red. I was like, that doesn't happen very often. Mother Nature, what? 00:56 What got up your butt and irritated you? Because you're hot. There's something wrong.  Right. It's been a hot month for sure. It's been hot month. It's been terrible.  And  like I said to my co-host on my other podcast, I have two.  The other one is Grit and Grace in the Heartland. um I said to her the other day, I said, I'm trying to keep a really good attitude about this. 01:24 it's getting exceedingly more difficult with every day that the dew point is over 70 in Minnesota. That doesn't happen. Right. Cause that's a little different than here in the East where we have a lot of anyway. Yeah, absolutely. Minnesota is, is yes, close to a great lake, Lake Superior. It's right next to it. But last I knew great lakes weren't the same as ocean. 01:49 I grew up in Maine, so we had a lot of humidity in the summer in Maine. But you would not expect it to be this sticky. Well, I guess it is mid-July now, but usually we get the sticky in August. So it's been a bit much to swallow, Ronel. Let's just put it that way. I totally get it. I totally get it. Yes. So I would love for you to tell me a little bit about yourself and about what you do at Zebulon Heritage Farm. 02:19 Sure, sure. I guess, well, it's kind of a long story. mean, going back, I guess as a kid, I grew up on a homestead where we would bring you some bottle calves back then you could buy them for $5 from a dairy. And we milked some goats as a kid. I was never so fond of the goat milk though. So I guess later we got a family cow, I guess I was about 12. And my dad's like, here's a cow, milk her, take care of her, I want butter. 02:49 And then I milked the family cow for a lot of years. And I guess about 12 years ago, I decided at that point, I already had my own family. I decided I want to start a herd share. Some herd shares have been legal in Tennessee for quite a few years. So I added a second cow and then a third cow. And I guess over the past 12 years, it's just gradually grown and become 03:19 Well, full-time business.  Very nice. So  I know what A2A2 milk is. Is that what it's called? Right? Sure. Yes. But not all of my listeners will know. Can you explain what's special about A2A2 milk? Okay. So I guess there's a lot of different opinions, but I guess the short answer is it is the betacassin, which is the protein  in the milk. 03:48 but I guess it's dependent on the cow's genetics. there are a lot of different variants. And I guess most people don't know that. Most people assume it's either A1 or A2, but there's actually a lot of different variants. And A2, A2, which is both markers are A2, is the desirable one. It is believed to be more digestible, associated with better health. And I do believe there's merit in that because I have more than one 04:18 hard to share member that has told me they had raw milk. mean, most of the time if people can't drink store milk, they can drink raw milk, right? Because it's more digestible, it's less processed. But I have a couple of share members who have told me that they reacted badly to raw milk that wasn't A2A2 and they are able to drink my A2A2 milk. So there is definitely something to it and it is definitely something that a lot of people 04:47 or after because it's  associated with better digestion and better health. Thank you for explaining that because if I had attempted to explain that, I would have butchered it. It would not have been good. I was looking at your Facebook page and your website. Is it just jerseys that you milk or is it another  breed as well? 05:08 Yes, we have only jerseys. I mean, we do have a beef herd too that we  raise grass-red beef. But as for milking, we only have herded registered A2 jerseys. So it didn't start out that way. I just had some random jersey, you know, that I had no idea, you know, anything about her really,  as far as this A2 registration goes. But I gradually, um I guess, built up to the registered herd. So I bought like one registered cow and then bred her  and  tested. I bred only two A2 bulls. 05:39 And the calves I tested and I got lucky in the sense that even though if I had 50 % chance, I ended up getting mostly A2 cuffers. So my herd became fully A2 very quickly.  And then I just continued breeding to A2. So from there, we just went off with A2 cows. Okay.  I'm going to say this for me.  I would get nothing done if I had a herd of jerseys because I love their faces. 06:07 And all I want to do is hang out with them  and kiss their noses and stroke their ears. They are so pretty. Sure. I'm biased too. mean, know every breed has their perks and they definitely have their place, but I'm biased too. mean, the jerseys are just super pretty and they're just so curious. mean, they just have personality and they can be different too. mean, some are definitely nicer than others, but generally speaking, they're just  so like  part of the family kind of temperament, know. 06:37 They always look like they're going to be really sweet. I'm not saying that every single Jersey cow is sweet, but they look like they're going to be very sweet critters. And they are. I mean, I think I've had ones with my kids were a little, it's like before I could stop them, you know, they would call them on the cow or crawl under the cow. I was like, Oh my goodness, you know, you shouldn't be doing this to a cow, but you know, this particular half-puff, she didn't care. Yeah. It's just that, um, you know, some of them are just really gentle. Some of them not so much. mean, most, most of ours are really. 07:06 well-behaved.  I don't keep cows that aren't, but some are really friendly and they will be like upping your business.  Yeah, yeah. I would love to meet your cows. I think that it's so fun. I don't have any cows. We don't have room.  If we had room and I was about 20 years younger,  we probably would have cows.  Right. And I will say this to people starting out,  cows are a digger. 07:33 You know, I never had any intention of having the amount of cows I have right now.  It just kind of like every time a pepper was born, was like, I cannot sell her. You know, I have to keep her. And then I end up with, you know, 40 something calves. I'm going, okay, I got a problem.  Well, if you're that smitten with the Jersey breed, you must be just absolutely beside yourself  in love with the babies every time there's babies. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. They're just so cute. But I mean, they just look like a little deer. Yeah, I 08:02 I have a hard time every time I need to make a decision to keep one or not keep one, know.  Yeah.  Yep. And I can't believe that you remember when you could get  a calf for $5. Do you know how much a calf is going for right now? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I just sold one this morning. I  mean, it's just a jersey bull. This one I sold, so they're not bringing as much, but the beef couch right now. Oh my goodness. They're, yeah, it's crazy what they're bringing right now. 08:28 Yeah, just a couple of years ago, I think you could still get a beef calf for like 50 bucks.  Right.  Right now. I heard the other day over a thousand dollars. Right. Nope. That's basically the heifers are going for  a thousand and upwards.  That's a hell of an investment.  Right. Right. And I mean, haven't, you just a few years ago in the time that I was running a herd chair, if I sold an adult cow that was like 08:58 kind of a, you could say a call, you know, maybe when she wasn't breeding or whatever, but she was a nice, fat, healthy, otherwise cow. When you sold her, you would be getting like $200. I mean, I sold more than one that I got $200 for. And I'm like, those days are so gone. Yeah. And I'm really afraid that the days of owning cows and steers or bulls is coming to an end because I keep reading about how the 09:26 I'm going to say bovines. The bovine herds across the United States are shrinking because farmers can't afford to keep them. Right. Right. And that is a concern because it's so, mean, buying replacements.  mean, initially it was like, you know, if a cow, if you didn't want a particular cow or there's something wrong with her, you just bought another, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't a big deal. But right now it's like, you have to, you know, you have to like take out a loan to buy.  You know, they're so expensive, especially if you're trying to buy a nice one. 09:56 Yeah, it's hard to get started in the business right now if you don't already have cows because they're so expensive to get. Yeah, if you're not part of a family that  is raising steers or dairy cows, trying to get in at 20 years old is almost impossible. Right, and I feel really bad because there are some people who want so badly to get into the business, but you know, it's so expensive to get started and then we're not even talking about everything else, farm regulating that. 10:25 farm related that is so expensive to get started. It's  really tough. It's really it is. And it's really sad.  like I said, my co-host and I talk about this all the time because she's a rancher in Nebraska. they raise steers for beef. They don't eat dairy. And  she loves you dairy people.  I swear she hugs every dairy farmer she meets. She loves you guys so much. 10:53 Well, we appreciate the beef farmers too. Like I said, I do have a beef herd too and  it's been the same way with them. The prices are just crazy. Yep, and it's a lot of work and a lot of heart to put into it.  So, um I know what a herd share is, but not all of my listeners do.  And I want to preface this whole next line of conversation with the fact that Minnesota allows raw milk sales, but only on the farm. 11:22 Okay. They don't sell raw milk in stores here. It's illegal. So  can you explain what a herd share is? Okay. So  in 2009, herd shares became legal in Tennessee. So a herd share is basically um potential customers, you could say, or potential share members. um If they wanted to acquire raw milk, they needed to like buy a share of the herd or even the cows. So you can get a cow share too. So 11:52 they had to like put a deposit down or put like a payment down and buy the share of a cow. And that would like, um, allow them or entitle them to a portion of the milk. So  I guess what it's basically comes down to is they're getting milk from their own cow, a cow that they own  in part. And that way it's not like, I'm not selling raw milk.  Um, I'm selling shares of herd and then  people can get raw milk by buying shares of the herd. then they can get. 12:22 um a portion of milk that way. I hope that makes sense. Yeah, it does. It's kind of on the same  idea as a time share, only you get better results. Yes, yes. And  a lot of people do the shares  because  I think it helps the customers be a little more uh committed  because they feel like they have a part in the herd. So it's not like... um 12:47 It's not like you're just buying milk this week and then not next week or whatever. You know, most of the share members, they um are committed to getting the milk on a consistent basis. Good, good, good. So, so I think I missed it when you're explaining this.  Is,  is raw milk illegal to buy in Tennessee unless you do it through a herd share?  Um, yes and no. So I guess there's two ways that you can acquire raw milk in Tennessee, either through a herd share, which is what I do. 13:16 or you have to be licensed as a pet food seller. And then you have to get like a license through the state and then you can sell it labeled as pet food.  mean, a lot of people do that even though it's not really their pets, you know, drinking it.  I am my own. I am my own pet. I will drink the milk. Yes. Right. Which is a perfectly great way to, you know, sell raw milk too. But I personally chose the herd share  model. Yeah. I found out last time we were in Maine. 13:44 or I grew up that raw milk  is not illegal at all. The little general store down the road from where my parents live now,  they sell raw milk in their coolers. oh And I was just like, wow, Maine is so progressive. Yay. Right. Right. And that is nice. Some states are definitely being much more um lenient than others. So that's really nice. 14:13 Yeah, I was surprised. I actually asked the cashier, I was like, how long ago did it become legal to sell raw milk at grocery stores?  And she looked at me and the first question out of her mouth was, where are you from?  said, well, technically Maine, I grew up here, but I live in Minnesota.  And you should have seen her face grin from ear to ear. She was like, one of my friends is from Minnesota.  She said, 14:40 I thought I picked up just the tiniest little cadence of Minnesota in your voice. was just so excited. She it up. That's fun. Yeah. And I said, I'm so confused that you picked that up because I try really hard not to sound like I'm from anywhere. She said, well, you don't sound like you're from Maine anymore. So check that off the list. I was like, uh-huh. Okay. Thank you. That's funny. So we had a whole long discussion about raw milk and that everybody loves it. 15:09 and that it's better for your stomach than pasteurized milk. It was a very interesting 15 minute conversation at the counter. That's great. That's great. So I want to hear a little bit about your beef cattle and then I want to hear about your class or whatever it was I read on your website. So tell me about your beef cattle. So I guess we have a small herd. I actually have a few of the last beef cows. have, Gary has. 15:38 Um, mostly Angus, Geltbee,  um, the mixture of both, um, most people know Angus, but Geltbee is definitely a less,  um, common breed.  Um, if I had to sum up Geltbee, it would be like Angus, but it's a little bit bigger, um, than it looks a little different. So, um, the mix between the two seems to be a good combination. They are a little bit bigger. They grow fast like the Angus do, but they're a little bit more sized.  And, uh 16:05 The mama cows have a lot of milk. So it seems to be a pretty good breed adapted for our  area here.  So we have heard of those and they just raise their calves. And we uh usually process the steers between like,  you could say 20 to 24 months old um for grass-fed beef. And we have a  customer base that we sell all that to.  Either by the  calf, the steer or whole steer. 16:35 Very  nice. Thank you for doing that. That is,  I feel like that's,  I don't want to say harder than dairy, but it is right up there with dairy because there are so many regulations that go with beef. Right. mean, the day to day work is a lot less.  Um, I feel like when there's an issue, it's harder to deal with. It's like, you know, a beef cow, you can't just walk up to her and say, okay, let's pick up your feet. Let me see what's going on with it. know? 17:04 You'd have to get her in the chute and she's fighting you. It's a little different. There's definitely more calving problems with the beef cows than with the jerseys. Jerseys tend to have no problems calving if you're breeding into a jersey. But the beef cows, especially the heifers, there's definitely more of struggle there. Sometimes they need help calving. So yeah, it's a different ballgame for sure. Yeah, I'm so impressed with everybody who raises the large animals. 17:32 We have chickens and we tried raising rabbits for a year that did not go well.  Not every rabbit understands that they are supposed to screw like rabbits.  Right. My daughter had rabbits at one point and there's definitely something to making them  have babies for sure. Receptive, yeah. Uh-huh. Yes. Yes. And it's like the female, if she doesn't like the male, it's not happening.  No, she has all the say as she should. 18:01 um But yeah, we have chickens, they're super easy as long as you have a coop and you have a source of food for them and a source of water for them. They do great. Rabbits are kind of touchy, finicky, fragile. And that's pretty much the only thing we've tried. And that's mostly because we don't have any land for big animals to graze.  We have three acres, it would not work. uh 18:28 Well, chickens are a good start. mean, where we are chickens, the worst part of, or the worst struggle, I guess, with having chickens are the raccoons because we have a lot of raccoons. But besides that, chickens are, like they say, the gateway animal. You're getting with the chickens and then next thing you know, you want this and you want that too. Where's the goat? Where's the sheep? Where's the cow? Yeah, we have barn cats. We have a dog. We have chickens. I think we're full up on critters for where we can handle it. That's good. 18:57 But again, I have so much respect for people who raise large animals because you've got to be brave, I think. You've got to do a lot of research. You've got to be healthy and strong because just because those jerseys love you doesn't mean that they're going to move when you want them to move. So you got to kind of nudge them, right? Right. It's physically demanding. mean, there's definitely that. And there's, mean, it can be dangerous. I have not had the cow hold the jerseys hurt me. 19:27 not on purpose anyway. I sometimes they like, you know, knock it over by accident or whatever, but yeah, if you're dealing with large animals, some of you might get charged by the bull bull and that has happened. Ironically, it was my beak bull, not even my jersey bull, yeah, these things happen and they're hard to keep in. know, if they get out and you know, if a bull bull figures out he can walk through the fence, he's walking through the fence every time. So there's definitely challenges to it. There's definitely challenges and where we live, also have... 19:55 you know, a way out the boondocks. So finding a veterinarian to come out can also be a challenge. So that, guess that eventually just forced me to learn to do a lot of things myself.  Which is probably good because then you don't have to pay the vet bills if you are skilled enough to do it yourself. True, Yes, yes. I mean, initially my hands were shaking, you know, if I needed to like set an ITV or something, because I had no idea what I was doing. But you know, after so many times you figure it out and you just know that, you know, this is you have to do because that's not available. 20:24 You know, a lot of times they're just not available.  Yep. And sometimes,  I've actually heard a couple stories like this,  sometimes you may know something that the doesn't know because you learned it from somebody who learned it from their grandpa or their great grandpa a long time ago.  Right. And that is another thing because I have a couple vets, but the  one I have, I literally um felt that  he had no experience with dairy cows. So if that had a problem, there was no 20:52 There was no use asking him because he didn't know. And it's not like I'm not shaming the vet, but he just had no experience with the dairy cows. He just had no idea.  Absolutely. And that's kind of, this is going to sound funny.  It's kind of fun that you have the skills to handle some of the things yourself.  You must feel a great sense of pride in that. Well, it's taken blood, and tears in a lot of years, but I do, I do. And which is why I guess, um 21:22 I like to share that, you know, knowledge because I like to, I feel like it took me a lot of trouble and pain to learn it.  And  I would like to make that available to other people who want to learn so they don't have to learn the hard way and know the way I did.  Which leads me to the last part of my question for you.  I see on your Facebook description. says we also offer mentoring to family cow owners on school, S-K-O-O-L,  at Homestead Family Cow. So tell me about that. 21:51 Sure, that's actually a little more recent. The school platform is actually a more recent venture. I've been mentoring, kind of like, cow people for, well, a lot of years. I guess for a lot of years. just like on Facebook groups or whatever, I would give advice if I could. But more recently, I started the platform on school. So that way, felt like if I'm making educational content, I can keep it all neatly in one spot. 22:20 so it's not like spread out over the internet. So that way I can make educational videos and put them all on the platform. And then if people want to join the platform, they can read through or listen through the videos and the educational material on there. And they can also ask questions and hopefully we will eventually be able to do like Q &A sessions to help people learning about family cows. 22:45 I guess back in the day, grandma and grandpa's, you a of people's grandparents knew these things, it's kind of disappeared for a while. But now there's a whole group of people or a whole bunch of people who is trying to get back into the family cow thing, but they're starting from scratch. So I think it would be great for them to have access to a lot of material where they can learn how to do it. Yes. And the school platform is fairly new, right? It's only been out for a year or so. 23:16 It's been a few years, I think. yes, it's not that old at all. Like I said, my group or my community school is pretty recent too. I just wanted something where I can  put all my educational content in one spot and keep it easy to maintain.  Well, thank you for doing that as well, because not everybody has the patience to teach. I don't. I'm terrible at it. I have a hard time with it. 23:41 That's why I chose to do a podcast because I know a little bit. I like talking about what I know. like talking with you guys about what you know. And then people just learn from the conversation. Right. Right. So if I wanted to find Homestead Family Cow on school, do I just go to school.com and type in Homestead Family Right. If you search it in the search bar, it should show right up. If you put in Homestead Family Cow, it should show right up in the search bar. And there's a picture with a banner. I guess it's my face with a cow. 24:10 So it should  pop right up.  Okay,  I'll put the link in the show notes if I find it. If I can't find it for some reason, would you message it to me? Sure, sure. can definitely do that. I appreciate that. Oh yeah, I want to make it easy for people to find you because I know there's a lot of young people  coming up  or stepping into the role that their parents that have aged out or the grandparents that have aged out had. 24:40 and they're new. mean, if  it's a family business, they may know a little bit, but I'm sure they don't know everything.  Right. And most of the people that I have mentored over the year uh who are not coming out of a family business, they were coming in first generation, know, trying to get  in and starting from scratch. Yeah. And it's so much easier when you have a mentor or a friend 25:07 Or I don't know, a complete stranger you met at the county fair. Sure. got talking and they were like, I can help. Right. I totally agree. mean, back when I started out, the internet didn't exist. You know, and I was like, we're getting books from the library and I made a lot of mistakes along the way. And I was also quite young, but I made a lot of mistakes along the way. like, I like to help people not, you know, make those mistakes. If I, if I had this information at, you know, at my fingertips, I would have changed a lot of things. 25:38 I always joke that if I had had access to the internet when I was 15, I would probably rule the world by now because I was a bookworm and a word nerd. Sure. Sure. And I spent a lot of time with my nose in books. Can you imagine me at 15 with access to Google? I would have been the biggest knowledge sponge on earth. I imagine that. Yeah, I look at my kids, my oldest daughter, I mean, my oldest kids are adults, but 26:07 I look at them and I'm like, oh my goodness, know, they just have a head start on knowledge, you know, and just this information that I had, you know, from an encyclopedia. Oh, yes. And I'm going to step out on a limb here that I don't know if I'm supposed to step out on, but I'm going to do it anyway. I was talking to my daughter the other day. She's 36. She's married and her husband is into guns and he likes to go to the range and target practice. And he's very curious about all the different kinds of guns. 26:38 And she has learned to shoot with him. And she called me, she called me the other day and she said, I got a question. And I said, what is it? And she said, what do you think of this idea? And she said, you know how women aren't necessarily brought up to handle firearms? And I said, well, they didn't used to be. I said there, there are more now. And she said, well, she said, I've been learning a lot over the last couple of years. And I said, yes.  She said, 27:08 I have a TikTok account and I was like, yes. She said, I think I want to do some, some TikToks about gun safety and gun culture and  gun stuff as it were. Sure. And, and my daughter is gorgeous. She's five foot nine. She has the most beautiful face  and she just is so  passionate about helping people.  Sure. So, so she said, 27:34 She said, do you think that people would want to watch these TikTok videos if I do them? I said, well, you'll probably know within five TikTok posts, whether people are interested or not. So she's talking about doing that. And that's, you know, it's a little aside. Yeah. think it's great. I think that's great. It's a little aside from my topic on my podcast here, but 28:01 I think that women especially these days have so many avenues open to them to either teach  or have a career that they love that they can just throw their whole selves into compared to how it used to be. Sure. And I think that's great that we have these opportunities, you know, and it's that's her passion and teaching people about, you know, gun safety. think that's great because 28:27 For a lot of people, they don't know anything about safety and that just makes it more dangerous than it should be. And if that's her passion and she can teach about it, I think that's great. think sharing our passion is really, I mean, that gives meaning to the life, right? And I guess that's why I do what I do. I not only love my dairy cows and I love milking, but I also love sharing about them and teaching about them. Yes, absolutely. 28:56 I am so glad that you do and I'm going to die on this hill.  Without people like you, the industry might die and we don't want the industry to die if we like drinking milk and we like eating burgers and steaks.  Right, right. And I'm grateful for the people I learned from, you know, because  we all need someone to teach us some things. And I am grateful for the people I learned from and I hope to pass that forward. 29:25 Good. Please keep doing it  and do me a favor. Smooch those cows for me because I don't know anybody with jerseys right now.  Most certainly I will.  All right. So where can people find you? um As in online or as... Okay. So I mean, besides for my Facebook page, which is Zebulon Heritage Farm, I also have a website, which is EvalonHeritageFarm.com. 29:55 I guess  my farm is listed on  multiple raw milk, I guess databases or  places where you find raw milk. So the farm is listed in multiple places there too.  And then like I said, my school uh community, which is Homestead Family Cow, that is for learning about family cows  that is on the school platform. Fantastic.  Ronel, I so appreciate your time. 30:24 And I say this to everybody who takes the time to talk to me.  I know you guys are busy.  You are being productive. You are helping in the world. So thank you for sharing your time with me and my audience. Sure, no problem. Thank you so much for having me here. I enjoyed talking to you. Good. As always, people can find me at AtinyHomesteadPodcast.com.  Ronel, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you. You too,  

Today I'm talking with Connor at La Terre Farms.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:29 Today I'm talking with Connor at La Terre Farms in Mississippi. Good morning, Connor. How are you? Good morning. I'm good. Enjoying this breeze out here. So. Yeah. My first question is usually, how's the weather? So how is the weather in Mississippi today? Honestly, it's very nice.  We've been in the hundreds, I think, the past month.  So it's kind of nice to have a breeze out here.  Would you believe that they're suggesting, and I use that term with a lot of hope,  suggestion. 00:59 that it's going to be 104 here on Sunday in Minnesota. Oh my gosh.  Yeah. Wow. Minnesota. Yeah. Yep. I'm praying that the forecast changes between now and then because  I keep saying this. shouldn't keep saying it, but I'm going to anyway. I hate high summer. I hate being hot.  I would rather it be minus 20 out because when you, you,  when it's that cold, you can put on a whole 01:28 megaton of clothes and be warm. But when it's so super hot, you cannot be any more naked than naked.  You know, that is very true.  I must prefer cold weather too, honestly. So the springtime is my favorite summertime.  I absolutely hate farming. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, I don't I hate saying that because summertime can be wonderful. 01:55 but not when we get these crazy swings in temperatures. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Yeah. Now you were saying that that tropical storm is moving toward you or you're just getting some of the side effects of it. I think they're just getting, honestly, I have not kept up to date with it. My wife has. She keeps me sane. So she keeps up to date with everything. I just stay in here and look pretty, you know. 02:23 Well, that's a nice job to have  and your stress levels probably stay a little bit lower because of it.  Alrighty, so it's a beautiful day in Minnesota. It was 57 degrees at five o'clock this morning  after a couple weeks of really muggy, really hot weather. So 57 felt like 27  and I was so happy  to feel a little bit of a chill in the air. I was like, wow, that's novel. 02:52 It was it was lovely. I was drinking my coffee with the window open on the front porch and I was like,  oh, that's good.  And it's also sunny today and there's a slight breeze  and it's just perfect July weather for Mary Evelyn. For me, this is great.  It's going to start going back up tomorrow. So I'm going to enjoy today for all it is worth.  I would love to hear a little bit about yourself and what you guys do at La Terre Farms.  Yes, ma'am. So. 03:21 Um, around COVID, um, I had a, job. worked at a science museum and I was a tour guide. And by COVID, uh, we kind of had like a shutdown period, you know, just like everyone did. And so I started to hang out with mom and dad up here a lot, just cause we kind of isolate ourselves from everywhere. Um, and I just, you know, I just wanted to be with mom and dad, make sure they're okay. Um, you're a good son. I try. Um, 03:51 And so we were sitting on top of our barn at the time. Um,  and I was just looking out and I'm like, man, this place is beautiful. Like, why aren't we doing anything up here? You know, like, yeah, it's family land  and  it's beautiful, but I really think I could do something.  And fun fact, my grandpa is actually, was actually a farmer. So we have land in Tallulah, Louisiana  and  my great-grandpa was a 04:21 So it runs in the family. Now I'm not growing cotton or soybeans or any of the hard stuff. ah I'm sticking with flowers. But I just had like an inkling to start farming for some reason. just had like a, I wanted to do something on my own  and thankfully mom was on board with me and now she's stuck with it so she can't escape. uh And so we just  looked up the most profitable 04:51 crop to grow. And number one was lavender. Yeah. And then number two was cut flowers. And I was like, well, I'll be down. And so we started doing that. From the beginning, we didn't know what we were doing. So there's been a lot of trial and error, you know, a lot of failures, but honestly, that's the best teacher, you know, so. And so we sell the florist, we do events up here at the farm at the house and pavilion. 05:20 And we, we, uh, sell the New Orleans floors. sell the base and Lewis force I dell. So we, we never stop, honestly.  That's awesome. have a question about your lavender.  Oh, yeah. Do you, you, um, sell that to places that distill the oil? Um, so I honestly, in the summer, just in heat in general, in our zone,  um, throughout the whole season. 05:50 The only lavender that I know of that can grow down here is Spanish lavender. Um, and I have tried to grow lavender. Uh, unfortunately it does not work out for me. So like, example, we're in Nucleus and Lizzy Anthus, which I grew this year. And I I saw your, your video of it. It's beautiful. Yeah. So I used to, uh, I gave it to the florist. That's why he kind of saw the. 06:20 the last bit of it. But I had heads three times that size. So it's very exciting because it's a really hard flower to grow. Yeah. And then ranunculus, same thing, I would love to grow that but each each state has their own zones are each, you know, state has their own zones. So we're zone nine B nine A, think. And so we can't grow ranunculus. 06:48 We're a 4B here in Minnesota, at least where I am. Yeah.  Yeah. you probably could peonies and all that.  Oh, darling.  I have so many peonies. It's my favorite flower on earth.  I have  like 50, 50, I don't know.  I don't want to say plants because they spread. I started out with about 20 and now I have at least 50 clumps of peony bushes. 07:18 along my driveway. And that's beautiful. Are you interested in the colors? Oh yeah. No, I honestly, love, I love peanuts too. So yeah, have yellow and baby pink and Hello Kitty pink. I don't know if you know what that is, but  Hello Kitty  is a popular little girl's thing. And this color is, is associated with Hello Kitty. So I call it Hello Kitty pink  and 07:47 I have burgundy, have yellow, have coral, and I have white,  like pure white. And every spring,  Connor telling you, it gets to May 1st and I'm just looking at these peony shoots coming up.  And I'm like, please don't get frosted. Cause if they get frosted, they do not bloom. The little buds just freeze and turn black. And this year we had hundreds of blooms. was so beautiful. You know, speaking of frosts. 08:17 You know, it's funny, people are like, man, I wish I could do what you do. You know, I wish I grow flowers and walk through the flowers and  just enjoy the beautiful air. I'm like, do you understand  what goes through on how to grow flowers? You know, it's truly, it's a very delicate situation with flowers, you know? And so like I have to constantly remind myself to keep going. 08:46 Cause like in the summertime, I ain't cranky. I'm like, I don't want to do this. I'm out here. I don't want to do it, but I'm out here. So I had to constantly remind myself like, man, I got a good life, you know, but once they start growing and once they start blooming, that's when I say I have a good life. Yeah. I am constantly saying on this podcast that growing produce or raising animals is a crap shoot. 09:14 It is a wonderful life, but you've got to be equipped to deal with highs and lows because it's not always in the middle. No, it's it never is. You know, actually we lost. Sorry, I'm just rambling here, but we lost. Let's see. So the big snowstorm that happened in Mississippi a couple of years back, definitely suffocated all of our flowers and we're like, oh my gosh, they were all black and we're like, oh, this is terrible. 09:44 And sure enough, snow is a great insulator for  anything, honestly, but especially for flowers. they came up and like, were just gigantic. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. But any other time with just a normal frost,  ice or anything, they're dead.  So.  frost is a different phenomena than snow. Yeah. uh 10:13 It's pretty humbling experience, but you know, I love what I do.  And by the way, my grandpa was a farmer, so it's just in the blood.  And I to hang out with my parents. So that was nice. Yeah. So you were saying that your mother is stuck with this now.  I'm guessing your mom is totally fine with this. Oh yeah. No, she, uh, honestly, she keeps me going because, uh, she's always thinking about the next step. Whereas I,  she calls me, uh, 10:43 was it, um, where I just walk around, I go at my own pace, which drives her nuts. Um, which is a very slow pace, by the way. And she's like, we gotta hurry up. And so she's thinking like 20 steps ahead where I'm, you know, steadily just making the beds and, know, do no labor. I'm like, man, I don't know what I'd do without you. You gotta teach me your ways. She's a, she's like Yoda. Yes, she is definitely Yoda. 11:12 Her name is Terry.  Yes, ma'am. Terry Wiley. Shout out to Terry. What a great mom. And what a great really what a great mom for supporting you in this idea. Yeah, she. Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty amazing. So very, very lucky guy. So  and it's going to sound like I'm stalking you. I'm not. looking at your website about page.  And it says as soon as I retired from practicing law. 11:39 Connor and I started taking classes, traveling to workshops and conferences, blah, blah, blah. Your mom was a lawyer? Yeah. You know, I've never won an argument with her.  What kind of law was she practicing?  Environmental. she. Aha. Yeah. Yeah. So it's funny. She keeps  she keeps me updated with all the, you know, DAQ and environmental things because my dad and I. 12:08 love building, like digging everywhere, you know,  with our excavator. So ah we're very careful with pitcher plants and all that healthy environmental stuff, you know, like their own ecosystem. So she keeps us in track because we get too excited.  That's awesome. So,  so I love that that's what she does. She still do it or she's retired.  She's retired. So she does this full time with me. 12:38 Um, but I keep telling her, I'm like, you know, at some point I want you and dad to like go on trips. You know, I you to retire. I know you say you love doing this with me. I love doing it with her as well, but at some point, uh, you know, take over and, know, let them enjoy their lives. I don't want them stuck at the farm. how old are your parents? Are they in their sixties or their fifties? Uh, seventies. Oh, okay. 13:07 I thought you were like in your early 20s. Oh, no, no, I'm 33. So, okay. That's not on my part. Oh, no, you're good. They don't look their age. It's kind of creepy. They don't act their age apparently either. Yeah, no, Yeah, my dad is always on the tractor. Diesel is very boring up here. 13:35 My mom's birthday is tomorrow  and I think she's going to be 80. And I have to confirm that with her tomorrow.  I always am off by a year and I thought that I had it last year and no, I didn't have it. I made my daddy year older than he actually was.  And my dad's birthday uh is July 30th. So they  are, you know, seven days apart,  but they're three years apart. 14:05 So my dad is either gonna be 80. My mom is either gonna be 80 or 81 tomorrow. My dad is gonna be either 83 or 84 on July 30th. And my dad still acts like he's 50. I'm 56. He acts younger than I am. It's just crazy to me. And I swear the thing that keeps him young is his dog. He has a 10 year old border collie. 14:34 Duchess her her  her name given name is Duchess her nickname is Dutchie  and she acts like she's about to because my dad has basically given her the run of their 14 uh acre property the whole time they've had her and she is always out running and playing  and guarding and going down the river and getting a drink she is keeping herself in fabulous shape 15:01 Because my dad is so in love with his dog and has been since she was about eight weeks old He is always going out with her. So he gets his walks and she walks him. He doesn't walk her Yeah, it never works like that.  Yeah, so so if you want to stay young get yourself a good dog Well, you know, I have a black laugh. Her name is Sonny.  She's ten years old as well  and and with the two puppies here just cuz 15:30 My sister and her family are here for a bit this summer. So she has two puppies to deal with. She just like sits there and watches them go at it. She's like, yeah, no, I'm good. It's quite funny actually. She keeps me alive too. So yeah. I think if you have passions and you have things that you're responsible for, it extends your life. I really do. Now. 15:55 I have other questions for you and because I am 56 and I am in menopause, bad word,  I get brain gaps here and there. So I looked at your Facebook page earlier. I was like, oh, I know all the questions.  And now I forget what I was going to ask.  Do  you guys grow anything besides flowers? ah So we have tried vegetables. Now we did do okra very well. Okra? Yeah, okra. ah 16:25 Stuff is very pokey though. It's not fun. So you definitely need to wear gloves when you're picking up. Didn't know that. oh But yeah, just vegetables require so much more care than flowers. So  yes, they do.  Yeah. I mean, it's it's ridiculous. So like the summertime crops.  Sorry, I go back to flowers. I'm just trying to, you know, relate to different between vegetables and flowers like 16:52 sunflowers and zinnias and,  um, Azerothem, Amaramp, all those summer annuals  are like, basically just put it out there and, you know, I fertilize every two weeks  and then I have irrigation everywhere, all the timers. You just let that be and they're good to go. Whereas  festivals, you have to constantly, constantly watch them and make sure no, uh, 17:21 Rodents are getting in there eating all your crop. ah It's a headache.  Yes, it is. My husband grows a 100 foot by 150 foot farm to market garden. Wow. It's his baby. It's his passion. It's his Zen. It's his thing that he loves to do  when he's not at his full time job. So not only is he growing that garden, he has a full time job. Wow. And he came in. 17:49 on Sunday and he said, the pole beans are doing great. And I said, okay. He said, the regular green beans are done. I said, done? He said, yeah, we're not going to get a single one. He said, they have rough spots all over them.  And it's from all of the rain and all of the hot that we've had. They just haven't made it able to handle it. And the other problem with growing produce, not flowers, is that you have to actually weed. 18:18 because if you get weed pressure and insect pressure, you're not gonna have a crop. Yeah, we've learned that the hard way. you know, the beauty  where we are, we have power line.  Sorry. I feel like everyone's been at the farm. Sorry.  So we have a power line  on our property  and they allowed us to do beds there with flowers. And so that's where all of our flowers are right now and by the barn and 18:46 Also, another feel I just made. the  airflow,  you know, the air that blows through all the flowers, like I think, again, I don't know, but I'm very confident that's why we've not had any pest problems  or any, you know,  mold or anything. And they have been super happy this year, thankfully.  Good. Yeah. um 19:10 How many, I don't know if you do this in acres or if you do this in feet, we do our garden in feet because we have three acres of property, but our garden is not an acre by any stretch.  How many acres of flowers do you grow? um I'd say about two to three acres. ah Now our overall property  is 500 acres. Wow.  Yeah.  So we literally just do like 19:40 two or three acres of flowers. And usually the powerline field is my biggest field. They're about 100 feet long, three feet wide. And I have some 50 feet, some 75 feet. it just kind of varies with our topography, whether I can do like a full 50 foot or full 100 foot, you know, so that varies. Yeah, absolutely. And then the other question I have for you is it says, 20:09 You have a workshop. that just for you guys or do you teach? uh So,  so during Christmas time we do garland  and reefs as well. ah And so we have workshops where I teach them how to make Magnolia reefs, cedar reefs. ah Basically those two are what we do because it's kind of hard to put boxwood in a reef.  yeah. ah 20:40 And then the workshop also is where we have our Garland machine, which I tell you what, I cried when I got it. I was like, Oh my God, this is awesome. And so it literally makes Garland for you. Now you have to manhandle it, you know, make sure you get it through the hole and stuff. But man, it is, it is quite a blessing. So I didn't know there was such a thing as a Garland machine. Yeah, well we did it. So actually, fun fact, that's how we started out. So we started out. 21:10 I mean, obviously doing flowers, but more so the garland and wreaths.  We actually did it in the backyard of our family home or the garage in our family home that we sold a couple years back.  And  I told mom,  I always joke with her. I'm like, you know, Jeff Bezos  and  everyone else who succeeded started in their garage. saying. Yes.  But I mean, obviously I'm not saying the next Amazon. 21:39 Don't want to be that anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I'll  read people's status. um 21:51 Uh huh. Okay. So the other thing that I saw on your website is that you guys, you guys still grow holly. 22:00 Uh,  no. we,  we try it one year.  Uh, it did pretty good, but then,  uh, it kind of stopped working.  That's a tricky part about it. Just it works one year and you're like, what happened this year? So  I bought a Holly plant at around Christmas time, one year just for, for giggles and grins  and, 22:26 I thought that I could make it survive through the winter and maybe I could plant it outside.  Minnesota is not built for growing holly. Holly does not grow here outside. Yeah, no, definitely not. I didn't know that.  I was like, but Holly's associated with Christmas. Christmas is associated with cold.  Holly should grow in Minnesota.  No, no, that is not the equation. Yeah, yeah, no, it's,  it's definitely hard to gross.  I'm sorry. 22:56 My cat is hanging off the porch.  I don't know how that even happened. Is it oppressive? Is it okay? Yeah, she's okay. She's just running from the puppies.  It's just not cool.  huh. Absolutely. I love cats. We had house cats for a while and then we got a puppy and  we had one house cat left and I was like, guess what, Molly, you get to go outside.  She didn't want to be inside to begin with. And so she ended up being an indoor outdoor cat for a while. 23:27 Yeah, then she ran away and we don't know what happened to her. So now we just have a dog. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's okay. It was five years ago, but She ran away for six months She was gone for six months and she showed up after six months and I was like, well, hello It's good to have you back  and she came right up to me and she was purring and she let me pet her just like I always did and let me pick her up 23:54 And about two months later, she disappeared again and never came back. I was like, well, I guess, I guess our place is not the kind of hospitality you want. found a different place to live. So. I'll buy him. It's OK. We have barn cats too, and they're friendly as well. it was a barn cats took a little bit of staying out of losing our pet. But cats are weird. They they deign to live with you. 24:22 They don't make you happy. They want you to make them happy. Very true. Yeah, she she kind of runs the house now, actually. So it's quite comfortable. One of the things that I love about my dog, I never had a dog of my own up until the one we have now. I love the fact that she wants to make us happy. She wants to do what we need her to do. And that didn't happen until she was about two. 24:52 Up until they're two,  they think they want to make you happy, but they also want to chew shoes  and tear things apart. She turned into a stellar, well-behaved dog at two years old. Wow. That's actually very impressive. She's really good, other than the fact that she has no off switch when she is being a watchdog. So she's a very loud, perfect dog. Yeah.  And I'm OK with this. It works out great. 25:19 Alrighty, so uh I have time for probably two more questions because I try to keep these to half an hour. It says that you do you pick  and you're an event venue. So are those two things still correct?  Yes, ma'am. So tell me about the you pick. You picked. we,  like said, the power line field and other fields, we just come up and we'll have a band out there playing  around the barn area. 25:47 You'll start at the barn and then you'll walk out to the field  and one of us will guide you out there and then let you cut away. And then you can make your own little bouquets after, hang out,  eat some food, um drink some alcohol if you want, you know?  So that it's, pretty much September and October is when we started doing the events again. Senator Ralph Flowers, cause  obviously as we all know it's 26:17 hot.  So nobody really comes out during the summertime except for, you know, the shed that we have. We have flowers bouquets over there as well. So uh it's more just like a pick up and go, you know, right now. So like what we would call in Minnesota a farm stand. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Okay. Oh, sorry. And um was there other questions? Event venue. What kind of events do you do? Yes, ma'am. So we 26:47 We do, uh we have florists in the Bay. name is Martha  and she comes up and does flower arrangement classes. um We also  do flower, you know, pick your own flowers. You pick, yeah, but you know, it's more like we pick them for you and then you make your bouquet. And then um people will usually just like hang out after and  we do a lot of  We. 27:16 never stop. So there's always something to do up here. And we also have  farm the tables.  We have chefs come up and cook you a meal. And, you know, we have a big long table out here. yeah,  so it never stops.  That's so fun. Okay. Do you have like  a funny story or a sad story at all from from  your experience doing this? ah 27:46 Well, actually, so there is a,  let's see. 27:52 There is a funny story where, like said, Holly's cat around here, no Clover, and Holly's my sister's cat. And I was literally out there in the field cutting and Clover comes out and starts chasing birds. And so all I see are birds flying everywhere. I'm what the hell is going on? 28:21 And she was trying to be a huntress, but she didn't catch any birds.  um, um I mean, that was kind of a lame story, but  not really a lot of crazy stuff happens up here. Besides when you get home to the farmhouse and all these animals are here  where, you know, you can honestly have to keep an eye on them because they'll go off and adventure off. 28:45 Yeah, that's that's one of the things that they do that you're like,  um, are they trampling all my flowers?  Yeah, they, um, that's why I try to keep them at the house.  But Tulip, my sister's dog,  she hears a side by side on and she's like, I mean, is,  I've never seen a dog run so fast.  So you really have to like just gun it as soon as she's in the backyard, you just gun it and hopefully you make it in time before she gets in. 29:15 Oh my goodness.  it's  honestly, it's quite comical  how much craziness happens up here with the whole family here, but especially at the house. Not so much in the fields because I keep them away, you know? ah But man, it's just  like I just had to go grab Holly, my sister's cat, from the puppies.  And she was  climbing up the screening porch while they were barking. I was like, dude. 29:45 trying to do an interview here.  That's okay. We keep it real because we don't want to act like AI.  Yeah, true. Nope, no artificial intelligence here. It's actual intelligence here. um And that's a good line. I should keep that. That was good. Yeah, it was really good. Actual intelligence. That's my AI. um I have a little short funny story about our cat that is no longer with us.  Less than five pound female cat. 30:16 came walking out of our tree line with a more than five pound wild rabbit in her mouth that she had caught. Wow. That's awesome. Yep. looked like she was going to tip over. And I was like, that rabbit is bigger than she is. How did she to get it?  That was nuts. My husband looked at me. looked at him and we're just like, I don't understand how she did that. That's crazy.  So that's  the craziest thing I've seen here since we moved in  six years ago in August. 30:47 Yeah, that is great. Yeah, nuts. uh Okay, so where can people find you online, Connor?  Let's terraforms.com  and uh the whole story of our  beginning adventures  and ever expanding is on there. And then  also Facebook. I am thinking about doing a YouTube channel maybe  at some point. I think you should. I know I uh 31:17 It's funny, I got a new phone. I had a phone for like four years just because I'm cheap. I really don't care. But I got a new phone and finally I had like good camera quality. So I did the video. Yeah. I was like, man, it took me four years, you know? Well, you're handsome and you're well spoken. I don't see any reason why you can't do a YouTube channel. well, thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Connor, thank you so much for taking the time today to talk with me. 31:46 I say this to all my guests. know you're really busy and I do not ever take for granted the time that you share with me. Of course, it is my pleasure and I appreciate you reaching out to me and it's exciting. It's my first podcast ever, so it's pretty awesome. You did great. As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com. Connor, I hope you have a great day. Tell your mom, thanks for being awesome and... 32:14 I hope the tropical storm doesn't do any damage for you. Yeah, same here. I'll take this breeze though.  Have a great day. You too. Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Hannah at Linden Hill Ranch LLC.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:29 Today I'm talking with Hannah at Linden Hill Ranch LLC in Missouri. Good afternoon, Hannah. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. How are you, Mary? I am a little frazzled. I don't know why, but I am.  I think it might be the heat. So I always say, how's the weather? You're in Missouri. Clearly it's hot.  Yes.  It's  think upper eighties today, but we're going to be back in the nineties real soon. 00:57 And humid, of course.  Yeah, the humidity, the dew point is just kicking our butts here in Minnesota. We don't have tropical dew points  for more than a few days in a row,  usually in the summer. And it's been tropical dew points for over a week.  like, um I feel like Frosted Snowman at the end of the show when he melts. 01:25 Yes. I'm dating myself because I don't think that that show is even played on network TV anymore at Christmas time. But I was born in 1969. So Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and all those cute little cartoons that they played at Christmas time. I got to watch those every year growing up. 01:52 And I'm talking about winter stuff to make myself think that it's not as hot as it is. So,  all righty. So,  tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do  at Linden Hill Ranch. Sure. So, um right now we're running a  small regenerative grazing operation with commercial katan hair sheep.  We have livestock guardian dogs that help keep them safe. 02:21 And we've recently  introduced horses into our rotational grazing program. And we also have, let me count.  I think we got 26 birds, uh combination of chickens and guinea fowl and turkeys. Okay. I have to know, did you have experience with horses before you introduced them to the farm? To the ranch? So that's, that's, I'll try to. 02:50 try to sum that up. So I had a little bit of contact with Western pleasure in my earlier life. uh My daughter, when she was in her  preteen, early teens got into English  dressage. And so she's been  getting a lot of horsemanship in her life.  We've sort of been reading and learning and... 03:16 We really wanted for her to have a horse of her own on property just for the, there's a lot of value. Horses are deeply sensitive, very attuned animals. And we couldn't get one, you have to get two because they need a friend. So we, you know, did like what we did with everything. We read, we studied, we learned, we found people who've done it, you know, for years and years that we could kind of pull on their knowledge. 03:46 And yeah, so we've had our horses here on property for,  I'd say,  let me count  pastors because we're rotating them. I would say it's been close to a month and a half now. Nice. Are you enjoying it? I'm sure she is, but are you enjoying it?  Oh, I'm loving it.  I  used to in my previous life have a pretty stressful job that I worked  and em 04:15 Having the horses, my horse is, he's  a 15 hand quarter horse gelding. And he kind of picked me because I wasn't sure that I was looking for a horse  and he's  lovely. I'll just go out there, we'll breathe together and he wants to be hugged and cuddled.  So  he's my buddy. And so that's kind of what I get out of it now.  And then the other horse was. 04:44 I'm unhandled and he's my daughter's project horse. He's coming along nicely. Nice. Um, it sounds like you got yourself a puppy dog horse.  Nomad is definitely, definitely like that. And I appreciate him just for what he is. And  I just, I like,  I love that horses, have to find your zero. You have to find  your, some people might call it Zen space. I'm not in the Buddhist tradition.  So 05:12 I hope I'm not misusing that term, but it's that place of, you know, sort of passionless peace. And that's what horses like to be. And then you can be with it, with them, if you learn. Yeah, I call it centering. m And that way I don't have to worry about offending anybody or appropriating anything because  appropriating is a terrible thing nowadays. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I say that kind of with a curl to my 05:41 my lip because I feel like I've always been told that that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Yeah. But I feel like now imitation is the highest form of insult and it kind of drives me a little crazy. Yeah. It's it's a complicated world out there isn't it? It is. And if I'm 56 and I'm having 06:12 trouble feeling my way through all the changes in words. Can you imagine how it is for my almost 80 year old mom and 80 almost 83 year old dad? Yeah. They it's so funny. My dad is very, very with it. He's very hip. He's very, very up to date, but he's 83 years old. He's seen a lot of change or he will be 83 years old. 06:37 I keep thinking he's 83 because he'll be 83 on July 30th.  And my mom  is  with it  and very up to date, but she doesn't really follow. She's not very social, so she's not with younger people very often.  And so my dad will say something and she'll be like, what's that? Because she wasn't with him when he heard the new term. So it's been really interesting watching how they 07:05 gather information and how they perceive it. Yeah. I think part of the key to all of this and to livestock and to homesteading is empathy. Yeah. It's whenever we put ourselves in the shoes of others or even our animals, our plants and think about, if I, what do I, what did they need? What would 07:33 If I were them,  if I were a  sheep or a livestock dog or I'm an apple orchard, what do I need? What are my needs? I think, I think people,  it's, we're all, we're all kind of the same. We're all part of this universe together. And like, this is, this is something I'm learning. Like empathy is, empathy is so important and relationships. And I just think it might apply to almost everything. Yeah. 08:03 I think so too. And if you and I can just put that bug in people's ears with this episode of having compassion for your fellow man  and instead of saying, why are you like that? Why don't you say what happened to you? Yeah. It changes the frame. Yes.  So we could do a whole psychology episode, but we're not going to. 08:29 I want to hear about your Katatins, but I also want to hear about your livestock guardian dogs because  we do not have a livestock guardian dog. We have a small Australian Shepherd. Her name is Maggie. I talk about her at an ad museum because I love her to pieces. She will be six in August and she is a fantastic watchdog. That is her job at our homestead.  So tell me about yours. 08:55 Okay. I love to talk about my dogs. So here it goes.  So,  um,  let me talk about them in the order that we got them. So  just for some clarification,  we moved to our current larger acreage, um,  homestead, farmstead, just a couple of months ago. Before that we lived in a big city  and we had a small property under 40 acres,  um, where we basically ranched our sheep. 09:24 And so we were doing the driving back and forth. ah One of the things that was really key for us for that was our livestock guardian dogs. So we got our first, um well, back up even further, we got our very first livestock guardian dog, a purebred Anatolian Shepherd female a little over five years ago. And we got her while you were still in the city. Oh, wow. Hoping we were,  yeah, this is how we learned about Anatolian Shepherds, but. 09:53 She's been able to manage her pretty well. I've had no incidents to report of anything negative happening with her, but she, yeah, we raised her in the city in our home and I took her on walks and the hope was that we would be able to get property sooner. And sometimes things don't happen on the timetable you want. So we ended up with this lovely, lovely, very protective watchdog, as you can imagine. 10:22 who adores us  and is a little suspicious of guests and visitors. So, you know, she has a place where we can put her where she's safe whenever we have visitors out here. But that was our first introduction to Livestock Guardian Dogs. OK, I have a question. How old was she when you got her? We got her at about 10, 11 weeks.  Oh, so not only Anatolian Shepherd, but Anatolian Shepherd puppy. 10:49 We raised, we raised a puppy, but she wasn't the first, she was the first puppy that we raised, not first one that didn't actually  get to be with livestock. But  yes, a puppy.  we  had, we don't, we don't go, we, go all in. um Um,  but we, but we really work hard to educate ourselves, um, and get mentors and read and study and learn and practice because you have to be careful. I mean, I think. 11:19 I would not recommend that for a lot of people to get that kind of a dog. You must have been what about 20 pounds when you got her? I don't even remember. She was just little and she was lovely. mean, we didn't have issues with her except that she reached an age where we would have to put her someplace safe. 11:47 so that she wouldn't be an absolute  menace.  We had people over and they're not all that way. uh Our second dog is uh allegedly an Anatolian shepherd. I think he's got about a quarter of great Pyrenees was kind of a rescue situation. And we got him  a month within the same month that we got our first sheep. He was about five or six and he had some issues. uh 12:15 He was afraid of everything. He's something that I suspect is that they use fear to train him. And the result is that he's kind of anxious  about a lot of things,  but he's very bonded to us. So we still have him,  but  he can't be with sheep because he wants to run away and hide when he hears thunderstorms,  know, gunshots, fireworks. So that was a bit of a challenge, but 12:45 We also, and here's this, even, it's hilarious just saying this, cause like, is  almost,  this is about, wow, four years ago that we did this. uh I'm losing time here, but uh we also got three puppies that,  see, it's funny,  three puppies that were raised to be livestock guardian dogs  with sheep and goats. And two of them had grown up. uh 13:13 you know, up to the point where we got them around 11, 12 weeks again, uh, with sheep and goats. So they already knew the drill.  Um, and we, we endeavored to keep them separate from the sheep when we weren't on property with the sheep. And then we would let them out and do training, supervised training for a couple of hours at a time.  Um, and we've got two really great dogs out of those three,  uh, one,  uh, one of them, unfortunately, uh, we're not sure if it was a copperhead or a hornet. 13:43 Uh, she was stung by something highly venomous  and dumb and she died and we were, we were heartbroken.  Um, but we still have, um,  so we still have, um,  two Anatolian crosses. One's Anatolian Maremma and the one is Anatolian Akbosh  and the Anatolian Akbosh, um, looks like a yellow lab, but whiter. Um, and he, sometimes he acts like it, but he's, uh, he was a handful. had to really, we had to actually separate him out for. 14:13 a year and a half because he got way too chasey with the sheep, even  as an adult dog. And now he's back in uh the other dog, the Anatolian Maremma. She's always been wonderful and she's,  she's fantastic. She was born to do this job. ah She'd rather be with sheep than people.  Very nice. But she's a sweetheart too. So those are our, those are our dogs. 14:37 So I didn't know that chicken math could be switched over to dog math, but you got it covered.  Oops.  Yeah. You know, at the beginning we were just, we were ready to try things and the dog that we got who was already an adult, he, um, he's, he's very empathetic and I actually took him through the canine good citizen program thinking that he might be a really good therapy dog, but  I realized, you know what? 15:06 I  need some grounding and some centering sometimes.  I like having him around and  kids can hang on him and he's just really happy to get to be there to be loved.  That's purpose.  It sounds like you said it was crazy listening to yourself tell the story,  but it sounds like it's all worked out just fine. A lot of work, a lot of tears, a lot of  ... 15:35 anxious, agonizing about, my God, how do we solve this little problem over here? And I think we just had to stick with it and not give up and find resources and work hard. And that's probably every Homesteader story at this stage. absolutely is. I have yet to talk to anybody who has a farm, a ranch, or a homestead who says, 16:02 Oh, I get up in the morning, I make coffee, everything goes exactly the way I want it to and I go back to bed at 8 o'clock at night. Oh yeah. No, that does not happen. No. And if you're lucky, if you're really lucky, the things that go wrong are minor. Yeah. If you're not lucky, it can be a disaster. So, and I don't want to put people off of this lifestyle. I think that it's wonderful. But the one thing I would tell anybody. 16:32 who is looking to move to property. And I said, do not have to be acreage. Let's just make that clear.  When you're looking to move to more than an acre and have animals and have gardens,  just be aware that where you have livestock, you have dead stock. um that gardens are a crap shoot. One year you can have the best garden ever,  and the next year you can have no garden at all because you did all the same things and it failed. Yeah, yeah, that's real. 17:01 You got to be tough and you got to be committed  and you've got to be ready to handle whatever happens. That's how I feel about it anyway.  All right. So, Catodon hair sheep. I have met some. They are  lovely animals and when they blow their coats, it makes your yard look like it snowed in the summertime.  Yes.  Yes.  So tell me about your Catodons. Sure. um 17:29 So right now, we're kind of on the smaller side. We've got about 65 head. We've sent some to market. We've sold a few to another homesteader. And we've got two breeding rams, we're like, honestly, we've been doing the sheep for about three or four years now. And we're kind of 17:58 We've experienced three lambing seasons, all very different. uh One decent one,  one really wonderful, magical one, which was year two, and year three.  And this, I'll  throw this story in for people thinking about doing hair sheet because everything that you do matters. uh we were keeping all of them on the same property about 18:26 30, little over 35 acres. em But there was some miscalculation on the fences between the rams and the ewes.  Now, if you know anything about Katahdin hair sheep, they cycle in and out of estrus. Usually it's after the summer equinox, approximately. And that's if they're nursing  lambs, that might be delayed a bit. But 18:54 Anyway, we aim to breed  at the beginning, I'd say actually, no, not the beginning, mid to late November. And what happened last fall, there  was, as I said, there was some miscalculation with the fence and the fence spacing and kind of where everyone was located. And we found the rams in with the ewes that late October. 19:20 And if you know anything about sheep gestation, means you're going to have lambs being born uh possibly in the coldest part of the winter.  Unless you get lucky. And we didn't get lucky, Mary.  We did  not. no.  So it was, it was a very hard time because we, we had worked so hard. We thought that, you know, we were doing a lot of, we doing a lot of things right. And then 19:47 You know, it was pretty devastating because there was a cold snap right around the time that they were born.  So  we lost about  close to half  of the lambs. The other half that survived are tough little guys though. Oh my gosh. But that was, that's a really, it's a really painful experience and you know, woulda, coulda, shoulda. Yeah. Like if we were,  if we were 20:16 perfect, you know, livestock managers that wouldn't have happened. But you know, we're just, we're just not.  And most people aren't, maybe nobody, but I'll just, you know, there's a small segment that maybe think they are. And  I don't want to, I don't want to burst no bubbles because  learning that way though, that you made a mistake that had that kind of, you know,  results is just like,  oh, it's like a gut punch. but,  not. 20:42 Not necessarily because of that. We're kind of, looking at diversifying species.  So we're, we're just kind of looking at some things. We might have some good things coming,  but we're in the deciding phase.  So, uh, yeah. I think that a lot of people are in a transition period right now.  It's been six years since COVID turned us all upside down. uh lot of people. 21:10 made big, big changes during COVID. We were one of those people. I mean, my husband.  That sounds really dumb. We were one of those people. My husband and I were some of those people.  And we're trying to figure out what we want to do now too. there's a lot of things going on right now, whether it's do we keep the farm? Do we go back to closer to the city?  Do we keep doing the same things we've been doing for five years on the farm? Blah, blah, blah. 21:39 Yeah, it makes sense. Everybody, everybody got shook up six years ago. Yes, in one way or another.  And a lot of people took that year where they weren't really socializing and had time to stop and breathe and think through their lives and decide what they wanted to do next. Yes.  Yes. Now we're now six years past that and we're back in the same spot of what do we want to do next? m 22:08 And it's exciting and it's scary. 22:12 Yeah, definitely. But uh you raised the sheep for meat and to be able to sell some of them for other people to have? Yes.  Yes. And they're very beautiful and colorful.  I love watching them. They're so neat and they're very, sheep are way smarter than people give them credit for.  A lot of  it, for me, it's back to empathy. What motivates them is very different from motivates a person. 22:42 They want, they, well,  and then, and then now I'm thinking, but maybe not, but maybe not,  but they're, they're naturally, they're prey animals. And so they're, yeah, like they, I wish that I could communicate this better to people because everybody, oh yeah, dumb sheep. And I'm like, yeah, they're not dumb. They might look dumb to you, but that's because  something different's motivating their actions than  you or someone else. 23:09 Yeah. So I just think they're, I think they're lovely and I didn't want sheep actually five, six years ago. I was like, let's get cattle. What do you mean sheep? But sheep was a really good, it was a good introduction for us so that we can, could be ready for bigger and different kinds of livestock in the future. So I have a really funny question. You know how mama cats are with their kittens when the kittens are little, the kittens are all curled up with them when they're done nursing and they just look like a kitten puddle with mom. 23:39 Yeah. Sheep don't do that, do they? No,  they'll let those babies suck them dry. Sometimes.  Sometimes you have to keep an eye on it because they won't leave her.  They'll naturally wean eventually, but there's,  I'm thinking there might be some wisdom to separating them out. just, I think there'd be a lot of  variances to win. 24:09 Okay, so  are sheep  good moms?  Do they act like they love their lambs or are they just like, do they just feed them and they're like, eh, whatever? You know what? I've seen some variety in that, but I've also seen some,  consistently I've seen  some of the ewes that are very protective of their babies and they'll stamp their foot. They'll even kind of buck up to, like if the dog is getting too close, they'll... 24:38 They'll tell the dog no.  And it's really impressive to me  because  they're not natural fighters, but there's something about that mothering instinct that really kicks in on  some of them. they're just, I love seeing it. just, they can be very fantastic mothers. Okay. I was just curious because  I am a sucker for a baby animal video  and I've been watching Katie Banz likes uh 25:06 YouTube videos and her Facebook page because  she lives in,  I don't even remember, Tennessee maybe. Do know who I'm talking about? I'd say the name again because I don't think of Katie. 25:21 Ha, ha, haven't seen her. Running Springs farm or something like that.  Anyway, she has many horses and many cows uh and she has full size horses.  Every spring, well, every early spring, like after January, there's always foals being born. And  I just love how baby horses look and how they act. And they're like little goats, except that they're horses. 25:51 She has the cows and the mini cows and again, cloven hoofed critters. Ruminants.  I just, get such a kick out of all the ruminants because  they're, they all have different personalities. They all have different energy and they all just look different even though they're from the same  breed, whatever they are, whether I'm looking at horses or sheep or or  cows. And so it's always fun to find out how 26:21 a person's specific animals are  as  moms or as  bucks,  know, the breeding males or how the babies are because I never hear the same story twice.  Yes. Yes. But it's super cool. um So  so tell me again, you've only been you've only been at this ranch thing for a few months. Is that what you said in the beginning? 26:50 No, no, we, so we bought our first property in 2022. And we've been, we'd spent a few years looking and planning and using some resources, Bud Williams stockmanship, Alan Savory, HMI and Greg Judy. These are all people who do different things with livestock handling and rotational grazing. So then we put sheep on the property. 27:20 in spring of 23. So we've so we're we're we're just we're beginning our fourth year with sheep.  we just moved the horses are new. The horses are new. And we started flirting, which is really exciting. That's F L E R D I N G. That's when you run a flock with  a herd. So we've got the two  boy horses, the two gildings uh with our two breeding rams and 27:47 It's going pretty good. We got some advice from a guy who's been breeding horses and sheep and having them together for decades. I believe he's in Michigan. And  he just kind of gave us some advice about what to try and, you know, encouraged us that, yeah, it can be done. It's safe. It's if you do it right. And so that's been a lot of fun to watch the horses get, you know, very horsey and,  know, oh, my gosh, what is that? know, oh, is it a dog? Oh, my God. You know, and then. 28:14 Now they're kind of calmed down and everyone's grazing and they're chill.  Do have the horses gone over to the sheep yet?  Um, so they, kind of, I don't, well, and I've, I've got a little bit of a health issue that  it flares up bad in the summer. So I'm only able to go visit them  in the early, the cool part of the morning and the cool part of the evening.  So I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but each day that I go out there. 28:44 They're grazing closer and closer and they're not startling each other because the horses, boy, oh boy, they see something strange. It's,  they get very horsey. They  run around. They don't appreciate it.  But they're, they're settling in and they're, the rams, they're very docile and the gildings, they're, they're, they're fine. They're, they're pretty,  pretty neat too. Pretty, pretty chill animals. And  it's so far it's working great. 29:13 Good, I didn't know you could do that. So again, we're taking you on another episode of A Tiny Homestead. Do you have any... I don't know how to ask this. My nose is so stuffed up right now that it's hurting my eyes and I'm trying to think. Do you guys have cornfields or soybean fields or alfalfa fields anywhere near you right now? We do have cornfields. 29:41 trying to think how far there's one section that's about and see this is just along the road I would say like two miles away but then I think we've got some that are about a mile to the north of us as well so not not line of sight everyone  where we are is super hilly a lot of change in elevation really fast and it's very rocky so it's not well suited to row cropping which is we like that 30:11 because we're not going to do that. That's not our purpose. And it means we're not surrounded by, well, we're not super close on top of people who are spraying and fertilizing and adding a lot of chemical amendments to the soil. That's helpful. was going to say part of reason my nose is so stuffed up is the cornfield across the road from us. Oh. It's beginning to do the tasseling and the pollining thing. Yes. 30:39 I have allergies to corn pollen because I grew up on the East Coast. Oh, wow. I wasn't around corn fields growing up and I moved to Minnesota where it's the land of corn fields and soybean fields and alfalfa fields and wheat fields and oat fields. pollen just kicks my butt this time of year. And my husband came in from work yesterday. He said, I got bad news. Or not from work yesterday, he came in from outside. And I said, what? And he said, the 31:08 the cornfield across the street and he didn't even have to finish it. I said, it's starting to do a thing, isn't it? And he said, yeah. He said, your voice is going to be very low by Friday. So if you don't have any podcast scheduled to record, I would suggest maybe don't do any on Friday. was like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I'm looking at two weeks, two weeks of my voice is going to fun. It always is. 31:33 Luckily the field around our house that we don't own is soybeans this year. Once this particular field across the road is done, it should be better. I've said this a bunch of times, gonna say it again. I hate high summer. I hate it. It's corn season. Yeah. Partly because in Minnesota we never know if it's gonna be 32:02 95 degrees with a 72 dew point or if it's going to be 69 degrees with a 39 dew point. just never know. The weather here is weird. Always has been from what I've been told. I've been here for over 30 years and the over 30 years I've been here. It's been weird every summer. So yeah, corn. Yay. Yay corn. excited. 32:30 So I try to keep these to half an hour. I am really excited for you that you guys decided to do this and that you have tried some things and now you're looking to add some new things in and I can't wait to find out what they are. Me too. So where can people find you online? Right now I mostly just have a presence on Facebook. We have a page. It's Lyndon Hill Ranch LLC. 32:59 And I also do TikTok and it's videos of me doing things around the farm and sometimes talking about regenerative agriculture. Those are the main two places right now. Fun. Can we take two minutes and can you give me your version of regenerative agriculture? Because I know what it means for me, but I keep hearing people have slightly different definitions. So what does it mean for you? 33:26 Sure. So to me, regenerative agriculture  is it's  sourcing  food from animals and plants and trees  in such a way that doesn't take from the earth, but it puts back. So we're putting the carbon back in the ground. um We're adding it back in through rotational grazing, uh not quite so high density, but 33:56 sometimes  we'll move them very frequently. then  they, and this is the animal part,  which is the part I'm most excited about. They eat for a day, we move them to the next paddock. And right now I think they're on about half, 0.4 to half an acre a day for 24 hours. And then we move them and we use a temporary electric fence. And  because that simulates, uh 34:22 like the way predator pressure used to push the bison across the American plains.  And that's, mean, that  when, that was the case  across our prairie lands, we had wonderful soil, but unfortunately with  the introduction of a lot of the chemicals, which  I understand why  large scale farmers use them. I do, but. 34:50 It's stripping us of our topsoil.  so regenerative agriculture, we try to put it back in.  So it's adding to not taking away, working with nature.  We also do permaculture. I'm working on my teacher certificate right now. So that plays a part for me.  But I really, feel like  it's  about giving and abundance and reciprocity. 35:18 in nature, it's there and we just want to be a part of it and mimic it. Perfect. Thank you.  You did a really good job on that because sometimes it's hard to explain regenerative agriculture. Yeah, I agree. was fabulous. All right. always, you can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Hannah, thank you for taking the time today. I know you're busy, so thank you again. Thank you, Mary. Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Nicole at Happy Hippie Homestead.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Nicole at the Happy Hippie Homestead  in Kentucky. Good afternoon, Nicole. How are you? Hello. Hello. How's it going? It's going good. The weather here in Minnesota is gray and it's going to start raining again any minute. And I don't know if you know what the weather's been like in Minnesota for the last week and a half, but it's been hot and we have gotten rain every day for the last seven days now. 00:53 It's been kind of like that here, but we've gotten rain the last couple of days, which we're grateful for because the garden could use a good drink.  Um, so we're, we're happy that we got some. Yeah. Yeah. It's been like a hundred here. What about you guys? Like humid and hot too? A week ago, Monday. So not three days ago, but a week ago.  Um, 01:22 It was  really,  really  muggy. Like it was above tropical dew point. And we don't get that very often in Minnesota. It was a very long, very sloggy day that Monday. That's hard. That's hard. Yep. we get them a lot here.  used to that. So yeah, very muggy and humid here in the summer. 01:47 Yeah, it'll be muggy, but it's not like you step outside and you're in the shower. That's how it felt last Monday. Yeah. It was gross. My dog was very unhappy all day. She's a, an Australian shepherd and she has the real thick curly hair. Oh yeah.  And oh she laid around  all day and every time I would walk by her, she'd just look up at me like, mom fix it. Oh yeah. 02:16 Our dogs like to go out for a little, you know, runs around the big backyard, but then, you know, are happy to come back in because it's just too much sometimes.  yeah. She,  usually if I let her out, she'll go out in the grass and she'll do her rolly pollies. So she rolled around on her back and her tummy  and,  she just hangs out for maybe 15 minutes. And I let her out that day at about two o'clock in the afternoon. She walked out to the edge of the cement pad, got on the grass. 02:46 and immediately came back up the steps to be let back in.  No laying in the grass, no roly-poly's.  I was like, oh, it must be really miserable for you because this is not your routine. So yeah,  it's been bad. um But our gardens are really liking the heat and then the little bit of rain every day. So I'm very excited about our gardens this year. Oh, that's nice. That's always so good. 03:14 when you have your garden going nice, you know. Oh, it looks so pretty right now. It is so gorgeous. And  every time I look at it, I'm just like, please hang in there. Just keep going. Keep going. I want many, many tomatoes this year. Please. I  I beg my garden to behave, you know. Yes,  it's yeah, it's interesting. We work because we're always like if we. 03:43 plant too early, you know, and then it gets real hot and humid and then you get like, you know, you could get blight or whatever. So you try to, you know, time it. So things are looking pretty good  right now. So we're hoping, we're hoping that's a good mater year. Yeah. The last two summers have been not good for us. So the fact that we have over 190 tomato plants in the garden right now looking healthy and happy. 04:09 is a very welcome site and we thought we were going to lose those because we had early blight. But somehow, somehow they recovered. I don't know how. I think the good Lord said, you guys had miserable summers. The last two summers were tomatoes. I'm going to fix your plants. I was like, thank you.  Thank you.  So, so tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Happy Hippie Homestead. 04:35 So um we grow all kinds of vegetables.  We have a no-till garden. um We  use all the animal waste and compost it and put that back into the garden. And we don't do  sprays or anything.  And we also use all the wasted hay to mulch the garden. 05:02 kind of use like the roost out or the lasagna method if you're familiar with that. em And tell me what it is for the listener though if you want to talk about. Oh yes, yes. So it's basically where you, you know, just keep piling up plant matter and compost  and it's a good weed preventative when you do that, but it also helps to keep the moisture in the ground and keeps the ground a little bit cooler. 05:31 which is nice when we have summers like what we were talking about.  So the ground doesn't get too hot and dry out. And then it helps um also with erosion.  And  it's something that, you know, we really don't want to go out and have to weed um constantly  or, you know, do any tilling. So it really helps, you know, if you just keep piling your hay on there, it helps to prevent all that. um 06:00 And it also can help to keep pests down. So, you you just mulch very heavily around the plants and it makes it, you know, a little more challenging for the pests to take over. You know, gives the plants kind of time to take a foothold. But we do, you know, try to get out and we do... 06:24 do a lot of succession planting. So we try to just keep things going for all season. One of the things we grow here is an organic garlic that we've grown and saved seeds from for the whole time we lived here 13 years. 06:44 That's really interesting. We also raise Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats  and  make cheeses and soaps  and  other products like, you know, make some Kehita caramel and yogurts and different products also make some like sugar scrubs and stuff with the goat milk.  And we have chickens. 07:14 and mostly for eggs, we will, you know, sometimes for meat too.  And we just mostly do it  for our own enjoyment and because we want to eat really good, high quality food  and we just really love, um you know, interacting with our property. We also raise bees and harvest honey and it's just interesting. 07:43 to kind of be, you know, you're kind of like the caretaker of an ecosystem. And so we really just enjoy and it's just, you know, me and my husband and we do everything mostly with physical labor. We don't have a tractor. So it kind of helped to keep us physically fit too as a, like an extra bonus. 08:11 pretty much working out  all day every day and just getting to be outside. It's just something that we do that we love. It's fun. When did you start doing this? Well, um we've been married for over 20 years and at our old house,  had  our whole backyard  was basically a garden.  I had grown up in a garden because my grandmother always had a garden. um 08:40 So it's just something that I've done my whole life.  I picked strawberries and beans and everything out of her garden and she would always can. My grandfather was a doctor and I didn't really know  at the time, but looking back, he really  emphasized your diet and nutrition  and  to make sure that you got. 09:08 you know, the vitamins and minerals that you needed. And I just realized that they, you know, showed me all that through their gardening.  And they always grew me pumpkins and things. And so I've just always  loved, you know, to grow stuff. 09:29 He was a wise man. Yes, he was. They were different. You know, the old school doctors  and I've had some really good old school vets  that, you know, have been phenomenal.  And that's really what everything, you know, everything  is based on, you know, the nutrition and the management. And that's,  you know, really what we focus on here. 09:58 because we want to maintain the soil health and we want uh like all the animals  and the humans that live here  to be able,  you know, to thrive in the conditions.  And we, we do a lot of rotational grazing. uh We do a lot of stuff with the goats up in the woods where we help to maintain the native plants  and eat back a lot of the invasives. 10:29 um We appreciate that the goats mow for us a lot, so we don't really have to use a lot of, you know, like mechanical efforts, don't have to put pressure  on the property like that as much. And it helps to save them fuel costs.  So I have a question that I haven't asked yet of people who have goats, and I should have asked it many, many episodes ago.  Do you think that 10:59 the work that your goats do for you offset what it costs to feed them. 11:06 I mean, in so many ways,  you know, there's just the aspect of being around  them. Sure. You know, helps to help you  to connect with your own nervous system and to be able to regulate it. And I mean, also teach yoga,  not goat yoga, just traditional 11:35 Angar style Hatha yoga. And you know, for me, just being around the animals is very relaxing. I mean, of course it can be very stressful at times when you're dealing with something, but just the day to day routine of being around them, you know, just makes our lives more content. 12:03 But yes, I mean, they fertilize the property. That's why  we do  the rotational grazing so we can, you know, just kind of move them around  and. 12:15 They're just,  you know, they really help to maintain the property. You know,  you would really be amazed. And we've done some videos on our page,  you know, like take them on morning turnout and take a little video and then compare it to video just a few hours later where they've completely eaten back, you know, a section of the tree line. 12:42 So yes, I mean, who wants to go out to a tree line and try to beat it back with,  you know, so yes, the goats do  a tremendous amount for our property and for us, you know. I kind of thought that would be your answer, but  I wanted to hear it from your mouth because  I keep meaning to ask people this and I forget. And part of the reason that I asked is because we have 12 or 14 chickens right now. 13:12 I tried to get my husband to up the price because we sell them for five. We sell the eggs for five dollars a dozen. I was like, you you could sell them for six dollars a dozen. We've been selling them for five dollars a dozen for years. And he was like, no. And I said, OK, you rarely ever just flat saying, no, what you're thinking. And he said, I don't want to give out specifics, he said, but they are paying for themselves. 13:39 They are supporting themselves by selling the eggs at $5 a dozen. I said, oh, by how much? And he said, more than half. 13:51 said,  oh, okay. And he said, we want our neighbors to have good eggs. He said, I don't want to charge our neighbors another dollar to get good eggs. I said, that is your baby.  You decide that that is fine. So I'm not pushing anymore.  Now I would like to circle back because to  add on to the answer to your question. Sure. There is a point where there would be too many. 14:21 goats. oh that's something that each  property  has a certain amount of pressure  from livestock that it can take without it starting to be in the detrimental zone.  that's part of it too. try to maintain a balance and be very specific about the size of our herd because that can get 14:49 very out of control very quickly um when you're breeding.  you want to make sure that you keep it a manageable amount, not only for the pressure just on the ground,  but also  the parasite load.  And  we also try to breed for  parasite and disease resistance. 15:18 So, you know, all of that is a delicate balance too.  And, you know, everybody has to decide for, you know, for their own farms, what is that number? um So that it does stay in some sort of uh you know, favor. 15:38 Yeah, that does make sense. Absolutely. So I have a question about predators in Kentucky, because oh I'm in Minnesota. The only real predator we have in southwest Minnesota is coyotes, and coyotes are shoot on site here. So what do you guys have in Kentucky? Anything? Well, I might get a little bit of blowback for my answer, but I don't. 16:03 I  don't have the same ideas about coyotes. I feel like they show a good ecosystem. My parents were cattle farmers  and we live next door to a dairy. We never have any sort of issue with coyotes.  And honestly, I can say that, I don't know, we live  on like a one lane road with all cattle farms and I don't know one farmer that's ever lost one to a coyote. 16:33 So they're not an issue for you guys. 16:38 I mean, no. what would be a problem would be black vulture. People do have problems with them. And there are, you know, different predators, of course, for the chickens and stuff. But the way I look at it is I'm here in nature. 17:00 We're surrounded by nature and we're in, you know, the animals ecosystem as much as they're in ours.  Okay.  And it's our responsibility as the caretakers to take care of our chickens. So we don't leave our chickens out, you know, unattended at night  or out, you know, we have them in a predator proof coop in at night and then they can go out during the day. And then we have some movable fences for them. 17:30 And you know, but what I'm saying is  it's my responsibility to take care of the animals  and make sure that I predator proof my areas because I have to realize that they live here and they also have a purpose. em You know, a lot of those coyotes eat  other different vermin that may or may not carry disease. And we also don't want 17:59 those vermin to be overpopulated on our property as much as we don't want too many goats or we want to keep everything in a balance. So everything has its own purpose.  that why you thought you'd get blowback because you're saying that you don't want to deal with the predators because they have just as much right to be there as you do? I mean, it's just a different take. A lot of times people don't  necessarily understand or agree with that stance, but 18:28 I always feel like there's always people so worried about coyotes and I've been around a long time. I don't really know farmers that are having a problem with coyotes. Sure, I think that it's overblown. I think that the worry  is overblown if you will make sure that you have some good enclosures for your animals. It's a non-issue, I guess is what I'm saying. 18:56 The fences are your responsibility, our responsibility. And  I don't have any coyotes climbing over my fences or anything. So you know what I'm saying? just  have a different take on how I interact with predators.  Sure. Yes. em And we haven't had any coyote issues here at our property.  But coyotes. 19:25 are definitely, there's a lot of them  in our area. And if we didn't take care of our chickens, if we didn't have a good fence for our chicken run, and if we didn't have a good chicken coop,  we probably wouldn't have any chickens, because the coyotes would be availing themselves  of Yeah, definitely.  I know what you're saying. And the pests that we have actually had issues with, 19:52 is raccoons. lost raccoons last year, or chickens, raccoons last year. Because we had the corner of the fence had come loose and we didn't know the chicken fence. And we lost like five chickens one night, two, a mama raccoon and her four babies. Oh yeah, that's never fun. My husband was like, should I, you know, shoot them? And I was like, no. 20:22 And he said, why not? I said, because if you fix the fence, they will go away. They will find an easier food source. Yeah, exactly. And he fixed the fence and they left. They didn't stay because there was no food source for them. Exactly. So I'm with you. I am not pushing back. I'm agreeing with you. Yes, yes.  What about snakes? see it a lot. poisonous snakes.  We... Oh, I was just saying, we just see it a lot here. Everybody's just like, you know. 20:52 ah hunt them down and  try to get rid of them.  And I think the evidence for that shows that if you try to take all the coyotes out, you're going to have a bigger problem with other ones coming into the territory. um So that's an interesting thing too. Yes, we do have poisonous snakes here. Luckily, I don't encounter very many of them, but yes, we do. 21:22 What do you have? Copperheads? Copperheads, rattlesnakes. uh I have seen a rattlesnake,  not on our property, but somewhere else  nearby.  And I don't know if I've seen a copperhead here, but we've seen a lot of other snakes here.  And we mostly try to leave them alone too. um We would like 21:52 relocate them, know, if we find one nearby. But yeah, we don't really worry about them either because again, I think they do a great job getting, you know, some of the other varmint too.  Nature has a system and it's worked for a very long time. 22:15 agree.  We just keep messing with it. And if we'd stop messing with it, maybe things would be a little bit better. Maybe. And that's kind of what our take is. You know, we want people to look  at different ways you can do things. And it doesn't have to be, you know, everybody doing the same things. em 22:40 But you can also learn stuff from different people doing stuff differently too. 22:48 And that's one of the interesting things about social media, you know, is you can get a lot of different really great ideas,  you know, from other people. 22:59 I agree, however, I have a caveat.  yes. You live in Kentucky.  I live in Minnesota.  Your growing season is completely different than mine.  You have things that grow in Kentucky that will not grow in Minnesota.  I bet we have stuff in Minnesota that won't grow in Kentucky. Absolutely. So you're going to take advice from somebody on social media, 23:26 I see good to talk to somebody near where you live. Yes, it can be. It can be. um 23:38 I also think that you can experiment. Like I've had friends in California that we sent each other different varieties of things and tried to grow them. You might be able to get into some really cool experiments like that too.  And just try it. That's one of my big philosophies is like, 24:00 People are so afraid to fail or make a mistake. I mean, I do  trials all the time, because my mom was a science teacher. And  you have to do the experiment without the attachment to a particular result. But sometimes I'll do trials in the garden, like, um... 24:26 Okay, we did a parsnip trial. You know, well, the parsnips,  what will they do if we just let them re-seed and,  or  we'll do like, does the rhubarb like to be here or here  in the garden?  Or,  you know, you try different things and just be open to the different answers. I think the trying to force everything or like force the square peg into the round hole. 24:57 You know, sometimes that can mess stuff up, but if you're open to like other possibilities, things might work out even better.  Absolutely. Yes. I think that experimentation is super fun.  But I also think that if you are going to outlay a lot of money for a new thing, talk to  your area so that you don't end up losing out on that, because that can get real spendy really fast. 25:27 Yes, um but that's smart for like anything I think to be like, let me see this in person and how this works, which would probably be more like getting a mentor. You know, like when we got bees, we got a mentor and got into a group. And I think it's a good point you bring up because you should also do a lot of research about animals or things that you're going to get because they're living beings and they deserve that. ah 25:57 So like I do not recommend like buying a goat if you live in Kentucky from somebody from California and you've never had a goat and you don't know what you're doing and you can't get hands on, you know, mentorship or help.  So a lot of times I've met a lot of really good people at farmers markets.  I've been involved with like our local extension service. I was in a bee group and I always 26:25 do best when I have like some hands  on instruction. Like I have somebody in person, you know, that taught us how to, how to slaughter chickens. I, you know, I trim horse hooves. you know, I had somebody show me in person how to do that. So like for me, that's the way I learned and I really, you know, highly recommend that so that you can get some in-person feedback too. 26:56 But like I wouldn't buy a car from New York without going to see the car probably either, you know? So I don't think it's just farming. It's like everything, you know, for me, if you're going to spend a lot of money on something, you know, to do a lot of research. Yep. I'm always telling people when they come up with a brilliant idea to see who else has done the brilliant idea and ask questions. Yes.  I think that's great advice. 27:26 because it's so hard when you're so excited about something and you get sunk into it and then something goes wrong and you're disappointed. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't have disappointment. I think that it teaches us something. But if you can avoid the real pain and the sticking points because you did your research, I think that's a good plan. Yes. 27:54 And  some things are unavoidable.  There is going to be uh disappointments if you do  this kind of thing a long enough time.  There really isn't any escaping that. So it's kind of like, what do do with the disappointment?  Yeah,  hopefully you learn from it and do something differently the next time. 28:23 Yes, because everybody's going to make mistakes. And I think that's part of it too. Like, people don't always talk about it, you know, because you're afraid you'll be judged, maybe. You know, I know I've been,  you know, in those places before where I didn't want to, but it's like, you know,  everybody is learning at their own  pace. And sometimes you're going to make  mistakes and sometimes they're stupid. 28:49 you know, stupid mistakes that you could have avoided, but hopefully you won't do them twice. And  yeah, yeah.  And sometimes you do, sometimes you do uh do a dumb thing more than once also. 29:09 you hopefully you learn then,  I mean, you know, everybody, I think that that's one thing that goes on is, you know, there's a lot of,  especially on social media where people feel like,  you know, they can't really be honest  and that's why I think you get all the highlight reels from everybody and stuff and they don't talk about like the hard stuff all the time because 29:37 I don't know what people think if everybody just thinks like all of the homesteads  are Martha Stewart has a barn or something. don't know. You know, it's it's like everybody  is just trying to do what they can the best that they can.  Hopefully. 29:56 And you know, nothing's perfect. None of us are perfect.  And we just try to do what we can, you know? Yeah,  I had up until two Sunday mornings ago, I had a row of six beautiful apple trees.  I now have a row of five beautiful apple trees because one snapped off in a storm two Sundays ago.  And of course, it's right in the middle of the row. So now my perfect line of six trees is a perfect row of five. 30:26 I don't care because we still have five apple trees and it looks really weird. It looks like it's got a missing tooth.  But it's cute. But it's okay. Yeah. And I was just It's like character, know. Yeah, I used to think like that too or whatever. You know, like our 30:50 You know, we've lived here while so our fences aren't perfect anymore. And, you know, some of them have been had to be patched and some of them aren't perfectly painted.  I mean, I don't really want to be around people that are judging me because I need to paint a panel on my fence.  Like I really don't.  That's not the kind of vibe that, you know, I'm interested in. So it's OK. Like, I feel like we all probably judge ourselves. 31:19 any, you know, for all that anyways.  And,  you know, are you saying we're our own worst enemies, Nicole?  Yes, I am. mean, it, I think you can be. And I think that that's a whole nother thing too, you know, about  self-talk, you know, and that's, that's the mental health aspect that you can really  work on if you're paying attention. um 31:49 when you're farming. It gives you a lot of  opportunities to change your mindset  because you simply can't do it if you can't change your mindset. You cannot have the type of endurance and stamina if you don't have some sort of hope. How could you keep doing it?  I feel like it's really hard to be type A on a homestead. 32:19 Well, I'm doing it.  Yeah, but I'm saying type A typically means that you're more of a perfectionist. And I think that if you are trying to be a perfectionist on a homestead, you're going to drive yourself insane. I think that's a perfect thing for a type A personality because you need to know that perfectionism is like an obsession for the unobtainable. Yeah. 32:48 It's just you couldn't ever do it. And you  most type A people like us need that type of lesson. And that's one of those lessons you might need to experience it a few times before it's really like,  it's really okay that all my zinnias are not 1.5 inches apart or whatever it's nobody who is measuring this. 33:18 Um, other than us, you know, so I think you have, have to be  easier on ourselves, but not that easy. You know, that's about, that's a balance too. The thing that I have learned the most from living here for almost six years is that you have to learn acceptance of what nature plans, not what you plan. Yes. um 33:47 The reason I'm saying this  is  one of our female barn cats had kittens July 4th. We know that because she was pregnant  on July 3rd and the morning of July 4th she was no longer pregnant and she was due.  She was ready to pop.  She is not a super friendly barn cat. She is okay with people but she's not going to take us to see her babies.  And you can usually tell a mom a cat because you can see her teats. 34:17 Well, there's no evidence that she's nursing babies. We're  we think that she probably does not have surviving kittens.  Oh, hot as it's been.  Maybe they couldn't regulate their temperature. We don't know. And I have been looking forward to this batch of kittens since  May. Yeah,  And I'm  I'm like really torn about this because 34:46 If these babies had been born and survived,  this would be a really rough stretch for them because it's been so hot. And I may be pleasantly surprised. She may bring out three or four kittens in four weeks and they're fine. Don't know. But  the uncertainty of a lot of things on a homestead will drive you insane.  I'm just accepting the fact that if she didn't have surviving kittens, 35:15 There's a reason. And if  she comes out of the barn  with three or four kittens in four weeks,  I will be so happy to see them and I will name every single one of them.  Aww. 35:28 We had something like that happen last year where we had a broody hen and she sat, you know, and then none of the eggs were good because it was so hot. And so we had to throw them out, but she ended up having another, you know, clutch. She said another clutch of eggs and. But yeah, I know what you mean. It was very, you know, discouraging when we were like, oh, you know, we thought she was going to have. 35:57 babies and not  one, know, and,  you never know, it can happen later, you know. Yep. It is absolutely a lesson in patience and acceptance. And if you can't open your palms to the sky and say, thy will be done,  you can't do this.  It will put you under so much anxiety and stress that you will just give up. 36:26 Yeah, puts you in a position where you have to really, but I mean, I think that's life.  You know,  I think that's just life. That is  a huge part of it. And I think as we get older,  you know, we start to be able to cultivate more of those qualities too. Yup. I've learned a thing through a few podcasts and a few books lately that emotion 36:55 is a very strong driver for behavior. But if you can get through the first 90 seconds of your feelings,  take a breath and count to 10, your brain will regulate itself and then you can think and you can move forward. That's what I've learned lately.  I like it. And 90 seconds is a very long time to be feeling angry or sad or scared. But if there's no 37:25 imminent danger to you to you bodily if you hang in for a minute and a half It's okay, and there's tricks It's like if you can name five things you can see four things you can hear three things you can smell Two things you can touch one thing. I don't know whatever it is. It's it's a way of grounding yourself in that 90 seconds 37:50 I like it.  Yeah, I like that. The human brain is insane. It's it is so weird how it's all  driven by your environment and your brain will trick you into thinking that things are worse than they are. Yeah, because because for a long time humans had two responses fight or flight. 38:17 We don't necessarily have to fight or run anymore. We just have to sit in how we feel and get through it. 38:25 Yeah, and I mean the nutrition and what we feed ourselves is the basis for a lot of those chemical reactions too. And I mean there's a lot of evidence that just, you know, being able to be outside on the soil, you know, has good bacteria that really helps, helps your mental health as well. And, you know, of course your gut health is very linked to, you know, to your brain. 38:52 And that was another thing my grandfather taught me. I always thought this was so, you know, like as a kid, he would be like, how's your BM, you know, bowel movement. And he was basically taught me that like, if, if that is not, that is the one of the first places that you can see a problem. And we, we always look at all the animals poop. 39:16 We know what everybody's should look like. And that's the first place that you'll see something is a rye, you know, but the gut is basically, you know, I mean, that's,  it's,  it's everything. I mean, it's the motor,  um,  and the digestion and making sure to get rid of the toxins.  And it's, you know, it's very interesting. So,  you know, he taught me a lot, but I don't really know. 39:44 then but I can look back on it and just be like, yep. 39:49 And that's so important, you know, to have your body functioning optimally when you're doing this, because a lifestyle like what we do, you know, in 100 degree heat and freezing temperatures, I mean, that will wear you down if, you know, if you can't  maintain  everything working in your body and keep yourself in a good state of homeostasis.  absolutely.  I'm really glad 40:18 that it's your grandpa that you're talking about? Yes.  I'm really glad that you remember the things that he taught you. Yeah. I was able to spend a lot of time with both sets of my grandparents and that was really important to me that  my grandmothers both taught me how to cook. And I think that really um just really started my love of food. And I mean, then I 40:45 you know, you're able to really get that connection when you grow the food and then you can prepare it. So, I mean, our garden is a sensory experience, you know, just as much as it is, you know, a culinary um experience to be able to just go out and all the  colors and the smells and the scents and the flavors of everything. And we grow all heirloom varieties. 41:15 So it's  just fabulous,  all the different uh forums  that the beautiful food comes in.  Really amazing. Preacher to the choir, darlin', I am right there with you. ah I try to keep these to half an hour. We are now 11 minutes over that and I am good with that. This was really fun.  Where can people find you, Thank you. You can find us at Happy Hippie Homestead  on Facebook. 41:45 We're the one in Kentucky with the goats. We're the original Happy Hippie Homestead. All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Nicole, I hope you have a lovely evening and thank you again. Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres|Busy D's Caprines.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. Good morning Courtney, how are you? Good, how are you?  I'm good. I'm a little sick of the weather.  I really, really wish we get back to the, you know, 79 for the high and a light breeze and the sun shining. This, this gray and hot and sweaty is pretty bad. Yes, it is very hard for us to get in the fields to cut hay and to get in our garden. 00:57 And on the other hand, it's been really great that it's been warm  and enough rain. Because if it was just out or if it was just rain, we would be all screwed. Those of us who grow things. So  on one hand, I want to complain on the other hand, I want to be thankful. So I guess we're somewhere in the middle. I don't know. Yeah. I'm so excited to talk to you because you make goat ice cream, goat milk ice cream. Yes. And you're only on 01:27 property creamery in Scott County, Minnesota, right? Yes.  So I need to know about you and how this happened and what you do. So I'll give a little backstory. The farm has been in my family since 1885. ah Our son is the seventh generation here. ah Back in  the 70s, my grandpa got rid of the dairy cattle and they switched over to Hereford beef cattle. So we had those my entire life growing up. 01:55 And then 10 years ago, we decided to get two Nigerian dwarf goats because my husband and I cannot drink cow's milk. So we're like, let's see how this goes.  Um, I chose the Nigerian dwarfs cause they're really high in butterfat. Cause I was like, well, maybe it'll be fun to try making cheese.  Um, and then here we are 10 years later, we're, uh, on farm licensed creamery.  Uh, we have four different kinds of cheese that we make. And then the ice cream. 02:22 And  my parents are technically busy these acres and we're busy these Caprines, but we're all on the same farm. 02:30 Oh, okay. So it's a family operation. Yeah. So my husband and I are the creamery, which is the Caprines. And then the acres is the entire farm. 02:41 Is there a Facebook page for Caprines?  Nope, it's all the same page because I run them both.  it's Busy D's Acres  and then Busy D's Caprines is in the parentheses.  Instagram is way more friendly that it lets me put both of them. 02:56 Okay, cool. Facebook won't let me put them both because they're too close in names. huh. Go Fig. Love Facebook.  I do love Facebook. That sounded really snotty.  Facebook has been really weird lately. So I don't  know what's going on with it. The algorithm is  sick. I think it's got a cold. 03:19 So  anyhow, uh I have questions about the creamery because  I know in Minnesota we have the cottage food license stuff, registration stuff, and I'm guessing the creamery is not cottage food because that would be really weird. Nope, it is not. I actually have my cottage food too. We've been doing farmers markets for  over 10 years, so I have the cottage side too, but 03:46 The creamer is actually licensed and inspected. So it's the Minnesota department of egg that comes out and inspects. actually have five different inspectors.  have one on our farm side, which is what the goats are considered. And then the milk areas, the milking house  and,  um,  the milking area. And then I have a plant inspector that inspects my, it's pretty much a commercial kitchen, but it's called a plant. 04:11 And then I have an overall inspector that oversees all of them. And then I also have the retail inspection. And then I have  a  lab officer that I have to do my own antibiotic testing before I process each batch of cheese. So  I need an honest answer from you.  Do you feel like there's too much overreach on the regulation or do you think that it's okay?  I am okay now  in the beginning with all of the paperwork and having to get everything 04:41 submitted, it was a lot. My final inspection,  was  way more, I thought it was gonna be way more than it was.  It was actually a breeze, like the final inspection, but there was so much beforehand. ah My dad was a union iron worker, so he read blueprints his entire career. So he actually made us a blueprint for the barn because I had to submit that with all of my barn planning. 05:04 So all of that beginning stuff like down to like where I was gonna have my milk filters with a cover had to be on that map 05:13 Wow. Okay. really specific. Yes. I had to have a detailed list of all my equipment with links so they could approve it. And they can tell you whether or not they approve things, but they cannot give you too much guidance because they are state workers. And so they cannot be biased, which I understand.  But somebody coming from, you know, just milking in a little makeshift milk house to becoming licensed, the milker was the hardest thing for me to find. 05:44 Mm-hmm. 05:47 Okay, so tell me again, how long have you been doing it?  We have had goats for 10 years and I've been in milk for eight years. And then I've been making cheese since we started having milk. 05:58 Okay, so eight years you've been in it with the milk. Yeah, we bred. So we started out with our first two does in 2016. And then in 2017, we got our first buck in weather. And then we had our first babies in 2018, May of 2018. So then we started milking in July of 2018. 06:26 Okay, so you're  kind of an old hand at this at this point. That's long enough to get your under you and grow a pretty decent business.  So  are you  happy with what you've built? Yes, it is a lot of work, which is good. I am not complaining because I'm happy where we're at. ah It's just, it's a lot of work with everything. And right now  my husband still works full time while we're getting this all the way off the ground and 06:55 Um, when I used to make cheese on the stove top, I could do it all in one day. Now with the size of batches that I'm doing, and then also with my antibiotic testing and my pasteurization and everything, it just adds more to it. Okay.  And  are your products, are your cheese, well, are your dairy products, not cheese products,  are your dairy products for sale off the property too? Yes, we are in a couple of local butcher shops,  um, in a couple of local farm retail stores. 07:26 Our cheese curds are most popular.  then,  um, second would be probably our spread. Our goat Vita is getting popularity. People it's, I have to explain that one to people. What it is, is it's Velveeta, but real cheese. So it tastes just like Velveeta. You can use it just like Velveeta, quesadillas, queso,  grilled cheese, homemade mac and cheese. 07:49 And then we do a crumble, which is similar to feta. And then we just rolled out our ice cream two weeks ago. That one took me a little bit longer to perfect with the pasteurization step because it changed the molecules of the fat. 08:04 Yeah, um, your cheese tastes like Velveeta.  I am quite positive that your...  I'm sure your version is way healthier than Velveeta ever had thought to be. Yeah. 08:19 Mm-hmm.  Yeah, I can't do Velveeta. We ate a lot of that when I was a kid and anytime somebody brings it up, I'm like, nope, I'm good. Yeah, the things that we can eat when we're kids and then now as adults, what we know is in it. It's like, oh no,  we're not eating that.  Well, I didn't love it when I was a kid and now I certainly don't want it. So, you know, it's partly bad too. Yeah. So I  have a question about goat milk ice cream. 08:49 Yes. it very different from cow milk ice cream or is it just ice cream? I, it's a richer flavor, which there are richer ice creams.  Um, because our goats are so high on butterfat, all of their cheese  and their products are a little bit more of that rich taste, but they are not that goaty taste.  Um, people, when it comes to goat products, milk, cheese, they don't, they love the goat. 09:15 flavor or they really don't like the goat flavor that like that tangy goaty flavor with our Nigerians what we feed them  and also with their high butter fat. Our flavors taste very in line with cow's milk. 09:30 Okay. And the reason I ask is because people are always like goat cheese is so good. Chev, chev, however you say it.  C-A-V-R-E.  I'm not a fan and I do like cream cheese, but I don't like goat cheese. Yeah.  Right. It's just, there's something about it that I can't get past. And I was like, Hmm, I wonder if that's a thing with the goat ice cream as well, but it sounds like it's not. 09:57 We actually don't make chev because I made it when I was testing out different cheeses. I've made pretty much almost every kind of cheese because before we were licensed, I had to  make different cheeses because I wasn't going to fill our freezer with a bunch of stuff, you know, personal. So I tried almost every kind of cheese. And I made chev and I have a couple of friends that I passed it out to that really like it and the consensus is they actually didn't like it because it didn't taste like chev. 10:24 They wanted the goatee flavor when they saw that name. So that's actually not something that I even make because it doesn't have the flavor profile people are looking for because it doesn't have that sharp taste to it.  Yeah, that's the thing that gets me. And it's the same thing with sourdough bread. I can't eat sourdough bread that has that sharp tang to it. don't like it. And I love that people love it. It's just not my thing. um So how many goats, is it rude to ask how many goats you have? 10:52 No, it's not rude. is a very common question.  Um, so going back to just to see how  goat math works, we started out with the two and then we got the two boys. We've got a couple more girls. And then here we are 10 years later, we have 66 goats, 38 of them are in milk. We have eight that are due in the fall. Um, we have four bucks that we run so we can mix up our bloodlines. 11:17 You're busy. That's a lot of hoes on the ground.  do you  machine milk them? Because that's a lot of goats to milk by hand. Yes, we do. So originally when we started, we actually made our own milker because we didn't know how the milk was going to taste. So we didn't want to invest in a milker. And then we ended up not liking it. So we actually made our very first milker with a hand vacuum seal pump  and two syringes.  And then we just used plumbing line. 11:46 Well, after a week or two of doing that and tasting it, decided, okay, we're going to invest in a machine. So we invested in a machine and then we just could milk one at a time with the machine. Well, then we had one goat that she take would take 20 minutes to milk on her own. So we had to go to two, to a bucket milkers. We can milk two at a time.  we had milked two at a time until this past May, when we started using our other milker and now we can do four at a time. So we have four stanchions, four goats at a time. 12:15 And my husband actually helps me at night so we get done quicker because it's a lot of goats. It is a lot of goats. And then the other question I have is, you have, you know how at dairy, cow dairies, I don't know how to this right. They have the coolers that the milk goes into. Yes. Do you have a cooler for the goats milk? Yes. So I have a bulk tank. So we milk in the buckets and then we dump into our bulk tank. 12:44 And then um our bulk tank, we have a little pipe that goes through the wall that I have a hose that goes from my bulk tank to my vat through the wall to transfer the milk to make the cheese.  Okay. And then I'm really not trying to be nosy, but there are people listening.  There are people listening. I'm sure who are very curious about how this works because  they may be 18, 19 years old and thinking  I would like to have a goat dairy someday. 13:12 but I don't know who to ask questions of. So I'm trying to help those younger people to come up the line. uh Do you do your own testing? know, cause at Dairy's they have to do testing on the bulk tank before they send the milk out into the world. So do you have your testing that you do as well? Yes. So every time I move my milk, I have to do an antibiotic test to show that there's no antibiotics in it. But then I... 13:37 also have to bring in to a  offsite lab every month, a sample that does, it's called my official test. So it does antibiotic testing to make sure there's no antibiotics in it, somatic cell and bacteria count. And then I send that to my,  to my state lab officer. 13:58 Good, so you're a very conscientious dairy goat person. I love that. Yeah. And I know if you're not a very conscientious dairy goat person, you don't stay in business for long. So it's very smart to do it the way you're doing it. um So  what else can I ask you? um Barring the making stuff with the goat's milk, is it fun for you to be around the goats or are they just a means to an end to have the goat's milk? 14:27 No, they're fun. So with the Nigerian dwarfs, they're the smallest of the dairy goats. So they come up to our like knees when they're full grown and goats are just really funny in general.  Um, if I am around, I can let them out to free range because they will listen to me and I can watch to make sure they're not eating hostas or the garden or something they shouldn't be. If they get out on their own, they can get a little naughty, but they are like, they do like their little Irish jig jumps  and they. 14:54 walk on their back feet and they're just, they're funny little animals and  they, headbutt each other. They literally will get back up on their hind ends and knock each other's skulls. It's just what they do if they're fighting or if they're getting introduced to  a new goat.  Um, we call it scuffle budding.  Um, but that's just the, and each goat has their own little personality.  I have some goats that will come in to milk just fine. 15:21 No problem. I have other ones that I have to coax them in every day They're fine once they get in and I have one goat where she does not like to be touched But she will come in every day and milk and she's a really good milkers. So they're just all different Yeah, my husband and I were joking one time because we lived on a tenth of an acre lot in Jordan before we moved to Lusor and I was saying I would love to get a couple goats and you can't have 15:50 goats on a tenth of an acre with a house and a four car garage. doesn't work. And definitely not in city limits. I'm sure Jordan would not have been pleased with us. But I used to joke about getting a goat or two and telling the city that it was a dog with a effed up feet and a broken bark. And the first time I said it to him, he almost peed his pants laughing. 16:16 from then on. was like, oh, that's one of those dogs with F to F to feet and a broken part. We would see goats and he would just giggle.  So yeah, they're great. I mean, I've talked about it a lot. I'm not going to get into it past saying that I had a friend whose parents raised goats when I was a teenager. And every spring when the babies were born, she'd call me and say,  can your mom bring you over? Babies were born last night.  And my mom, God love her, would drive me 35 minutes to go see my friend. 16:45 and hang out with the babies. So that's how much I loved baby goats and that's how much my mom loved me.  Baby goats are a whole nother avenue of fun because they just want to learn to hop around and  they're so funny. We've never put pajamas on them. We haven't gotten to that point, but I have done a lot of videos of them dancing. 17:10 They're super cute and  I love them the first 24 hours because  you can hold them and they don't jump. They don't try to get out of your lap. They're just like,  there's just like any newborn baby. They just want to be loved on. Yeah. So I was always thrilled when she would call me, you know, the next morning because they knew the babies were healthy. The babies were nursing and the babies were up and around, which meant that I was welcome to pet them all I wanted to. Yeah. 17:39 Her  dad was such a pain in my butt.  Oh my god. His name is, was, think he's still alive, Lou. And Lou was a trickster. He was  very sarcastic, very dry sense of humor. And he would tease me because I was so in love with the baby goats.  And every time he'd do it, I 18:03 I just look at him and I'm like, I don't know what you expect me to say. I just love your goats. If you don't want me to handle them, I won't.  And I guess I looked hurt enough that he would be like, Oh, Mary, no, it's okay. I'm just teasing you. Like, okay, how about you stop teasing me and just be impressed that I love your goats.  So it was rough and I'd go to school and my friend Elaine would be like, my dad loves you. I'm like, okay, good to know. Cause sometimes I really wonder. 18:33 if he just loves giving me a hard time.  I  wanted to mention before we get done, we've got about 10 more minutes to go. I've been talking about the fact that our barn cat was pregnant and she is just under a year old.  She is no longer pregnant. She showed up not pregnant on July 4th morning.  either she's not a good mom or the baby's died because she's  not. 19:02 She's in our yard too often to think that she's being a really good mom.  she  was due right on July 4th, because I know when she was bred. So it'll be a miracle if we see any kittens coming out of the pole barn in eight weeks.  I'm so sad.  I think that they died and I don't know why.  So that's the update on the barn kitties here, because we were talking about babies, so I figured I'd throw it in. ah 19:32 Our other barn cat that's a female, I think that she is newly pregnant. So hopefully she will have babies in September. Because you know how this is barn cats disappear or they get hit by cars. And we have we have four barn cats right now. We were really looking forward to gaining a couple. Yeah. I don't think we're going to gain any from this first litter because I don't think they survived. I'm kind of really sad about it. Yeah. 19:59 But there's nothing you can do on a farm as you know, you know how this goes.  Yes. Yeah. We just have two male kitties that are here. um My mom was a vet tech.  So our animals,  she spays and neuters them. Right now we just have two boys  and they stick around and they're the one is a really good mouser. So we're okay with that right now. We're okay with not having babies because strays show up here all the time. 20:26 Yeah, we've only had one stray show up. Well, that's not true.  had a very scary looking stray show up. I think the third summer we were here. This is our fifth full summer here, I think. um And it didn't look good. It looked ill. And  my husband dispatched it. He was like, no, we're not adopting that one. Yeah. 20:54 I felt really bad about it, but I was like, if he's sick, it's going to infect our cats and we don't want to have to kill a bunch of cats, you know? Yup. Yup. Biosecurity is a real thing on farms. Yeah. My husband's ah uncles live in Wisconsin and  on one of their farms, they had a lot of barn cats and people would drop stray cats at their place and there was no stopping anybody from dropping them. 21:24 And my husband in his teens helped his uncles hunt down at least 50 cats because there was rabies going around the cats. Yeah. And he tells that story and he tells it as a lesson. But to this day, you can see in his face that it hurt them to have to shoot those cats. Yep. So it's you got to be careful. um So do you guys have a garden too? 21:54 We do. Yeah. I couldn't tell you the size.  That's one thing that I've always been bad at my entire life is looking out and be like, how big is an acre? Like just growing up on a farm, I had no concept of how big things were. So yes, we do a garden.  We do a lot of our canning for ourselves. And then we also do a farmer's market. So we do canning for that too. 22:19 Nice.  Do you grow the usual suspects as I call it, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, kohlrabi, corn, potatoes? Do you grow all those or do you grow other things? We  do. We don't do any lettuce. I never get to it in time. It always ends up bolting. Next year, my goal is to try, now that the barn is done,  I'm trying to get it in in April early. um Yeah, do cabbage. My mom is like known for her sauerkraut. um We don't. 22:46 My husband is the corn guy. does popcorn over sweet corn just because it turns out better for him.  We do a lot of different varieties of squash and then melons. try to do some, our son loves watermelon. And then my dad's kind of known as the garlic guy. So we have a lot of garlic.  Nice.  I,  we have such bad luck with garlic. We don't grow it anymore. We've tried. Well, it just does not go well. Yeah, I'll let you know. 23:16 Yeah. We grow winter squash, fall squash, whatever, butternut, buttercup. What's the other one? Acorn. Yep. And I am a huge fan of those because I like the sweet winter squashes. really do. I will roast a butternut squash and eat half of it right out of the oven. Yes. So it's so good. We do one called candy roaster and it's ginormous. 23:46 um But you can eat it just the same as a buttercup.  You don't even  need any sugar. You can just do a little bit of maple syrup and butter and you're good.  Yes, the best seasons we've had with our winter squash are when you don't need to put anything on it. It's just you just scoop it out of the shell and eat it after you roast it.  We've had two or three years where the squash has been that good.  It's so good for you. So many people don't 24:16 know that winter squash has such a nutritional benefit for you if you just can bring yourself to eat it. Yes, we also do a lot of pumpkins. We use them as natural dewormers for our goats. So we plant like over plants of pumpkins  so we can get as much as possible to feed the goats in the fall. Now I have a question about that. Is it the pumpkin flesh or the pumpkin seeds or both that are natural dewormer? The pumpkin seeds. 24:46 Yeah. The raw pumpkin seeds.  Yeah, I think  that you can do that with dogs too. If your dog likes pumpkin,  they'll eat the seeds and I think that works for dogs as well. Yeah. And squash works too, but because we eat the squash, we try to do the pumpkins for the goats.  Yep. When my dog gets sick, her veterinarian told me that if she just has a sick tummy to give her  cooked up. 25:17 cannot think today,  Ground beef  and squash or pumpkin, you know, the flesh cooked  and rice. And just give her a little bit of that, see if she keeps it down. And then like six hours later, give her more and give her three days on that. And then see if she'll eat the kibble and not be sick again.  And it worked every freaking time.  So, and she loves it. 25:43 She sees me putting those three ingredients together on the island  and she is sitting at my feet just waiting for me to put it in her bowl even though she has a sick tummy. Yeah. I'm like, you're so weird if I had a sick tummy. I wouldn't want to anything, but you're right here ready to go.  She's crazy. Okay, so  I want to let people know where they can get hold of you or find you if they would like to get some of your dairy goods because I think it all sounds amazing. 26:13 Yeah.  um, call, text, email, I can give those  out.  and then also we have our Facebook or Instagram  and they're under busy these acres.  Um, and then it's busy. These Caprines, like I said, as a branch of the farm. we have a shared page just because it's all one when it comes to farmers market and everything. And then, um, 26:41 Because when I do our postings for like the garden and all that stuff, it's just so much easier for me to have one page rather than  multiple.  yeah, absolutely. It is so hard keeping track of different pages all the time.  I  keep it super simple. Yes. That's the to do it.  And I didn't ask the obvious question. Why is it called Busy Bees?  So when my parents 27:07 joined with my grandparents back in the  80s. Both of their last names started with D. So then when they combined as a partnership, that's what they named the farm. So it combined them both. And then  when we did it, because it was on the family farm, we wanted to keep it a link to it, but then also make it our own. then Caprines is um the species name for goats. just thought it was cute, the busy D's. 27:34 rhymes was busy bees and I was like hmm.  I wonder if there's something there with that too.  All right, this was a joy Courtney. I'm so glad that you are doing something that makes you so happy and it sounds like you're living the dream. Please keep doing the things that doing.  Thank you. As always people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Hope you have a great day Courtney. Thank you again. Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Sheila at Backlund Acres.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Sheila at Backlund Acres in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Sheila. How are you? Good. How are you doing? I'm good. We're having a hot one again today. Right. I'm a little tired of it, are you?  Yeah.  Yeah, the plants love it, though. So  I can't complain because everything in the field is just doing amazing. Well, I guess I guess the good news is that at least we've been getting rain along with the heat. 00:58 Exactly.  If we were just getting the heat, we would be in trouble. It's definitely, yeah, it's definitely a bigger problem. And when we had the early heat, I think was it in May or June?  It was  so dry and it was just heat. And so we had trouble with like our spring crops bolting early.  Yeah, our asparagus went to seed super fast this year. I was very sad about this.  Yeah. 01:27 We planted asparagus five years, five springs ago now. And this was the year we were going to be able to have a bunch to sell at the farmers market, right? No, it all bolted so fast that we couldn't keep up. So I have a question about your asparagus. So you planted it five years ago and you can just start harvesting now or you're just saying it multiplied enough where you had  enough to sell? We got 01:53 We got enough to have a mess as my mom would call it two springs ago. And then last year we had enough to have some to eat and some to sell on our farm stand. This was the year where we thought there was going to be enough to actually sell it at the farmer's market. So  we thought that it would have been  long enough that it would have multiplied and sell it.  But no, because it was so hot,  it just went poof because it's a breath. 02:23 as a grass. Oh, I didn't know that.  We are on year two of our asparagus and it was ready  really early. Now, I know you're not supposed to harvest it the first year,  but we  bought like and  we have a whole field of it, I'll just say.  And  they, the company we got it from said we could harvest it for a week the first year. And then the second year it's three weeks. So anyways, yeah,  I was ready in April though, which was really weird. 02:53 We're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, but we're on asparagus. I'm going to ask this, and then I'm going to ask you to tell me about yourself. Was your asparagus super sweet this year? Because ours was. It was delicious. Yeah.  But then we had a freeze and I had no idea that it all will freeze and die. Oh, yeah. You know, if you're only allowed to harvest it that first week, everything that was above ground froze. And so if I would have known that, I would have taken like I probably would have had an entire 03:23 There was a lot  that I could have brought in and pickled or done something with, but I just, I guess I didn't know.  Live and learn, right?  Right. Yep. Yep. That's all this farming and home setting and ranching is, is living and learning every freaking season. For sure. It's fun and it's frustrating.  So anyway,  please tell me a little bit about yourself and about Backland Acres. Okay. So we... 03:50 So I grew up, me and my husband actually grew up in Eden Prairie and had never planted anything. um So we  got married out of high school, lived in Chock-A-Pee, had never planted anything in my life.  And  my son came home with like a styrofoam cup with  a little plant from, you know, that you do in kindergarten. They plant the seed in the styrofoam cup and bring it home.  So he brought that home and we planted it next to our house. 04:20 in Chakapea, just dug a hole, had no idea what I was doing, just dug a hole and planted it and it turned into this big plant and gave us summer squash. was crooked neck summer squash. Nice.  And I just became  really infatuated or  yeah, just really, really excited. So  I went to the store and I bought a bunch of seeds and I had no idea what I was doing, like literally  nothing. don't even, I didn't. 04:46 don't even know if I had a smartphone then. I didn't know how to look anything up. I didn't look anything up. I didn't read anything. I just started dumping seeds in the ground. But I dumped a whole packet in the ground. So I would dig a hole and dump a whole packet of bean seeds in the ground. Or unknot seeds or whatever. You got the bug. Yeah, I did. And it was really fun. And we had some things, obviously. We had weeds and everything. And I had no idea what I was doing. But yeah, so from there, we had some... 05:16 friends who wanted to  purchase a farm  and start like an organic  meat farm. And so we  were good candidates for that.  we, um they wanted to purchase it and start this business and  they wanted somebody else to live on the property and run the business. So we agreed to do that.  And I just started planting more and more. I don't know how much you want me to tell, but I started planting more and more. um 05:46 when we came out here and learned a little bit  more about what I was doing, you know, that I needed to weed, that I needed to  space the plants apart  and um start some seeds ahead of time.  And this was 12 years ago? Yes, this was 12 years ago. Right.  I'm impressed. You... 06:15 You caught the bug knowing nothing and you have turned it into a business in 12 years.  Right. Yes, exactly. And so when we first moved here, we started with a lot of animals because they were really interested in the animals. So we raised like a thousand chickens a year.  We um had pigs, we had cows  that we had like put up all this fencing to have cows on our land. was someone else's cows, but we were just,  we had 15 acres. So, you know, it was either hay it or have animals on it. So. 06:45 um We were learning how to move cows around and how to move chickens behind them. And we had some sheep at  one point. We had goats. We tried  everything.  But the thing that we did for our business first off was the chickens and the pigs. um So that's more of what we were focused on. But I slowly just started growing uh vegetables. Well, actually not slowly. Before I even moved in here. 07:12 We rented a tiller and for some reason I thought I had to bring the sod up. So I got a sod cutter and um we planted a whole bunch of stuff.  But just again, still had no idea what I was doing. Didn't have a greenhouse and had all this stuff in my basement um and was doing a lot of throwing,  like digging a hole and still throwing seeds in the ground. um But yeah, so over the 07:40 course of 10 years or 12 years, guess,  we  have transitioned to doing less animals and more. Now we have, now we plant five acres of vegetables and flowers  and we have tractors and a greenhouse and  high tunnels and oh all the things.  You also have a model for your CSA that I read about on your website that  I think is super cool. 08:09 people can come and work at the farm. yes. this is.  It's a SDS share, right? Correct, yep.  And this is how that started. So we start, I really started selling vegetables, you so we're still doing a lot of animals. I think in one year I raised like 3000 chickens because I was raising for somebody else as well.  So we're still doing a lot of animals, but. 08:35 We had these gardens that were quite big and they were just for me and there was no reason to have that much garden space. And it was during COVID and I had friends.  So this was, think, so yeah, COVID six years ago. um I had friends coming over because there was nothing else to do with their kids and the kids were playing and we were  weeding the garden. And I just said, let's all take care of the garden together and then we can just split the, whatever we produce. 09:03 So that same year,  a farmer's market reached out to me because I think they needed vegetable vendors, I can't remember, and asked if we would  sell vegetables at their market.  And I was like, oh my goodness, I've never even,  you know, I don't know what I'm doing at all.  Like, we're just, I can grow things, but it's very messy process. Like there's lots of weeds,  things are imperfect. 09:30 So I asked my friends and we said, let's do it. So we all went  on it together and just started planting and um taking care of what we already had and started going to the farmer's market together. 09:46 I so far, love your story and I'm going tell you why. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get people to grow something because things are so expensive right now and seeds are cheap compared to a tomato. Yes. I feel like almost everybody can find a bucket and get a scoop full of dirt and grow a tomato plant. I feel like they really can. I do too. 10:16 And  I also feel like you with your situation  your your child brought home a seedling and you were like, let's plant it and see what happens.  That's not luck. That's intention.  So you are just uh solidifying my my constant push to get people interested. You happen to luck into it. But guys, if you have space, grow. 10:46 something. Right, plant a seed. Yeah. You know, and don't be, I mean,  and I guess I had to be willing to dig out, you know, I didn't have a perfectly manicured yard or whatever. dug a hole in the side of my house and I had to be right next to my lily. There was lilies there. There was other perennials.  I  had to be willing to just  see what happens.  I think 11:10 a lot with this. think something about my personality that works with farming, I've talked to my husband about this, is that I am not a perfectionist. whatever the opposite of a perfectionist is me and I am willing to just try things or throw a seed in the ground. I was just doing a lot of throw seeds in the ground and see what happens and see what happens instead of trying to learn everything there is to know. 11:40 try to do it perfectly so I can have this perfect looking garden.  You're an experimenter, that's what you are. Yes, yes. I  remember the lady who  purchased the farm, I was growing vegetables for her because I was going to provide for both of our families.  And she kept asking these scientific questions. And I was like, Kate, I don't know. And she's like, so you're... 12:08 You're saying it's more of an art than a science. And I'm like, yes, that's what I'm saying.  We're going to see what happens. And every year is different. there's not like a formula. At least I don't think people might, other farmers might disagree with me, but I don't feel like there's a formula for a perfect um plant or system or growing season. There's just way too many variables.  Yeah. If there was a system or a science to growing things. 12:36 Everybody would be doing it and people would be a lot better off Right. Yeah, but there isn't we I'm not gonna lie the last two summers have been rough here with our farm to market garden because in Luzor we got rain  Every day in May and into June both years. You know, I've been getting a lot of rain the past two years I've been watched because I'm always watching the radar. Yeah, and it always stops when it gets to me So we've actually been dry super dry the past two years 13:07 And you're only like half an hour away from me, which is just crazy.  It is crazy. I don't know if it's something to do with the river, but me and my neighbors talk where like, it's so weird how it always splits around us. And I am watching the sewer Mankato. That area is always just getting like  red, you know, on the radar. It's like red after red.  There's storms or rain. Luckily this year has been  perfect. Oh, good. 13:35 And I'm really afraid to say that out loud because I'm afraid I will jinx it.  But we have apples on our apple trees.  have uh tomatoes forming on our tomato plants. We've already picked cucumbers and kohlrabis and zucchini. This year is looking to be across everything I have and knock on wood a good year. But the last two summers have just been hellacious because of all the rain. I'm sorry. My husband. 14:04 went out to, well, he wanted to plant  last spring on May 15th, because that's the day we do it.  the garden was mud. It was slow up. He was like, I can't plant anything because I'm, I'm sinking into my ankles if I step into the garden. Yeah. It's like, Oh, that's fabulous. So he ended up planting three different plantings of tomatoes to get 14:32 maybe 50 pounds of tomatoes last year. Oh, I'm sorry.  Yeah, the timing of everything can be really frustrating. ah So  so we have one hundred and  seventy CSA members and then  people who shop at our farm store each week. So I don't know.  I just feel like probably 200 families, you know, that we're  getting vegetables for each week. ah 15:00 So we have, so the timing can be very frustrating because we have to have, start June 1st, we start sending out vegetables June 1st or the first week of June.  So we have to have vegetables ready.  And when you, can't get the tractor in or you know, you have plans to like this year we had, we were in really early. And  so I,  I test the water, like I do some extreme things. I plant extremely early on some things. 15:30 where everyone around, know,  people who have gardened forever, they'll stop by the greenhouse and say, Sheila, you're planting too early. And I'm saying it's going to be fine.  But things like lettuce, all the brassicas, celery, celeriac, all the cold weather things, I'll plant extremely early um because then we can have them, you know, the first week of June. 15:53 But if it's too wet, you can't get tractors in the ground. This year what happened is we got them in really early and then there was some really cold weather coming and it was very scary. Everything survived. You know, I think it got down to like 26 and all of my cauliflower, everything survived. You were very lucky. So that was an experiment that worked out good. Yeah. And people who don't do this. 16:21 have no concept of the worry that we all have. Oh,  right. I think about that all the time when people are saying, you know, I'll be in the farm store and customers are coming in saying there's a big storm coming. There's a big storm coming. I'm like, you don't know what that's doing to my  anxiety right now. Let's stop talking about the storm. Let's pretend it's not going to happen. Oh, yeah. We lost an apple tree, uh, two Sundays ago, two Sundays ago. 16:50 That storm that came through early on Sunday morning, it snapped right off at the base.  Oh my goodness. Yeah, and  I'm sad,  but I'm not as sad as I would be if it had been a different tree. It was a honey gold variety and we have four. We now have three. Okay. And I don't love honey gold apples. My husband does.  And the other two trees, two of the three trees are loaded with apples. So we should have some honey golds for. 17:19 sale and for my husband to snack on when they come in. But I would have been heartbroken if it had been the one Regent or the one Harrelson that we have. Right, right. So I felt very blessed that if it had to be an apple tree, at least it was one of those. Yes, Honey Gold is a good one. Yeah, last year we had, I think it was in June, we had some big wins and I had no idea it was coming. I'm happy I didn't know because I would have been so stressed out. 17:46 But it happened in the middle of the night and it ripped one of our high tunnels out of the ground. Ugh. And just to give you an idea, high tunnels,  I mean, they're thousands  of dollars. They're so expensive.  And the time and the, you know, I had built it myself. We did end up fixing it this year, but it was really, really... So then em it ripped, you know, so then whatever was in the tunnel was like exposed to the elements all year, which ended up being completely fine. It was cucumbers. 18:16 Yep. But it was, it was pretty, pretty darn stressful. So I think  the more infrastructure  and investment  I have in the game, I think I'm realizing the more stress, the more that's on the line, it's just more stress with weather and  things happening, you know, just adds to, adds to that stress, the weightiness of, you know, carrying it on your shoulders, I guess. 18:44 But would you give it up for anything?  Maybe the high tunnels. The high tunnels are stressing me out. Yeah. But no, the rest of it. No, in the field, I don't get too stressed when there's storms. It's more of just those. mean, I'm trying to think. I think the high tunnels that I just put in were like 15,000 apiece.  Uh-huh. So it's quite a bit of  money we're talking. You know what mean? That like if something happens to that, um that's a 19:14 big loss.  Yeah. And I feel your pain on a smaller scale. We just had a basically like a high tunnel style greenhouse. So maybe a quarter of the size of what you're talking about. And I watched it go over and it was a lot. It was loaded with seedlings that all got knocked into the ground, their seed trays. So that is my number one. 19:41 I don't even want to talk about it, but that is definitely my number one fear is my greenhouse, something happening to that during the, during, you know, like March and April. Yeah, this was three or four summers ago, springs ago. I watched it go over and I cried. And what did you do?  Well, all the seedlings were big enough to be planted. So we had  basically surprise gardens all over our property. Okay. 20:11 And it was really kind of fun because you know,  squash seedlings, they don't necessarily look different from each other. So we didn't know if were planting a squash or summer squash.  So we had a few patches of zucchinis  and butternut squashes growing in the same plot.  that's funny.  Yep. So we rescued as many of the babies as we could, but  I never want to see a greenhouse go over again. It was 20:41 It was heartbreaking. Right.  So I don't know how to make my greenhouse stronger, but that is definitely my number one fear. Like a winter storm taking it out while it's  still freezing out and things.  I don't know what I would do.  Well, we have a hard-sided greenhouse now that went up three maize ago.  The wind is not going to take that one down. It's like a house.  OK, that's cool. 21:11 So, and that was funded by a grant from the market  entry fund. if you, if you want, if you want to come up with the money for a hard sided greenhouse, I would suggest looking into grants because that way you're not shelling out the money to build one. oh I put a hard side on  one  side, but it is still like a hoop house. Yeah. So anyways, you know, it's a lot. So, um,  so you grow flowers too, right? 21:41 Yes, so during this time,  so six years ago, once I started growing and selling the vegetables, um I started planting flowers in the green. I basically just plant any seed that comes my way.  So I was planting everything and I was planting in the greenhouse and then I had to plant it outside, of course, and I knew nothing about flowers.  Never grew a flower in my life.  And I  became equally just... 22:10 excited and completely obsessed with  flowers as I was with growing vegetables. I think it's,  if you like to grow, it's a great way to, um you know, get like, em get creative. Use time being creative and it's an art form that I think if you already like to be outside and you like to grow things, it's just a great outlet, I guess. you do annuals, perennials or both? 22:40 Both. I am trying to build up my perennial gardens. was just looking, was, that's fine. I was just outside looking at the colorful echinacea that I planted last year and it's really taken off and really bountiful right now and it's just gorgeous. My flower gardens this year are outperforming any year and they're just insanely beautiful. So I need to... 23:09 somehow get like some drone footage or something so that people know can get a good idea of what they look like. It's so hard to have  pictures do justice. Yes. And so I just want, yeah, I want everyone to come out and experience it. We have pick your own flowers  on Fridays and Saturdays during like our  on-site market here. And  people have really been enjoying it, but I just want to make sure everyone knows it's a possibility. 23:39 um And that we  have loads of beautiful things here. Post on Facebook to your friends if anybody has a drone you can borrow or  if they want to come over and do it for you. Okay, yeah, was just talking to my husband and  his friend apparently has a whole production company.  Well, maybe that's solution. Yes, yes. So I'm like, we'll get him over. And I'm like, Nick, ASAP right now because  these flowers, you know, they don't let, we need people picking them now. 24:09 Yeah, can you believe it's past July 4th? I can't. The season goes so fast for me now. Yeah. I think I'm probably over halfway through my growing season because we plant everything again for the fall. I don't know if you do that, but we plant. I deliver until the second week of December. Wow. OK, no, we don't do that. Yeah. 24:36 So we plant everything outside again. So all the cold weather stuff in the fall or the  spring things like the cabbages and the lettuces and  all of the, you know,  leafy greens and radishes. I plant all of that again. And then I also planted another time in our high tunnels. So in December we're harvesting out of our high tunnels.  Very nice. That is so cool. uh 25:06 Echinacea is also called cornflower or cone flower, right? Yes, think people even call it purple cornflower, but there's a variety from Johnny's that is a colorful mix. trying to remember what it's Cheyenne? Cheyenne spirit? Well, it sounds beautiful. I haven't seen it. The reason I asked you, I asked you, geez, I can't pronounce, I cannot pronounce ASK today for some reason. We... 25:35 got a bunch of cone flower plants two years ago and they just do not do well here. They were fine and then nothing came back this year. Weird. So tell me about your soil. Is it, probably because of the wet? Maybe. Did they drown? I don't know, but our dirt is very, it's not sandy, number one, and I know they like 26:05 Sandier dirt, know sandier soils that might have something to do with it I'm not sandy at all. I'm thick clay Okay, I don't know near the year that they didn't come back for me. So two or I think four years ago I planted them. They didn't come back the next year because it was too wet Then maybe that's what it is because we put them in three Four three, I don't know three or four springs ago 26:32 And they did well the first year and then the next two years it was bad. So what I'm discovering is that sometimes the things that you think will do really well in your area that are, you're cultivating, don't do as well as the wild things.  Yeah, for sure. For sure. mean, right. They're good. um 26:59 lilacs and wild plum all over the place here in Minnesota. And our wild plum tree does well every year. But lilacs? Nope. And coneflowers? Nope.  And crocuses and daffodils? Nope. Yeah. Isn't that funny? And then you see it in fields in all these weeds, know, poking one of weeds and  nobody's taking care of it, but they're just growing like crazy. Yeah. I'm like, what did we do wrong? 27:29 What did we screw up? And I don't think it's anything we screwed up. think that plants grow where they're planted, but they may not grow well if you force it. And they must have just like they found the perfect soil that they needed. You know, that's what I noticed too, like different weeds coming up. Different weeds will do really well in different years, you know, depending on whatever the soil has that year or how wet it is or. 27:59 Yeah, it's a crapshoot. Mm-hmm. That's  yes. I really do think so. I really do think so. I've had so many years where I'm like, there is no what was it this year? We had something so amazing and I was like, there's no reason why is that doing so well?  I've planted that for years and for some reason this year it's doing well and I want to know why I'm trying to remember what it was.  Well, I don't remember, but cauliflower.  have I'm having a really great cauliflower year. 28:28 Nice. Are you having a really good call Robbie year? Cause we are. Yes. Yes. Basically everything's doing pretty good for me this year. Trying to think of what's not. Yeah. We had, you know, here's a weird thing. We've never had this happen, but all of our radishes did terrible. Like they bolted super early and they didn't get very big radishes. They're so dependable. Same thing. 28:56 Yeah, they're so dependable. Like every year they're just the same for me except for this year they were not. oh my husband brought in four French breakfast radishes for me  and I always try them before I do anything with them because if they're too hot, I won't be able to eat them. They hurt my mouth.  I took just a little tiny slice and bit into it I was like, nope, those are hotter than hell. No. Yes. And that's what people did say about my radishes too. They're wow, they're really hot. So it must have just been 29:25 that early heat that we had. But I don't know, I've grown them in the high tunnel. just didn't, there was nothing that made sense because in the high tunnel they didn't do well either. So what I want our listeners, my listeners, whatever, however we're saying that these days, um, to know is that gardening is surprise, is a surprise a minute and it can be a really good surprise or it can be a bad surprise, but it's worth the effort. Absolutely. Absolutely. 29:54 So um I try to keep these half an hour almost there.  What I would like to know as a last question  is you have a CSA. Is it still open for members or are you done with new members for this year? We are closed for delivery,  we are still open for what I call, I call it our UPIC CSA. 30:18 I think I need to change the name to market style CSA because people think that they have to come here and go to the field and pick their vegetables. But it really, you pick just means you come to the farm store each week on Fridays or Saturdays  and you pick out which vegetables you want in your bag. So most CSAs you get a box or a bag of vegetables each week, the farmer picks. They give you, and that's how our delivery system works. We pack bags  and we give you what the best thing out of the field. 30:47 On Fridays and Saturdays, set up, you pick,  we set up like a market  and we get other local things from other places as well. And you come here and pick whatever you want in your bag for the week.  That's fun. Yeah. And then it's been really fun because in addition to that, there's available, there's options for you to pick extra things from the field. So like you can get a pint of peas for one of your items, or you can go to the field and get a half gallon of peas. 31:17 if you pick them. So there's really the people that are taking advantage of the pick your own are really making off great. They're going home with like  five gallon buckets of spinach or kale and  they're going home with a lot of vegetables. So  if you're willing to put a little work in, you can really  do well here.  So where can people find you if they want to if they want to take advantage of your business? 31:42 Well, yeah, they can just come to the farm store. We are in Belle Plaine. We're right between Belle Plaine, Jordan and New Prague. So they can come to the farm store on a Friday or Saturday. And all of the information for this is on our website.  But come on to the farm store Friday or Saturday. Fridays 11 to 4, Saturdays 8 to noon.  And we can help you get signed up. Otherwise you can just shop. It's open for non-members as well. Just not all of the exact same benefits. um But it's open for non-members to just shop. 32:11 Like it was exactly like it was a farmer's market. oh And your website is backlandacres.com and your Facebook page is backlandacres, right? Right. Yes. Okay. So that people can go find out and get the address to be able to show up. Yes.  Awesome. This was awesome. And I'm  so  thrilled that you're doing what you're doing. I wish more people would do it. I don't want them to do it right next door to you because you don't need the competition, but I wish that... 32:41 I wish that people in the areas would do this because we need No, I agree.  I agree. I wish more people would do this, even if it's around me, because I think it creates a market for people to,  know, people get used to getting their food just locally when it's available more locally.  And so I just think that the more people, the better, really. 33:10 Yes, and I keep saying this and I'm going to say it until I die. If you get your food from someone who's grown it locally, it is more nutritionally dense and it's better for you. Right, so you're getting more for your money. Yeah. Yeah, and I tell this to people too, you our prices don't, like you can't compare our prices to a grocery store because it's just not even the same vegetable. Right. It's not the same product at all. 33:36 ah And some of our things are less expensive than the grocery store. Some are more expensive than the grocery. We have to charge what we need to to to grow the vegetable ah But it's not even  the same thing. So you can't really compare  Well, I'll tell you what the last time I bought a couple stems of rhubarb at a grocery store years ago They were super sour and they didn't taste like rhubarb. They just tasted really sour 34:04 The rhubarb that grows in my yard tastes like rhubarb and when you add a little bit of sugar to it, it's really yummy. tried adding a little bit of sugar to the stuff from the store and it was still kind of sour, bitter and gross and stringy and woody and it was just disgusting. True.  just not even the same thing. Yeah, I don't want to knock grocery stores. I think that we kind of need them for certain things.  But I also feel like we live in a country where we can get food. 34:33 from our neighbors who are growing it because they love to grow it and because they want to share it. So why not support them?  Right.  Yes, I agree. All right. So as always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Sheila, thank you for taking the time. I really appreciate it. Mary, thank you so much for having me on. It was really fun. I would like to talk to you again. I know we should do this again. It was fun. Cool. Thank you. Yes. Have a good day. You too. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Kathryn at Fairview Farms: Second Harvest.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Kathryn at Fairview Farms, second harvest in Michigan,  which is only two states away from me.  Good afternoon, Kathryn, how are you? I am doing well, how are you? I'm good. Is it hot in Michigan? Because it's a little better here in Minnesota now.  Very hot, very humid.  I'm hoping that it goes away soon. um I looked at the long-term forecast for where I am in southwestern Minnesota. 00:55 And it looks like it's gonna be in the 80s for the next at least seven days. Yes, that's gonna be us too. Which is better than 95 with a tropical dew point. I'm okay with it. But yeah, I don't know what it was like for you on Monday morning this week. But I got up at five, stepped out on my porch with my coffee and there's a window into the porch. It's a closed in porch. And it was like stepping into a steam bath. And that was 5 a.m. 01:24 I was like, oh, today is going to suck lemons. And it did. It was really useful.  And then it got better over the course of the week. And as I'm talking, I can tell that my voice is not what it usually is. So listener, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm dying. I'm not dying. have wicked allergies today.  So Kathryn,  I would love it if you would tell me a little bit about yourself  and your place, because I looked at your 01:53 pinned post on Facebook and there is some real history there. Yes. um So  I  live in Rochester Hills, Michigan,  and we purchased a historic home in Rochester Hills District.  It is 179 years old  and we purchased it from a family that has lived here since 1975. And  during his time living here, he obtained and researched 02:22 a lot of history on the home in the area and was able to pass that to us when we purchased the home. So we have a lot of personal letters and personal stories that we can share and a lot of hidden treasures inside of the home. The home is wonderful. It's a four square and we have a lot of original architecture in the home. it really neat. 02:52 Our piece of property in Rochester is almost two acres currently, but it was a farm of almost 780 acres uh back in the late 1800s.  And this farm itself  did raise cattle for uh beef and dairy, and then also it had chickens  and did produce. 03:16 And I decided living here, really what brought me in was the history of the home, the old home. I really wanted to love the old bones and be the next loving family here. And then I decided, I think I need, I think I need to love the land too. You know, I have two acres here in the middle of the city and that's something very rare around here. And I wanted to, 03:43 put something back into it.  love to grow my own food.  I love to can.  I'm a do it yourself-er, so I like to um demo things and refurbish things.  I myself have a degree in education  and I have homeschooled my kids  and just kind of really enjoy doing the homesteading portion of life and um going in all natural. 04:13 option  and doing things a little bit differently than how society, some of society is going forward  with how busy life is today. So I'm trying to pull, pull back a little bit and relax a little more in life. So  I thought this would be a great project.  am  so impressed, so excited for you because history is so freaking cool. I hated it when I was in school because history in school is about dates and places. There's no stories.  Right. 04:43 I love the stories in history. that's,  and that you're trying to help your community is just so amazing. Right, right. I definitely want to give back. I know that there's a lot of people in our area locally that are from here or have lived here for a good portion of their life. And,  you know, running this new page that I have, I've realized like how many people truly are still here and still value. 05:10 the idea of what I plan to do and I feel like a lot of local support is huge. um And  I have also  decided to try to join the Historical Society  so that I can figure out how to be supportive in other historical areas of Rochester Hills. So I'm very excited and  hopeful that the community has my back in some of the small projects and ideas that I have. 05:40 Very nice.  Michigan is a fairly hefty size state. Where are you in Michigan? So I am about an hour north of Detroit, so I'm barely sitting up in the thumb. OK, cool, because Michigan is shaped like a mitten for people who don't know. um I was listening to somebody talk about Michigan the other day, and they said that if someone says, where are you in Michigan, they hold up their hand and they point on their hand. 06:10 where they are because it gives a good  representation because Michigan is shaped like a mitten. Yep. That's exactly how we all do it. Yep. I didn't know that. I  don't think I've ever actually been into Michigan or up into Michigan. um Anyone who's listened to podcast long enough knows that I grew up in Maine and I live in Minnesota now and I do not like airplanes. So anytime I'm traveling from Minnesota to Maine, we road trip. 06:41 And I have gone the northern route, as we call it, and we go through, we get very close to Michigan because we go way up into Pennsylvania to get to New York. And so I haven't actually been into Michigan, but I hear that it is absolutely beautiful. And I think I should probably add it to my bucket list for before I die. I agree. 07:10 If it's anything like Minnesota and Wisconsin, I'm sure it's worth the trip. Yes, I'm not too familiar with Minnesota, but I am Wisconsin and it's just beautiful land. em There's a lot of opportunity here as far as different things to do, whether it be mountains or water,  or you know, there's just, there's a lot and the weather's really great during the summer. Some of the best summers em are up here in Michigan, I feel like out of everywhere I've lived in this country. So. 07:38 And really good cherries and a pretty decent football team. I will say that a pretty decent football team and great cherries.  See, I can say a pretty decent football team because I don't have any allegiance to the Vikings because I didn't grow up in Minnesota. That would be very true. Yes. If I grew up in Minnesota, I probably wouldn't be allowed to say that because they would be like, you're a traitor.  Yes.  And honestly, Maine doesn't have a football team. So. 08:07 So the biggest football team is Boston and right this second, ah Patriots. Oh, okay. Patriots is the team that we would half-ass root for in my household because  my family wasn't really a sports  family. Thanksgiving, Christmas, in the afternoon, after dinner, there'd be football on the TV, but it was more background noise. Nobody was glued to the TV set. 08:36 But yeah, the Patriots have done pretty well and the Packers have done better than the Vikings for quite a while, which is very sad.  And that's about as close as I get to sports, religion or politics. So there you go. uh So do you have critters on your land? um I do have critters.  So  right now, I mean, I have  the household pets, but  we have 09:05 chickens. We have seven chickens currently. um And that's all that our Sydney ordinance will allow us to have. But in the past, em living outside of the city, I've had goats and pheasants and ducks and different things like that. So I'm very familiar with farming animals. But right now we just have the chickens and that's what the city allows.  That is craziness. You have two acres and you can only have chickens. 09:30 right. And I think it's because the farmland that originally was attached to this house is all now,  you know, it's neighborhoods, it's developments. And,  you know, if I was to bring a donkey in in the middle of my two acres,  I'm sure some of my neighbors wouldn't love that so much. So  I'm sure that's why I don't get to have more than chickens.  That is so sad. Our neighbors who are about a quarter mile away from us have a donkey and they have a cow. 09:59 in the mornings as the sun comes up, the donkey and the cow are kind of talking to each other. So you hear the donkey bray and you hear the cow low and it's so cool.  I guess I get it if you're a city person and you hear that, it would probably be irritating, but I kind of really love it.  So what are your house pets? Do you have cats and dogs? 10:24 I do. have two dogs. have an English Springer Spaniel and then a miniature Schnauzer. have two cats and then we have a miniature lop-eared bunny. So that's about it. Does the bunny have the run of the house by any chance? No, it has the run of upstairs. Very sassy bunny, very small and in charge. 10:54 quite the personality in that one.  my sister has a rabbit and it has the run of the house. And I guess uses a litter box. Yep, ours does too.  Yeah, she told me about this years ago with the first rabbit she had and I was like, what do mean it's not the cage? And she said, Lynn, and Lynn is my nickname.  She said,  rabbits can be can be  litter box trained just like cats. oh 11:23 And I was like, are you kidding? And she said, no, she said, he just goes in and jumps in the box and does his business and hops back out. Yep. Actually rabbits will  use the restroom where they eat. So to litter train them, oftentimes you'll put their hay in their litter box. And so they'll go in there with their food and use the restroom at the same time. So how convenient.  It's a  less mess.  Oh yeah, for sure. 11:53 Um, so  I got to know how did you break your ankle? told me you broke your ankle. I did. So I,  um,  own a boat and we were taking it out to the lake  and I was coming up to a dock and was going to hop over  onto the dock and I just, I landed wrong on my left ankle and it just, it kind of snapped.  Um,  and then got right back on the boat and went to the emergency room. So. 12:23 Geez, I'm so sorry. Does that like ruin your summer?  Well, I feel like it does, yes, because the type of injury that I have, um it could be about 12 weeks before I'm able to safely just stand on it. um And I know here in Michigan, our summer, which we wait  all year to have,  you know, will be about four good months. And so 12:53 I feel like I've just lost my summer, but I'm going to make the best of it and  just kind of keep working with my foot and,  and hope that, you know, I can make it stronger, faster. So we'll, we'll see how this goes, but I'm definitely a mover type person. So I don't stop even I think the day after I broke it, I was doing dishes and laundry. it's, I just don't, don't stop. Yeah. Are you on crutches? Um, I have those too, but I got, I ended up getting a really neat scooter. 13:22 So the scooter makes me zoom through the house. I need to get a little bell on it so people know I'm coming. Yeah.  Yup. Absolutely. Can you use the scooter outside or is it just inside?  Nope. I can use it outside. Okay. So your summer isn't completely ruined because it's not like you're stuck sitting  all day. Correct. Yeah. I mean, I plan to go back to my daytime job em on Monday and we'll see how that goes. But 13:51 We're going to attempt the boat tomorrow, so I'm hoping that I can safely get on and off the boat so we can watch the fireworks over the water.  hope you can. I really hope you can eke out some real enjoyment tomorrow.  too.  Did I see that you're growing a garden? Yes. So I currently have a smaller garden.  It was prior to me coming up with the idea of um the Fairview Farm second harvest, but currently I am growing 14:20 corn  and  tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, broccoli.  I have raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. um And then I've got some squash going. ah We started our orchard. So  on the property when we originally purchased it, we found out that there are two apple trees. They've got to be about 100 to 120 years old and they produce thousands  of beautiful apples. 14:49 Um,  and then it also came with a peach tree, some of the best peaches I've ever had in my life. And I don't even like peaches.  And, um, we planted cherries and plums and also a lime tree this year. So we plan to extend  the orchard and the garden will probably make up about,  um,  over a quarter of an acre of land alone. So we'll be doing that project next year. 15:18 I didn't know you could grow limes in the northern tier states. Well, we're going to we're going to try it out. um It's still alive,  but not much growth, but it's actually a lime tree. So um it can get about 15 to 20 feet tall. So I'm assuming maybe it's a slow growing. So we'll we'll see what happens with it. But it's it's been um alive and well, looks healthy for the last three months. It's been in the ground. So we'll see what happens with it. 15:45 I want to know, I'm going to follow your Facebook page until it doesn't exist anymore just to see how the lime tree does.  Yes, yes, yes. We planted a couple of cold hardy peach trees here a couple years ago and we didn't get any peaches last year because the couple that were on there, the deer got them before we could. But the year before that,  there were 12 peaches on one of those two trees and we got to have six of the peaches. 16:12 didn't realize that we actually did have deer in the area because we never see them.  my husband went out to pick the other six and they were gone. Deer got them. it's so awesome that we can grow peaches in northern tier states where it gets minus 20 to minus 30 below in the wintertime.  Right. Right. I agree. oh I always thought that it was Georgia and Florida and that was it. em 16:42 Fruit trees are so satisfying. It takes forever for them to get established. But boy, once they're going and they're producing, it is fabulous. Yes, I agree. We're very excited. So um I'm guessing that the plan is that you're going to be supplying food to your community. But does that mean 17:11 like through food shelves and selling  or one or the other? um So I really wanted to keep it a close-knit community um when it comes to being able to sell the produce. So  I will be doing my own farm stand. So I live right off of a main road and there is a  walking path that travels right in front of my historical home. So a lot of people are out there running or biking, walking their dogs and 17:39 I really just want to give back to the people local that want to come and visit the home. And  I might do a couple of farmers markets or, you know, local pickup, even straight from the orchard, but nothing, any,  nothing big.  I don't want to go too big. I really just want to focus on, keeping it very local. So. Well, either way you're going to be helping. And right now everybody needs a little help. Yes. um 18:08 At the risk of jinxing it, our tomato plants, our over 190 tomato plants  are looking  really good out in the garden. Yes. And uh we'll be selling those at the farmer's market and in our farm stand this year, but we're going to be overrun with tomatoes. So I'm quite sure that my husband will be taking bushels down to  local farm, to the local  food shelf for the people.  Because we're not going to be able to use them all. No, yes, that's wonderful. 18:38 Yes.  I can't eat enough tomatoes to get through what we're going to have.  Right, right. I have a lot going this season as well, and I know that I'm not I'm not going to eat them all as quickly as they are ready to be, you know, pulled from the vine. So that's not a bad idea at all to be able to get back to a local shelter or food bank or something like that that can utilize them. So that's a great idea. 19:06 Yeah, I just don't want them to go to waste. The work that my husband puts into this garden, I want that stuff to go to people who need it. um And the reason I'm even talking about this is last year and the year before our garden suffered badly from heavy rain in all of May and into June. So this is the first year in two years that we've had a really good garden going. That's really good. 19:32 That would be my house pet Maggie barking her head off. 19:38 Um, so how you said, you said that your home is a four or something. What is it? It's called a four square. What does that mean? Yep. So back in the day they would make the homes pretty simple when they were farm houses, especially. Um, so it would just be two levels and it would be a complete rectangle. And what kind of fits inside is all that they get. their, um, rooms are very tiny. Um, 20:07 They didn't have any bathrooms back then. They had the outhouse and then um kitchens were very, very tiny.  We still have the  location or the original fireplace um for the wood burning stove. That's all they actually have in this house. They don't have any fireplaces, but four square just means it's basically a perfect little itty bitty rectangle. Okay. And  how many square feet is it? Do you know? 20:34 So this house over the years has had some extensions done to it. So it's, it's 3000 square feet now, not including the basement. Um, but I would say that the original four square was probably about. 20:50 12 to 1400 square feet and that's the top and bottom or first and second floor. Okay. And how many bedrooms did it have originally? you know? Yes. So originally it had three, three bedrooms. And then it had one, like one closet.  Most of the bedrooms didn't have closets in them. So there was a hallway closet and then a dining 21:18 Was it two bedrooms up and one bedroom down? Correct. I think I live in a four square house. Oh, ours is about a little over 1400 square feet. It was built in the early 1900s. Oh, and it has two bedrooms upstairs. Good size bedrooms, but just two. And then the downstairs has a really big open kitchen, a fairly 21:48 Yeah, fairly small living room, but it also had a bedroom off of that living room. And when they remodeled it, they opened up that bedroom to be included in the living room. So it used to be one bedroom downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, and it was a little about 1400 square feet. So  I might be in that kind of layout. Yes, I bet so. Yep. And it's completely remodeled. So you would never know that it was built in the early  1900s. It's really pretty.  Right, right. 22:18 I'm going to shoot my dog.  She doesn't usually bark this long.  Her  dad is outside and I think somebody's at the farm stand looking at  produce. She's losing her mind. She wants to be out there.  Even if she was out there, she'd be scared. She's afraid of strangers. she's just going to bark and that's fine. That's why we got her. I sound like I'm complaining about her all the time on the podcast. 22:45 we got her to be a watchdog because we live in the middle of cornfields and soybean fields and our nearest neighbors are quarter to half a mile away. Right. And so I want to know when somebody shows up. Thing is, we got her two years before I even had an inkling that I was going to start a podcast.  Oh, right. Well, so.  Good job.  Yeah, she does a very good job at doing her job.  Do you have kids? 23:13 I do. I have four children. My oldest is 21. I have a 19 year old girl, an 18 year old girl and a 14 year old boy. Okay. So that's, that's a good range. I bet you were terribly busy in their younger years. Yes. Younger years were, I don't know how I survived, but I did. It's a lot more calm now, but 23:42 all great kids and  all doing great things in their lives so far.  we're pretty proud, proud parents. And like I shared before, I homeschooled them when they were younger. So I was with them all the time.  I thoroughly enjoyed that. got my degree because I was homeschooling them. So now that they're older, I run a childcare center local to me as the director of the building. 24:11 So  that's what I do with my day job.  On, I think it's going to sound crazy.  I think that if you have the privilege of being home with your kids, they actually teach you more than than you teach them.  I agree. I agree very much so. And  my children taught me to slow down a little bit.  I was just going to say number one at the top of the list is patience. Right. 24:40 Because when you've got four kids, if you're not patient, no one is going to survive that situation. Right, right. I raised four as well. My oldest is a girl. She's 36 and the other three are boys and the youngest is 24. He'll be 25 in December. So yeah, it's. I always felt like people judged me when they saw me out with four kids and. 25:07 At the point that they were all older, they weren't little anymore,  I was like, yeah, judge me, go ahead. Look at these beautiful functioning grownup kids. That's right.  Behold what I have done for the world.  Yes,  I feel the same. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of joy. And if you're lucky, it's very little sadness. Right. Right. 25:37 So  are they into the whole  being at the farm and are they into the history of it and are they into what you're trying to do? ah They  are  to an extent. I think they know that it's like the thing that I love the most. They share in my excitement of things. So when things start growing, they're  very excited to hear what I have to say. uh My youngest will help me. 26:07 um with the chickens he loves when we get new baby chicks and he'll take care of them and collect eggs and I  definitely think that they support what I do and I know that I love it so much but I think they're off kind of you know doing their thing I would  say that not any of them  would follow in my footsteps.  Well they may surprise you. They might. 26:34 I've talked to a lot of people on this podcast who were like, I'm getting out of here. I'm moving as far away as I can. I'm going to have a career totally opposite of what I've been raised in. And then they find themselves going back home and being very into what their parents were into. Right, right. I am hoping that some things will pass off to them, you know, when they, when they realize the value behind it and the reason why, but. 27:00 They're still young yet. And one of them is going to college for psychology and the other ones in the military.  um, you know, they're just, they're busy finding their ways, but maybe one day they'll, they'll come back with a, a few things of, yep, mom, were right.  They will. I know they will. I've had a couple of mine do that to me already. And Michigan is one of the most beautiful States in,  the, contiguous States. So they'll be back to visit no matter what. 27:29 Yes, I sure hope so.  Yep. So I think that's all I've got for you, Catherine. I try to keep this to half an hour.  So where can people find you?  So I have a Facebook page and Instagram page. You can locate me at Fairview Farms Second Harvest  and it's located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. uh Or you can contact me via email and that's going to be fairviewfarms.secondharvest.gmail.com. 27:57 I will put that in the show notes because people sometimes are listening to this when their hands are full.  So I will,  I'll make sure it's in the show notes if somebody wants to get to you.  Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Kathryn, I hope you have a wonderful July 4th weekend. Yes, you as well. Thank you for having me. Thank you. All right. Bye bye.  

Today I'm talking with Felicia at Patchwork Acres Farm. You can also follow on Facebook. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Felicia at Patchwork Acres Farm in Indiana. Good morning, Felicia. How are you? Good morning. Really good. How is the weather in Indiana today?  Actually really beautiful, uh but we're supposed to get rain tonight. And does Indiana need rain? It doesn't hurt. We had a really, really dry, hot spring and then it has turned into cool and very rainy for the last couple of weeks. 00:58 It's just kind of catching us up.  Good. Good.  I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but we had the last two years, not 2026, but 24 and 25. We had rain all of May and into June and our gardens suffered for it.  This year has been unbelievably  moderate. Our garden looks like it's going to be incredibly successful. Fingers crossed and knocking on wood. 01:26 And  we're very excited because we have a farm to market garden. And in twenty twenty three, we had tomatoes coming out of our ears like we had  hundreds if not, I bet we got to a thousand pounds of tomato. Oh, wow. You had a good year then. We did. And we sold a lot and we gave a lot away and we got kind of a  minor reputation in our area for having really good tomatoes. 01:54 And then terrible weather. And then 24 and 25 hit and people were like, do you have tomatoes yet? Do you have tomatoes yet? Do you have tomatoes yet? And we're like, no. And even when we did, we only had a few. So everything is crossed. Hopes are up for a really good tomato season this year. Yeah, that would be great. So really thankful for the moderate, beautiful spring that we have managed to eke out here in Minnesota this year. It is sunny and cool and lovely outside right now here. 02:23 Yes, I always do a weather update because mostly for me because if I listen to the episodes I can get an idea of what the weather is gonna be from the previous year's one weather Yeah Because it does kind of follow trends like that It does and I figure if we get two years of really terrible winter or a really terrible spring We're due for a good one. So I just have to go listen to what I want to find out. Yep, exactly 02:50 I'm almost as good as the farmer's almanac and I can say that tongue in cheek because I've actually interviewed the editor of the old farmer's almanac. Her name is Carol and I can't remember her last name. Oh, that's cool. She's super fun. I'm going to ask her to come back and visit at some point here this fall probably. So anyway, I wanted to know about you and what you do at your place. So can you kind of give me a little introduction and what you do at your place? 03:20 Yeah, we do a little bit of everything.  Mainly goats. We raise goats, dairy goats,  and uh show and milk and make soap and all that stuff. And then  about six years ago, we started with the sheep and we've got a fine wool breed of sheep called CVM. So we raise them for uh fleeces and we sell lambs and then we process some of them. ah So we've kind of done that for the last about six years. 03:49 And then the last couple years, chickens. What's CVM stand for? California Variegated Mutants. They are an offshoot of the Ramadale breed. And Ramadales are all white. That's the breed standard. So CVMs are a colorful Ramadale. Because  if they're white, they can still be a Ramadale. a gray CVM can never, you know, they're considered a CVM. 04:18 uh mutant. uh Because they're a mutated color. Yes, yes. So I thought the black sheep of the family literally. Yeah, I thought maybe the M was for mutt like a dog that's behind a 04:35 So, okay, keep going. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. You said you have chickens. Oh, yeah. And we have  chickens and we just got ducks again this year. just a little bit of everything. Exciting. So do you have a background in  animal husbandry? Did you grow up doing it or your grandparents or anybody? ah No, I have always loved animals since I was a little bitty kid and we lived in apartments. So um that was not really a thing. But as soon as I got 05:04 older and had my own money. I had animals and I started volunteering at vet clinics when I was about 10. And so that's just, I've always been obsessed with it. That's anybody who met me as a kid, like that's, they're not surprised by this now. So it's kind of like when you're a kid and you want to eat ice cream every day for dinner and your parents are like, absolutely not. And then when you get into college, you're like, I'm getting ice cream every chance I get. 05:34 I wanted to be a zookeeper in kindergarten and that's about where I've gotten.  Well good.  I think if you have a dream you should live it out. Yeah. So it's been a lot of fun and that's my grandparents had uh a market garden. They had a big vegetable garden. They did the markets  and my grandpa raised honeybees. So I grew up doing that with him  and uh so they had a farm and I grew up mainly on their farm. 06:05 I had lot of fun doing that, but he didn't do animals. Okay. But he did honeybees. Yes. So did you, did you learn about that from him? Oh yeah. I, uh, I was real involved in the honeybees from,  I think five or six years old when he got them. And my grandma custom made me a tiny bee suit so that I could go work them with him. And I was involved in the whole thing of that for as long as he had them. We had a lot of fun doing that. 06:35 Awesome. So do you think that you'll ever get into keeping honeybees yourself? Oh, yes. We had them for a while.  And then when we moved to this property, it is not  we live, we're a long, skinny property between four cornfields.  So  it's not good for honeybees. They get sprayed and they die. I can't keep them alive here. So I need something that is more buffer from all the cornfields. Yeah. 07:03 I understand. live in the middle of on any given year, Felicia, it's corn, it's corn or soybeans or alfalfa. Yep.  So I get it. And they just went through and sprayed some  fertilizer on the soybeans two days ago. And we never quite know what they're spraying. And we like the people that own the land. So I'm not going to complain about it, but we have a dog  and  her lead. 07:33 goes like a foot into the field. So anytime they're gonna put manure down or they're gonna spray something, we make sure that she goes potty and she comes back in right away. Because we don't know  what it is, we don't know if it will hurt her. And she's like,  on a good day, she's 35 pounds, on a fat day, she's 40 pounds.  And so she's not a big dog and we  don't know  what they're using and we don't know how it will impact her. 08:01 brain mostly so we're very careful so I totally get it.  I feel like my voice is really rough.  Does it sound really rough to you? Oh not too bad. Okay I've got some allergies going on like wow I have real gravel in there.  Trying not to sound like I smoke a hundred thousand cigarettes a day. Allergies do that to you though I've always got the allergy cough and yeah. 08:30 Yeah, it's been like this time of year. It's one of the joys of springtime because we're not as well. No, it is officially summer. I'm sorry. Today's the 24th. 08:41 I think so. Yeah, so summer started two days ago. It feels more like spring now though than it did in the spring. So it feels very springish now. Yeah, well we've hit summer allergy season and I always joke that Minnesotans talk through their nose because they have two seasons. They have cold season and allergy season. That's about right for here too. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm not from Minnesota but I've been here long enough that 09:10 I have learned that it is really hard not to sound nasally when you are sniffling and snorkeling. Uh huh. In the 65 days a year. Yup. So, all right. So I have a question for you. I've not asked anybody this about sheep and goats because it never occurred to me until I saw that you have both. Do sheep and goats get along? Like can they be in the same pasture and be fine? Technically, yes. Okay. 09:40 I don't keep mine together. Mine have totally separate pastures. And then when we put them out on the big pasture, we rotate them so the sheep are out at night, the goats are out during the day. um They have different mineral requirements  and the sheep are a lot bigger than the goats.  And the way they play and interact is quite different. um So for the most part, it would probably be fine, but I raise  a lot of Nigerians. 10:09 And I  don't need a sheep headbutting somebody and losing kids or any of that. Yeah. So  I don't really run them together. And we also run our ram with our ewes year round.  He wears a  anti-breeding apron. Yep. And so I don't want him riding my does or any of that either. So everybody just stays separate. And it works out perfect because the sheep don't like the heat. 10:37 They don't like being out during the day. They like to go out and graze at night  and um the goats would be horrified by that. So the goats put themselves up right before dusk and they don't want to go back out. And that's when the sheep want to go out. So it kind of works out perfect to just rotate them and everybody's happy.  OK, thank you for that, because  I was looking at your Facebook page yesterday to refresh my memory about what you do.  And I was like, huh, I haven't asked anybody this yet. I get to find out something new. 11:06 Yeah, some people do run them together. And especially in maybe a small herd that works a little better. But the mineral requirements and the feed requirements are different. My goats are on uh heavy alfalfa hay and a totally different mineral. And the sheep are on a grassier hay because they'll get way too fat on an alfalfa.  And  sheep are not small. I mean, are there many sheep? Like there's many goats and many cows and many horses? 11:36 But your sheep are not minis, right? No, we have full size sheep. So there's a big difference between like my smaller breed goats and then my sheep is a huge size difference. So. Are your sheep like five times as big as your goats? Not by weight, but close. They're because the sheep are around probably 150, 200 pounds and then the goats are 12:04 you know, 50 to 70 for the most part. So it's a, it's a pretty big size difference. And goats do a lot of like rear up on their back legs and head, butt down, and they don't stand back and ram each other like sheep do. Right.  So the disagreements have a big difference in how they act, but sheep are real chill and they don't fight much. And the goats, you know, they play fight more than they actually fight, but 12:34 So they will antagonize the sheep into  play with me and the sheep don't take that the same way.  I feel like  it's the difference between a four-year-old sibling  and the 16-year-old sibling. Yeah. The goats are the four-year-old.  Yes, they are.  Yep. And then I have a really dumb question. I don't know the answer because I've not looked it up. 13:03 and I feel stupid asking it, I feel compelled to ask, can goats and sheep breed and have babies? uh Technically, rarely, yes,  but  rarely successfully. Okay. They typically die, you know, they can conceive and then usually  that baby is aborted. Usually it doesn't like come to term. Yeah. And most of the ones that come to term, 13:31 they're born and they live maybe a few minutes to an hour and then they pass. Like they aren't very successful, but every blue moon, you know,  one does survive.  Are they called a GEEP? G-E-E-P? Yep.  Okay. Yeah. Sometimes.  I saw somebody post a photo of what they said was a GEEP. 13:58 I was like, in the day and age of AI, I don't know whether I believe that.  I thought I would ask you because I figured you'd probably know. Yeah, they have occurred, but they're  very rare. Because I've had friends who ran  goats and sheep together have their ram breed their does and get them pregnant. But then they lost all those pregnancies. So basically, you just wasted a breeding season. 14:27 They got halfway to term and then lost them. So  it's kind of hard on the dough to do that. And it's very rarely successful. Most people pick up like hair sheep and they think that they're like at an auction or something,  or I've seen them at a sales where they're trying to call them a geep or something and sell them for a bunch of money, but it's most likely a hair sheep. They're just kind of,  know, swindling people. uh 14:56 Yes, and we don't want to do that, people. And hair sheep look like they should be a cross between a goat and a sheep, you know. They sure do. That's the, you know, kind of their vibe. Yeah, we. This is sound really stupid. We don't want to swindle people. We want agriculture to be a upstanding. Yes. 15:25 Endeavor full.  People with integrity. Yes.  That's right. Yes. Don't lie to your customers because they won't come back and they won't support anyone else in the industry. Yes. Because it makes people not trust anybody. And there's so many scams in  in  all. Well in everything but in farming and homesteading and like. 15:52 People just getting after beginners who don't know any better and taking advantage of them is just terrible. Yeah, it is not cool. Don't do it.  Don't be mean. Don't be dishonest. Be kind. Be honest. Be helpful.  I'm trying so hard, Felicia, to have a good attitude right now in this world that we're in. And I'm trying to encourage people to have the same attitude of be kind, be honest. 16:22 whatever the other one was, I forget. Just  try to be a good person. Because the world is so freaking hard right now. There are so many things that are weighing on so many people. If you can just make somebody feel good for a minute, you're not throwing the world. Well,  if somebody's wanting to get started in something, help them out and give them good advice and help them get started. Don't say, they're new, so they don't know any better. 16:52 That's just terrible. And I see a lot of that because I'll have people contact me.  Every few years where they bought, you know, dough, they can't get bread. And you go out and, well, they bought two bucks and they didn't realize that the other second one was a buck. know, somebody sold them this  story.  And I've had that.  I get that really an incredible amount of time.  When I was sharing alpacas, I used to run into a lot of people who had 17:21 Maybe four males and they picked them up at an auction and they were sold as three females and a male and they paid a ton of money for them and they've got four boys. And like that's just a really rotten thing to do. I've had people do that with sheep, you know, like  kind of always check what you're buying and  especially from auctions. Auctions rarely know what's going on and they're just, they go by what the person told them. They aren't checking anything and 17:49 It's kind of terrible how often that happens. Yeah. Do your research before you go to the auction. Oh yeah. Make sure you know how to tell the sex of the animal that you're  A surprising number of people do not know how to do that.  the most difficult animal I've ever had to sex is a rabbit. Oh yeah. so hard to tell apart. Rabbits are terrible. And if you buy baby rabbits, I can see somebody accidentally doing that with young rabbits. 18:18 But  goats and sheep,  they're born with it.  It's real obvious. You're just being mean to somebody at that point. Oh, absolutely. And with rabbits, they're always like, the boy has a donut and the girl has a taco. And I'm like,  I have seen rabbits. Because we had rabbits. And you can't always tell what's what.  You really have to get your hands. 18:48 into their belly and pull the skin up and  make things show. And even then sometimes people make mistakes. Plus rabbits don't like being on their backs except when their baby's in their nursing. Yeah. Yeah. Rabbits are terrible to tell. And I don't hold that against anybody because they're, you know, unless you've been doing it for a long time and you really do a lot of rabbits, most people aren't good at rabbits. No, it's difficult. 19:16 We had Baby Bunnies  the second summer we were here, I think. We've been here six years in August.  And I had to wait till they were like seven, eight weeks old to even begin to make a guess of what their sex was.  And it was great because I was picking them up every day. So they were totally fine with me holding them and looking at their parts. But  I wasn't sure until they were 12 weeks old what they were. uh 19:47 I wouldn't claim to be able to do bunnies. I've done a few, but not that I would tell anybody, like with accuracy. Yeah, I can sex a kitten from the day they're born. Yep. Yeah, I think kittens are much easier than rabbits, but I can see why people have trouble with kittens too, because they are kind of a little more fickle. Yes, if there's a big distance between their parts. 20:14 They're a boy. If it's no distance between their parts, they're a girl.  Yes.  I'm trying to not be graphic here. So  we have kittens do here in a week. So I'm like, oh my God, baby cats, can't wait. Oh, there's not much cuter than kittens.  Yes, they're barn kittens. And mama's a little bit skitty about being touched or picked up. She'll come see you and she'll she'll let you pet her along her back. 20:43 once and then she walks away like, nah.  So we may not actually see these kittens until they come out of the barn with her.  Yeah, we had somebody drop off a cat and I had an appointment for her and for like two weeks later and she had kittens like a week before that. So we had kittens a couple of years ago and that was fun. She was at least super sweet so you got to play with them from day one. 21:13 in your business.  yeah. Yeah. There is nothing like a newborn kitten. They are so  tiny and so cute and so fragile. Yeah. Like you got to be really careful when you pick them up. Yeah. But they become your friends and they follow you all over the place and they try to help with chores. It's really fun. 21:37 Yeah, I had them in my milk room and they were helping milk goats, which is not helpful,  it was a lot of fun.  Yeah, did you squirt them in the face? My grandpa's friends down the road used to squirt their barred cats in the face with the milk from the cows.  Oh yeah, and they figured out I feed all my kids on a bucket feeder. So it's got nipples in a row on it. And they figured out how to squeeze the nipples and get milk out. So I'd be filling the bucket feeder and I'd have a whole line of cats down there. 22:06 Chewing the end of the nipples and squeezing them with their paws to get milk for themselves.  It was a rodeo every day trying to get my kids milk together and get it out the door before it had kittens in it.  Uh huh. Exactly. And I'm sure the baby goats were not thrilled to share their food with the baby cats.  Oh, not really. Or even the grownup cats for that matter. Yeah. Okay. So I was looking at your Facebook page and I saw a really curly haired Auburn colored dog. Is that that's your dog? 22:36 Yes, that's Gus. What is Gus's breed? He's a Boykin Spaniel. I have I've never heard of that.  Oh, yeah, they're uh, they're from South Carolina So it's always funny that most people around here don't know what he is either. But when we went to Tennessee to pick up goats uh everybody in Kentucky and Tennessee knew right what he was  and We're all excited to see him. But you come north of Indianapolis. Nobody knows what he is. So it's always kind of funny 23:06 He's beautiful. Did you get him as a puppy? Yes. My husband  hunts ducks and then he's got his field bred golden retriever and he was doing hunt tests with him. And so I was going to the hunt test and there was a lady there that had boykins. And so I got to see the breed and  mess with him and I love spaniels. And so I was hooked. So I got him  just shy of three years ago. He's going to be three years old next week. 23:34 Is it B-O-Y-K-I-N? Yep. Okay. I want to put it in the show notes because people will be curious to what we're talking about. Oh yeah. The perfect dogs.  Well, they're all perfect dogs if you're in love with the one you have.  Well, yeah. I just got to give my husband a hard time because he thinks his golden is the perfect dog. Yeah. And I think my Maggie, who's an Australian Shepherd, is perfect. Oh yeah. 24:04 And she's actually not perfect. is. She is the most amazing, perfect watchdog, but she's also the most obnoxious watchdog because they're interchangeable.  Yeah, basically. uh I've got a Commodore livestock guardian dog and she is  yes, she's always barking. She calls her all the time. I've not heard of a Commodore either. What's that?  They're the mop dogs. 24:34 They're usually corded and they have big long white cords. Huh. So they look like a big floor mop. But I keep her shaved because she's a she works. She's outside all the time. So it's too hard to keep her. Not awful when she's corded.  I am going to have to look up Commodore. Oh, yeah, they're beautiful dogs. Is she what color is she? She's white, real curly hair. She looks like a really big 25:03 poodle when she's shaved. You have the coolest farm dogs.  She's a real good with strangers. So that was kind of why I picked the breed is the ones I had met before  were pretty good with people and not real bad about escaping and climbing fences and obsessing over that stuff. And she's just been wonderful. She doesn't give me any fits  about trying to leave the property or, you know, 25:31 She's great with all the babies, great with the other dogs. People come over a lot, so I needed something that was not  people aggressive.  she isn't, she really likes everybody. So that's kind of nice. She's a big dog? Yes. Like a hundred pounds big dog? Yeah,  she's right about a hundred pounds. Okay, cool. um Our dog  loves people  once she's decided that they're her people. 26:03 Until she decides that they're her people she barks and barks and barks and barks at them and Yeah, well, she's all teeth in the front and she's all wiggle button in the back because she's yeah She's like I have to protect my people. I'm afraid of you, but I want to be your friend All in the same moment and I'm like me for the love of God. It's okay be their friend Take ten minutes at least to finally be brave enough to sniff their hand 26:31 And  once she's realized that they're not a threat and that they're her friend, she is in their pocket the whole time they're here. Yeah. Yeah. On your barks and makes a ton of noise. And then once she's out with somebody and I tell her it's OK, like I've let them in and we're all buddies, she's fine. Yeah, don't I don't have the off switch. It's got to be the off switch. it is insane. 26:57 God just loves everybody. He has never met a stranger and he thinks that everybody comes here to see him and talk to him and that's it.  Well, of course he does. Yeah, he doesn't bark. He doesn't. He's just thrilled to death that somebody has arrived. Well, he looks like he's a really nice dog and he's very handsome. So of course he thinks that everybody comes. And he's not been wrong yet. So that's that doesn't help either is that he's he's always right about that. Uh huh. 27:27 You would think that the people who come here, if we gave them treats to give to Maggie, she would just stop being obnoxious.  Nope. 27:41 But it's okay. She's the perfect dog. We're sticking to it. That's our story. That's right.  Yes. And I'm so thankful for her. Like  I had no idea how in love I would be with owning a dog. I have never owned a dog before. Oh,  oh yeah. There's nothing better than having a dog. Yeah. My parents did, but we weren't,  I and my siblings were not responsible for the dogs. My parents  were responsible. So we just got the benefits. 28:11 but it's a whole different ball game when you get a little tiny puppy and you raise them.  huh. Yeah. If I, if I had to give up everything and I could just have one thing, it'd be a dog. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a dog person through and through. Yes. And it's,  I'm doing it again.  I don't care. I'm doing it again. Dogs, when you get them as puppies and when you treat them well and you, you train them well. 28:39 They literally just want to do what you ask them to do and they want to make you happy. Pretty much. That is the best feeling on earth.  Except for maybe terriers, you know.  I've never met one. Oh, really? Oh, no one I know has ever had one.  Oh, I had I had one. That's why I haven't had chickens for the last eight years, because I had a 29:07 a little terrier that I was supposed to be fostering briefly for a rescue organization and he was ridiculously charming as terriers are. And so once I signed the paperwork and said that I would keep him, then he said, well, actually I do eat chickens. I've just been good for two weeks to make you think that I didn't. So he knew when the ink was dry on the adoption forms that like, 29:35 Okay, now it's official. I can become my true self. Oh, a sneaky little brat. Yes. So he was he was a wild thing. He was a lot of fun, but he was a there's a reason they call him terriers, you know, they're little terrors. Exactly. Well, what's interesting is I was never really a dog person. I liked other people's dogs, but I didn't want one because I liked cats. And then friends of ours. 30:04 their two dogs had their first litter together  and we had bought this house and we had decided that when we bought a house with land we would get a dog and I saw these puppies and I was like oh my god they have puppies we're ready for a puppy can we get a puppy and my husband was like yep so we got Maggie and I swear to you the  minute she settled down so it took like  took like 30:31 8-10 weeks for her to really find her footing because she was a baby. She was a day younger than eight weeks when we brought her home. But once she got comfortable and started showing her personality, I was like, that's it. I don't ever want house cats again. This dog. Yeah. Cats deign to put up with you. Dogs want to love you. Yes. I like the dogs want to love you better than the cats deign to put up. 31:00 Yeah, I've got both. I've always had cats with my dogs and they all get along great. Gus has his own cat  that kind of adopted him from a puppy. I've got a real big orange fluffy haired cat  and Gimli. And Gimli just when Gus arrived, decided that was his dog and they have been bestest friends ever since.  And it's just hilarious. Gus will pick him up and carry him around the house. 31:28 And Gimli, like his back legs and his tail just drag the ground and he loves it. He'll go when Gus gets home and I open the front door, he runs over to see him and rub all over him. He's all excited see him. So it's funny. So  cute. ah Maggie loves kittens and I don't mean she wants to eat them. I mean, she loves babies. Oh, yeah. And she hasn't had any baby kittens, you little baby kittens in her life for two summers. So. 31:56 When Smokey, the mom of cat, brings her babies out in eight weeks, or however long it takes her to bring them out, just depends. Maggie is going to be sitting at the end of her lead, waiting for those kittens to come over and be introduced. Yeah, Gus loves kittens. Which he's been raised though with baby goats and chicks and all this stuff now. And so he thinks all baby things are his and that everybody wants to see him. 32:25 He occasionally gets himself into trouble because he travels with me for work and he'll go to somebody's house that doesn't have dog friendly cats and he thinks, oh, this cat wants to see me.  So he's gotten thumped a couple of times by an angry cat that did not want to see him at all.  yeah. He says, sure that they do.  They're so funny. Dogs are so funny. All right. So. 32:51 I try to keep these to half an hour, Felicia, we're almost 33 minutes. So where can people find you?  Mainly we're on Facebook at Patchwork Acres Farm. ah That's where I'm kind of most active. And then we do have a website for the goats. ah I'm hoping to get the sheep on there  soon, but it's just time.  But we have a website at patchworkacresfarm.com  also. Fabulous. 33:18 And before I forget, I was going to ask you the AGDA, ADGA, whatever it is, for goats, what does that stand for? American Dairy Goat Association. ADGA, ADGA. ADGA. And then the other one, the other designation I saw on your website for the goats. AGS is American Goat Society, and NDGA is Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association. 33:45 Okay, so there's just a whole bunch of them A's and G's and N's in there. Yes.  But ADGA is like the big,  the main registry in the US. So like if you are registered to ADGA, you can down register to all the other organizations, but they don't always up register to ADGA. Okay. So ADGA is usually like the big one that everybody's looking for.  Would you like to come back and talk to me in a couple of months about the specifics of all that, all the GOAT stuff? Oh, sure. uh 34:15 I feel like I've talked about some of it, but not all of it with people and maybe there's more to know. Oh yeah. There's a, Dairy Goats are a whole thing. There, you'll spend a lifetime learning about Dairy Goats. It's kind of fun. I like that about them that they're such a challenge. Cool. Well, let's schedule a time, I don't know, maybe in September to talk again. All right. I will message you and we'll get a date on the. 34:43 Thank you Felicia, this was a joy. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Hope you have a great day. You too.    

Today I'm talking with Adam and Katie at M57 Farms This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Adam and Katie at M57 Farms in Michigan. Good morning, how are you? Good morning, we are great. How are you?  I'm well. Thank you for coming to chat with me.  No problem. We look forward to it and we've been excited.  Good.  What is the weather like in Michigan? Is it sunny and bright like it is in Minnesota this morning? 00:52 It's a beautiful day. It's sunny. It's got to be probably 72 out right now  and beautiful blue skies.  Did you guys have the heat last week that we had?  Absolutely sure did.  Yeah, it was not fun this week here. It's supposed to only be. I think the highest high I saw was 79 or 80 and I thought OK Mother Nature. Maybe you've gotten your act together for at least a week. That would be really nice. 01:19 We are hoping and of course we decided to do all of our crazy landscaping projects around the farm in the heat, which I don't know why we do that to ourselves. They could have been done anytime. Because you like a challenge, I would guess. You know, as much as I say no, that's probably it. That's my wife nods her head. Yeah, it's a thing. It really is. OK, so I got to know why is it called M57 Farms? 01:47 So we have state roads in Michigan  and all the state roads begin with  M  and we live right off of M57.  So it's a pretty busy main road. um And we just kind of sat here one night and everyone always says like, oh, it's the farm right off of M57. So  we just decided to kind of go with M57. OK, that makes a lot of sense and how lovely that it was easy because it sounds like it 02:16 But M57 is a very long road.  now everyone says, where on M57?  Oh,  OK. All right. So tell me about yourselves and what you guys do at M57 farms.  I will have my wife lead.  Oh, geez. OK, well, I'm a speech language pathologist by trade. So  the farm is just kind of the hobby side for me. It's more Adam that does a lot of the running around. I like to do the dreaming and. 02:44 He likes to do the executing, so. 02:49 So I am a franchisee for Firehouse Subs and I do enjoy that, but I've always enjoyed farming, being outside. We have a 40 acre farm here and we have currently 22 pairs. So it'd mama cows and some calves. And I kinda, we do lease it out. 03:17 but we kind of manage the cows the day to day, do all the chores and we rotate them and our property, we have water located in the central of it. So we kind of have little pie sections, if you will. So we kind of put our eyes on the cows every day, do the chores and we also make crafts. So we have a little gift shop located at the end of our driveway. 03:43 And since we're kind of right off the main road, we get quite a bit of traffic from that. we make  homemade soap, we freeze dry things, we have a freeze dryer, and we also have a laser engraver that can kind of cut wood, laser engraved wood.  And the biggest thing that we do now is we have a  lavender patch  in front of our barn  and we renovated our barn into an Airbnb.  So. 04:12 We rent out the Airbnb  and  we have a lot going on at the farm. So we have cows. um And of course we have our outdoor cat,  Rubble Crew Kitty. And  we have an indoor cat as well and we have two dogs. um But as far as the kind of outside farm goes, we have our outdoor Rubble Crew Kitty.  And um the guests love him. He's pretty popular.  And the gift shop, the gift shop's 04:41 Decent size is probably 12 by 14 foot kind of gift shop shed and it's fully stocked with soaps,  keychains we make, tumblers that we engrave. My wife makes a lot of beaded things like beaded pens and garden stakes,  all kinds of, I don't know. I'd like to say we're just all over the place.  We are.  Well, that's okay because variety is the spice of life.  You said you lease out. 05:10 the beginning of this whole string of things you guys do, what does that mean?  So we lease out our 40 acres  to a local farmer to put his cows here. So they're not our cows, but we just tend to them  and,  you know, rotate them through the pasture, put our eyes on them, do the chores with them and all that stuff. OK, thank you, because I was like, I think I know what he means, but I'm not sure. And if I'm not sure, that means whoever's listening isn't sure as well. 05:40 OK, so you sound very happy. Both of you. Are you very happy? Yes, very happy. We  moved.  So I'm from the country  and my wife is from,  I guess, the city of all of what? thousand people. Yeah.  Small town, but yeah, but a townie.  And uh when I got my firehouse sub started, we ended up moving to Lansing, which is like the capital of Michigan. It's  a lot. 06:09 bigger and we made it two months there before we said we got to get back to the country.  So,  so your country, your country mice not city mice now. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. 06:23 I understand completely if I if I have a choice, I don't want to live in a town or a city again. We live about four and a half, five miles outside of our small town. And right now we're surrounded by soybean fields and I don't know what they planted across the street from us. And I'm OK with that, because as long as it's green, I'm good. Yep, we love it. We feel too. 06:47 We are right off the main road, but we live on a dirt road  and you know, we can go for walks with the family. There's some road tracks down the road so we can go walk down there.  Um,  our two sons, have two sons, Cooper and Cannon.  nice. Yep. They are, they love it out here. He's got like four or five different power wheels  and you know, whatever job I'm doing, he's got to have his little tractor or Jeep or lawnmower, whatever out. 07:16 How old are the boys? Three years for Cooper and then Cannon is four months tomorrow. Oh my God, you are in the thick of it. Yeah, but it's a blessing. Cooper keeps us busy and Cannon is just great too. So we're glad to have them both. Yeah, I when I say it like that, it's because I raised four. My youngest is 24. My oldest is 36. Four would seem like a lot to me. 07:46 I think it was a good number. was a lot, but it was a lot of fun too. Yeah. So you mentioned the outdoor cats. I haven't said anything yet on the podcast about this.  One of our female barn cats is very, pregnant right now. She's probably going to pop about the end of June,  1st of July. And we haven't had barn kittens on the property in a year and a half, two years. 08:12 So we're very excited to see what she throws for colors, because she is a very interesting looking cat. Do you guys know about the cats that look like werewolves? The Loki cats? No. No. She looks kind of like that, and not because she's that breed, but that's what she reminds me of. And her coloring is mostly dilute grays and blacks with a little bit of white. But her brother and her sister, her brother is orange. He's orange. 08:41 So we have no idea what color kittens we're going to get. And we're like, oh my God, let them all be healthy. And I can't wait to see these babies in two weeks, probably. We are pulling up pictures of what they look like right now. That is crazy. Yeah. And the thing is, the reason I say she looks like a Loki cat is because she is, she's about 10 months old. I think she's just shy of a year. She was very, very long haired. And when spring hit, she shed out. 09:11 up right to the base of her shoulders and the rest of her long hair and she's tiny. She's a small cat. So I was like, oh my God, she looks like one of those werewolf cats. It's so funny.  But she's also gorgeous because the markings on her face are very much tabby. So she's not scary looking, but she's definitely she looks like one of those Loki cats. That's cool. We we have our outdoor cat, which we told Cooper he could. 09:40 name him and I don't know, the kid loves Christmas. So we said, you can pick any name you want and go ahead and name him. And he's like, how about Santa Claus? I was like, are you sure? I said, it's not Christmas. He's like, yeah, you're right. And he likes the construction Rubble Crew show. So he says, about Rubble Crew Kitty? And I was like, yeah, Rubble Crew's good. He's like, Kitty. So we have to say Rubble Crew Kitty every time. 10:10 That is a very long name for a barn cat. Yeah, we finally got it down to rubs now.  Well, our Loki cat, as I have now decided I'm going to refer to her as her name is Smokey because when she's outside walking around in the morning in the half light, she looks like smoke, like just moving through the yard. She's so pretty. She's not friendly, but she's pretty. 10:36 the and um 11:05 That's what little guy he is such a little hunter out there. He loves it. Yes. Yeah. It's so fun. They're so fun to watch and see what a cat is actually supposed to do when it gets when it's allowed to be a cat. Ours is just crazy. We live on this dirt road, so like he could totally follow us like when we go for a walk and he just knows his limits. We walk to the end of the driveway and he sits down. 11:32 And we walk down the road and when we come back, he's just there sitting waiting for us to come back. Like a yard dog. Yes. Yes. Yes.  We often refer to him as our dog.  Uh huh. Do you guys have dogs too? Yes, we do. What do you have?  We have a Shiba in you named Roxy  and we have an Australian Shepherd Siberian Husky mix named Wrangler. How big is Wrangler by is he big or is he small? Not big. mean,  I. 12:02 38, 42 pounds.  Yeah. Okay. Well, as everyone who listens to my podcast knows, I have an Australian shepherd.  She's going to be six. Oh my gosh, she'll be six in August. Her name is Maggie and on a good day, she weighs about 34 pounds. On a fat day, she weighs close to 40 and she's on a fat day.  So she's a chubby girl and she,  I swear to God, they must have, she must have Corgi somewhere in her lineage. 12:29 because she's got a very long body and short legs. And I'm trying everything I can to get her to lose a couple pounds because that kind of weight on short legs,  hard on their joints.  My husband is not in the game with me on trying to get her lose a couple pounds. So we keep going back and forth on how much food she should have in her dish at night. um Do you love Wrangler? Is he a really good dog?  He is a good boy.  He 12:59 I mean, the sweetest boy. He's very protective though.  So we kind of have to watch him around people and stuff. He's just the sweetest thing to us though, but  he's very protective and you know, he tries to save us from Amazon and UPS all the time. yeah,  it seems to be an Australian shepherd thing that they're very, very attached to their people, but everybody else is either a threat or they're scary. Oh yeah. That garbage truck, that garbage trucks like 13:29 Wow. And he can hear him from three miles away. Yes. I know barking. It's like crazy. I understand. My dog hates the trash truck. She is scared to death of it. If she's outside when it comes, she tries her damnedest to be strong and bark at it as deep in her throat as she in her chest as she can. But the entire time she is shaking. She's so afraid of it. Yep. Yep. Ridiculous. 13:58 Okay, so I don't want to spend the whole episode talking about dogs. I just think that it's funny when I hear that other people have Australian Shepherds. So I'm like, we are a special breed of people to have very special breed of dog. Okay, so you said that you guys make crafts. Do you have a garden? Yes, we have a small garden. We grow your typical stuff, know, squash, sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, things like that. 14:27 And is that just for you guys or do you sell some of it? So we've kicked around  doing like the local produce and things like that. um But really,  so many people around us have gardens and do it.  And actually, they just, you know, kind of give a lot of stuff away. So we don't really focus too much on that. uh we really focus on like the soap, um our lavender. have the lavender patch in front of the Airbnb, which  is probably. 14:57 A good 150 lavender plants. Oh, wow. Do you sell any of that?  We do. um We were going to focus more on kind of a you cut  and  bring people in. But now the Airbnb is taken off so much that it would kind of invade that privacy. So we just kind of use the lavender for us and for our products  and then just allow the guests to enjoy it.  Nice. That's amazing. 15:27 Um, so what made you want to do an Airbnb? Cause that's, that's a, that's a job and a half right there.  Yeah. You know, 15:37 I don't know, the minute I kind of mow in and I just kind of put my mind to something and start thinking about something, it's kind of, there's a meme that goes around that says, my wife showed it to me. It says, I've had this dream my whole life since lunch.  That's very much Adam. And that's me. Decide in the morning that we're going to build something and it needs to be done by the evening. So he sets his mind to it and we just do it.  Well, how long has the Airbnb been  up and running? 16:07 um Four months. Yeah. Oh, about four months. Yes. Yep. And how is it going? Do you is it working out? Do you like it? We actually quite enjoy it. We didn't know  what to think. Like my wife said, I kind of just do something and then think about the rest later.  So decided to build this.  It's just a smaller. It's probably I don't know what it would be. Four hundred and eighty, maybe five hundred twenty square feet.  It's a too bad one bath. um 16:37 just a smaller one and it's completely private from the rest of our house. You kind of have a whole acre to yourself, separate driveway  and the barn shields everything from the home  and we love it. We were booked out pretty much every weekend. um We get to meet a lot of people, which is, see, I like to talk, so it works out pretty good. Okay.  Is it closed during the winter or do you guys leave it open in the winter too? Well, we 17:06 We were originally going to close it, but now I think if the demand's there, we're going to have it open year round. Sure. Fun. So it has heat and cooling and stuff. yeah. Yep. Yep. It's got a mini split. It's got heat, um air conditioning. You know, it's pretty nice.  And what are the tourist attractions around you? Are there any?  We have quite a few  apple orchards around us in our area. um 17:36 But that's kind of it is there's  not a lot in our area. So there's no hotels um pretty much within 30 miles  around us.  So  with so many  kind of families and things like that, that we  get a lot of visitors visiting family. um And but we do have like the little hole in the wall things, Apple orchards. um I don't know, we're pretty close to some major cities. So. 18:05 A lot of country folk that would like to stay out of the hustle and bustle, just kind of stay with us and just choose to drive 20, 30 minutes into town. And we're kind of seeing that some of our guests come just to get away. Like we become more of what they're looking for. They just want to not hear the road traffic. They want to not have the big city. They just want to relax and. 18:29 Yeah, so that's becoming part of it too. So you are the epitome of the actual get away from it all.  Yes, we would like to think so. It's funny because, you know, the locals are like, hey, what do mean people are just coming there and they're just staying there and  here and we're like, yeah, yep. You know, we have the cows they can see out grazing in the field. um You know, it's a total yard. We had some people got stay before that. 18:57 There's room for them to run around and we have a gazebo with a fire pit and it seems so every day to us, but to a lot of people it's not. So it is fun for them to, you know, come and see what it's like out here. Probably some of these people have never seen a cow before.  It's amazing how many people in America have never seen a cow or a chicken or a goat or sheep in real life ever before in their lives. Yep. 19:24 It's one of the reasons to start of the podcast. was like, we are so far removed from all the things that used to be everyday occurrences and we need to talk about it. Yup. that's kinda, I don't know. We, I was pretty crazy when we thought to build it, but it's been doing great and it's pretty fun and it's nice to have a little more revenue stream off of the farm. 19:49 Yeah, absolutely. Do you guys have chickens? You know, we don't have chickens. We talked about it  and it was a big debate for a long time. you  know,  having  having a four month old right now, we kind of decided to  not do the chickens right away. um We've even kicked around goats and all kinds of other things. But right now, having the cows and having a busy life. 20:18 Having the Airbnb and the craft store and everything,  we decided that that's probably good enough. But, um you know, we do have a zip line.  Oh, nice. He loves the zip line.  Well, they're fun. They are fun. uh So your oldest boy,  when the calves are born in the spring, is he like, oh, my God, mom, dad, look at the babies. Yes, he loves it. He tries to name them all. Yes.  Yup. 20:49 Isn't it fun watching them discover all this stuff? Oh, it's absolutely awesome. And he's  very smart. We have the entire property has an electric fence around it.  And,  know, we teach him very well. He knows. So when the cows are not in there, he's like, I can touch the fence. I'm like, yeah. But he's very good. He knows the fences on when the cows are in there. 21:15 Good. But we  we love it out here and  we enjoy it and the crafts thing we spend a lot of our nights making crafts together  and we do sell a lot of soap.  The freeze dried goodies. We enjoy making that. We  it's actually awesome for a little guy. He will eat pretty much  any fruit or veggie freeze dried  and freeze dried asparagus. I'm telling you, it's so good. It is so good. 21:45 so good. I'm so jealous. want a freeze dryer so much and I cannot  do not have the money to invest in it right now. And we do have asparagus every spring because we have a huge patch. Yeah. And so now I'm like, Oh, I gotta make the money to get a freezer or just so can try freeze dried asparagus. Thank you so much, Katie.  It is delicious. And I tell you, I eat half of our profit.  Sure. 22:15 So it works out pretty good. do love it when I'm mowing and I'll be able to like sneak over there. You know, I'm just going past it. And then I'll grab a few goodies for myself. And my wife's like, oh, I don't see any money in the thing. I'm like, yeah, no, that was me. I don't think we've ever taken. I don't think we've ever taken anything out of the farm stand unless it was it was too far gone to sell it. Does that make sense? Yeah, we're just taking it. 22:44 And you have no strength. And yeah, I have no restraint. Tell me like that was last night when I'm like, I'm not going to have a snack. And then, you know, I sat for two more hours, watched House Hunters and  I had quite a few snacks. Well, as long as they're good for you, you're all set. Yeah. Chocolate chip cookies aren't too bad.  Luckily, I let my my college food  registration expire, so I haven't been making big goods for the farm stand. So. 23:12 There's no big goods in our farm stand right now. There's eggs, there's soap, and there's lip balms, and there's candles, but that's it. Oh, we do. We enjoy making candles. We make a lot of candles. And it's really neat having the engraver so we can engrave all of our candle jars and everything like that.  I never thought of that. We have a Dremel set. I wonder if we could do the same thing. Oh, that would be pretty cool. Yeah. 23:40 Oh my God, you guys, I'm so glad you were going to talk to me today because I have an idea to run by my husband tonight when he gets home from work. Yeah, we started. mean, we've been making candles now for, I don't know, 10, 12 years. And that was the biggest thing for the longest time, but it's kind of somewhat seasonal where we're at, you know, the winter time, we just tend to sell a lot more candles. So it's just a fun. We I don't know, we just love the farm out here. Yeah. 24:10 Do  you make your candles in the house? In your house? Yes,  yes. So  we have a pretty big barn and we've kicked around trying to  move all of our crafting out there. But right now we do everything in the basement and we make the candles kind of down in the basement  and kind of have all of our craft stuff down there. The laser and the freeze dryer are in our garage though. yeah. oh 24:41 Do you do scented candles or unscented candles?  We  focus a lot  with lavender right now because we use our lavender.  So a lot of our things are tailored to lavender. So we do scented  and we use our lavender for it. But we used to, you know, kind of do a little bit of everything. But with the price of everything going up, it's just easier to use our own products. Yes, of course, because it's right there. 25:10 Um, we, are getting out of the candle making business because things are so expensive trying to get it. It's so painful,  but  I have, I have a thing where certain scents are just too intense for me and they give me headaches, like bad headaches.  Yup.  And, um, I'm trying to think  leather. We got a leather fragrance oil. That one every time my husband would make the candles in the kitchen. 25:40 I would take Tylenol two hours before you even started making them for even open the fragrance bottle because it would just kill me.  Leather does the exact same thing to me and so does suede and smoke.  Yeah. I don't know what it is, but it's just too strong. And I have the same thing. Like if something drops on the bottom of the stove when we're baking stuff and  it burns, but it doesn't actually smoke necessarily that 26:08 burning smell of the  piece of pizza crust or whatever fell down in. I get headaches from that. like, you know, I wish my nose would stop harassing me. This would be great. Well, it's so funny because everyone's like, Oh, your house must just smell so good when you make candles. And every time I make them, I'm like,  I wish it didn't smell in here.  Yeah, but it's so strong. So concentrated. Yeah.  Yeah. And the thing that's funny is lavender is supposed to take the scent of lavender is supposed to take the edge off. 26:38 headaches. um The lavender fragrance oil and the lavender essential oils. If  it's too much, like if we can't open a window, that'll give me a headache too. I'm like, no, lavender is supposed to help with headaches.  Damn it. And there's a coffee fragrance oil, which is amazing. 27:01 That, the Lord, does not give me headaches. So when my husband is like, I'm gonna make coffee once this time, I'm like, yes, thank you. We had like a cucumber melon one that  was very refreshing. I did quite enjoy that one. Yeah, it's,  I am like a freak about scents. And it's so dumb because I know some are going to give me a headache. Like it's just a definitive fact that Mary Evelyn, you're gonna have a headache if you smell this. 27:30 And when we first decided to make candles, we ordered like a sample pack from Bramble Berry of different scents. And they were all the Christmas time scents. You guys, that thing came in the mail.  I had that box ripped open within five seconds and opening these little tiny bottles and just getting high on the smell of Christmas. My husband looked at me. said, you are a Christmas fiend. I said, what was your first clue? 28:01 That's what  so when we originally bought this farm  I wasn't sure what to do and I love Christmas and Cooper loves Christmas  um and all I could think was how cool would it be to have a Christmas tree farm? Yeah, yeah  and  Cooper would love it and then you know I started reading and doing all this research  and I'm like 28:25 a lot of work right at the holiday and it's cold outside and I hate being outside when it's cold.  Yeah. So it kind of unchecked a lot of boxes.  To the Christmas tree farmers, they put in good work.  Yeah, Michigan in the wintertime, cold, weird, who knew?  Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. Like, honey, I have this huge tree meal, like all trees and everything.  And then now I just look out at the cows and I'm like, wow, this is pretty nice. That was pretty relaxing. Yeah. 28:52 Yes, and cows throw heat, which means  if you have a friendly cow and you can stand next to her, you're going to be warm.  Yep. Yep. You guys said you make soaps.  Do you make the cold process lye soaps?  Yes. Yep. 29:10 And when did you start doing that and were you scared the first time you did it?  So,  so my mom makes a ton of soap  and she's like, Oh, you know, cause  we made candles, you know, for 10, 12 years and she's made soap and she's like, Oh, it's so easy. I'm like, is it though?  And you know, the lie and all that stuff, it did have me kind of a little bit freaked out, but,  um, you know, we made it with her and 29:40 found out it's actually not that hard.  But yeah, it did have me little bit freaked out at first, yes. We wear the gloves and the goggles.  Do you still wear the goggles?  I do.  I'm a little bit more risky. I should, but you know, I don't know. Usually I do have them right there and I guess I know my limits. Yeah, there's different parts of the process where it's kind of.  Where I. 30:09 The reason I ask is because I'm still afraid of the whole lion water thing. My husband is not. My husband is very brave. He has a minor fear of the unknown, but once he's done something, even if it's kind of scary, he's like, eh, I got it. I've done it once. can do it again. And so he's the one that, that makes the soaps. And  every time he does it, I'm like, you probably should open the window if you're going to do the lie and the water in the house. 30:40 And he's like, it's not going to do anything. It's fine. And I'm like, okay.  So I just, I don't know. I don't, scares me. And I'm so thankful to have a husband who is brave and wants to do this stuff because I really like cold process Lysol. I really like what it has for my skin. So, so thank God he makes it. That's awesome. Yeah. Wait, don't get any ideas. 31:09 But now we love it. We use all of our products and  I guess it's just it's a fun hobby that you know with the farm we have just a bunch of different kind of revenue streams and we enjoy it and being a franchisee gives me time to be able to be here at the farm doing the things that we love. Yes, absolutely. And you know, they say if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. So you're I guess you're not working guys. 31:39 I know, we moved a lot of rocks the other day. That felt a lot like work. Uh  huh, I know. But it's still better than sitting behind a desk.  It sure is. All right, I try to keep these to half an hour. Where can people find you?  So we have a Facebook page,  M57 Farms,  and pretty much everything is just on there. We're not crazy big social media people. So pretty much just on Facebook and then  Airbnb has our Airbnb on it. 32:10 good because I think that that would be a wonderful vacation place for people to go.  And honestly, I would suggest in like  May  and September if  it was my place in Michigan because  if Michigan is anything like Minnesota, Michigan is pretty hot between the middle of June and the middle of August. Yeah. So I always, I always suggest when people want to come to Minnesota, I'm like come in May or come in September. 32:39 That's pretty much it. Yep. And then we do have our lavender. So  if you come  right,  I'm probably hearing about a week or so,  it will be pretty with the lavender. So we do try to fight the heat with pretty. m Yeah, absolutely.  All righty, you guys. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. I really enjoyed our conversation.  As always, you can find me at AtinyHolmes.podcast.com.  Have a great day.  

Today I'm talking with Cody at Ryan’s Yak Farm. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 I'm 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 Cody at Ryan's Yak Farm in New York. Good morning, Cody. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Where in New York are you and how is the weather? Are you part of the heat bubble that's going on? We are definitely part of the heat bubble. We are in Oxford, New York. 00:29 upstate New York. 00:34 It's a hot,  hot, hot day, a hot week. Yeah. Yup. It sure is. um Upstate New York is all the way across New York.  what  are you, are you West or middle or East upstate?  I'm  going to say like East. Okay.  I'm not really good with demographics. So that's okay. Don't worry about it. 01:02 My parents live in Maine,  my husband and I have made the road trip from Minnesota to Maine a couple of times in 20 years we've been together.  And we always drive the Northern route in New York and then we drop down to get down to Albany.  And it is so beautiful. The grape arbors  and I don't even know what else. 01:32 all the rivers that go along the highway and oh my God, coming into Albany, you go basically  up a slight incline and then  you get to the top of that incline  and the whole valley drops out underneath you and all you can see is mountains and trees. So pretty, isn't it?  Oh my God. The first time I took my youngest, we took our youngest with us to visit my parents. We came up over that, that hill and the valley dropped out. 02:01 And he's looking from the back seat and I hear this big gasp  and he says, he says, mom, can I say a swear word? And I was like, yes. And he said,  holy shit, it's so beautiful.  How funny. And I'm crying. hadn't been home in years.  It is so pretty out here though. Yeah. And he was like, why are you crying? And I was like,  you know how you felt like you needed to say a big word you're not allowed to say? He says, yeah. And I said, 02:30 These are the big feelings that I feel like I'm not allowed to feel anymore. uh 02:38 Maine's so pretty too.  Oh, it is. It's beautiful.  Basically, basically we would hit Pennsylvania and I would be like, ah, I'm back in the land of trees.  Yes.  You know, cause I mean, Minnesota has trees, but it's very much Northern Minnesota that is like Maine. And so for me to feel like I'm quote unquote home  ish. Yeah. I have to drive like five hours to get far enough North to be like, Oh, pine trees, many, many pine trees again. So it's. 03:08 It's hard, but I also love Minnesota. I've been here for over 30 years. I always have to say that because when I first moved here, I moved here kicking and screaming. Oh, really?  Did not want to leave Maine. Yeah. And then after about 15, 20 years in Minnesota, I was like, you know, it really is nice here, too. I kind of love  it. so I always have to reiterate that I love where I live. I have had the chance twice to move back and I have chosen to not leave.  So I do love it here. 03:37 I love Minnesota. It is my second favorite home. So anyway, can you please tell me a little bit about what you do and a little bit about yourself? So I am a teacher during the day. I teach a barbering program at DCMO Boces. It's a career and technical school. It's not part of the cosmetology program. It's totally different. 04:06 the barber side of things. um I also  work at a barbershop  after I leave school. I go to the barbershop until like seven o'clock at night and then I'm finally able to come home for the farm.  And then I'm on weekends. My family does a lot during the week for the farm while I'm not here.  Weekends are my time to... 04:33 do everything I want to get done on the farm, spend time with the animals. I didn't grow up on a farm. I married into a farm, here 17 years. We've always had beef. This was my husband's dairy farm. Their family has owned this farm since 1906 and then my husband bought into it. 04:59 There was originally over 428 acres, but it got eventually sold off. And then my husband bought the farm.  So,  um,  I've got three children,  16 year old, 14 year old, and a 12 year old. And we live here on the farm and now,  now we're yak farmers.  I am so excited to find out about yaks, Cody. I haven't talked about  haven't. 05:27 talked to anyone about yaks yet in over two and a half years of doing this podcast. So,  they're so good. They're so awesome.  Yes. So tell me the different animals you have and then we'll narrow it down to my questions about yaks. What else do you have besides yaks?  I have  three baby Dalshi,  four goats. They're like mixed mixed goats. I've got a Gnubian and Oberhalsi and some Nigerian Dwarfs. um 05:58 I've got,  I think. 06:03 13 cooney cooney pegs.  Okay. I have a mule  and a horse um I Think that's it we did have these  but I lost the hive over the wintertime. So I didn't get bees this year. I was too late That happens. Mm-hmm It's it's a very rewarding job to keep bees, but oh definitely It's also heartbreaking when you lose a hive because it takes a lot to get that 06:33 Worked up. Yes,  and they're so expensive. Yeah, so to lose that My first year was that was that was rough, but I do plan on getting back into it. But good good I hope that you do because you already have this setup you might yes and the thing that's expensive about keeping bees is the beginning year as you discovered yes  Definitely getting all this stuff that you need is definitely expensive 07:01 Yeah, all the supplies. I it's going to sound terrible, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you are someone who is buying more than an acre of land to get into homesteading and you think you need to make a choice between bees and chickens, chickens are actually cheaper to get. Oh, 100%. Yes. But if you're obsessed with honeybees and you really want to do the work and you want to lay the money out so you can have go for it because it's just as rewarding. 07:30 It is and it's so delicious.  Oh my goodness.  Yeah. We, um, we have not been doing a lot of honey lately because honey is very expensive at the store or through someone who is raising bees. Right. miss it. I really miss honey. Oh, it is so good. I don't, I've never liked honey either. And then I got my own bees and started doing it and started like separating the honey from the honeycomb and all that. And 08:00 got on my fingers and then I tasted it. was like, holy moly, this is so good. It's so  different. m And we were getting our honey from Sam's Club. Okay. And we know someone who has bees and we haven't been up to see him in a couple of years. He has an apple orchard and of course has bees. Yep. And he sells his honey every fall and we haven't gotten honey from him in a couple of years. The difference between his honey and the 08:30 the real honey at Sam's Club, the difference in taste is, I would say, half again is good. His is half again is good. And we were lucky enough to get some of the honey he got one year from his bees. They had found a patch of wild mint. So the honey had a minty taste. It was fabulous. I bet it was. Oh, was so good. 08:58 I don't  think he's had that kind since. They haven't gone back to the mint patch. ah I love that though, the mint patch. Yeah, I teased him. said, you should charge double for this mint. Yeah. Like I can't do that. That's not, I can't do that just because we locked into mint. I said, of course you can. You're the one that sets your prices. He's like,  Mary, I'm not going to do that. I'm like, okay. 09:26 We're all going to benefit from your smart bees." And he was just laughing.  I said, if you can find, I don't know, a tree that makes a  strawberry flavor besides strawberries, strawberries that flavored honey would be really Oh, yeah. He said, you know that's not how it works, right? And I was like, yes, I know that's not how it works. Yes, I do. But it would be good. Yeah, strawberries, honey, that would be amazing. 09:55 Okay, so I didn't know that you had kept bees. I hope that you get back into it. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. So tell me about yaks. The thing in my head about yaks is that they are from Siberia or somewhere really cold and that the natives would milk them so that they had a source of milk. That's all I Yes, they did do that. They were from the Tibetan mountains, Himalayas. 10:25 They're just magnificent animals. They're big. I mean, they've got a lot of power on their backs, their necks. They use their horns over in the mountains to move rocks out of their way. But other than that, I'm still learning about yaks. This wasn't anything that we... 10:48 research before getting it just kind of fell in our lap and then  I'm still researching so I know how to 10:59 Keep everyone happy, everyone healthy. I'm still in that process of learning because we just got yaks last year. 11:08 Oh, so this is new.  Oh, this is so new.  very new. OK, then let me ask you some specific questions because it would probably be easier for you.  How many do you have? I have 12.  And have you had have you had any baby yaks?  Yes,  we  have had two yaks born on here at the farm. This year we lost one of the baby yaks. That was a really tough time. 11:37 We've tried  everything to help her and save her, but she had some kind of a rumen issue in her stomach and she just wasn't growing and it was awful. But  we have another little baby yak. Hopefully four more are born this year. ah So we have little Ivy. She's so sweet. 12:03 So yeah. So do  you have like more than one male Yak or do you have males? Nope, we have a couple of males. um We have Jack. So Jack is  who started all of this. um 12:20 Nothing.  I  didn't know anything about Yaks. Nothing. I didn't even know what a Yak was.  And my husband went over to his uncle's farm who was housing Jack. 12:36 He was housing him because there was a case going on, an animal abuse case. And Jack was one of those  animal victims that needed a spot to go. And my husband said, for the love of God, don't tell Cody that there's a yak that needs a home.  Don't say anything to her. And then my husband comes home and he walks through the door and he looks at me, he's like, you want a yak? And I'm like, what is a yak? I don't even know what a yak is. 13:04 And I'm Googling it and looking it up and I saw a picture of him and I smiled at my husband. I'm like, yeah, I want to yak. So that's how we got Jack is we adopted him through the SPCA. ASA SPCA. adopted him. And then when I was doing research, he was previously left with cows. So he's. 13:32 We had cows here, but we kept them separate. But doing some research,  they're herd animals. we got... 13:42 Um,  I gotta think how many more we got since Jack. 13:52 Nine. We bought more Yaks. So this all started in March of last year. So not, not long ago. no. All right. I pulled up, I typed in Yak in Google cause I wanted to see a picture of one. And what it's, and what I, what I saw in my head here is that it looks like a cross between a 14:21 beef cattle animal  and a buffalo. And it's funny because the taxonomy it says, it says belonging to the genus boss, BOS, yaks are related to cattle and bison.  Yes. Go fig. They're part of the bovine. Yep.  And the one they're showing is a dark  one with the horns that curl up and he has like a heart shaped white spot between the horns. 14:49 kind of like what Jack looks like. He's black  and has like a white patch and Ivy has the same markings as her dad.  Nice. Okay, so in looking at this picture, they have very long hair or are there short haired? So Jack is,  his upper body is short haired. 15:13 And then he's got a long skirt. The skirt and the Himalayas would protect the underneath during the super, super cold weather. I've got some woolies, so they're very  shaggy  and... 15:28 Alls I can think of is like a perm. You know, like my one bowl has a  very curly top on his head. But  they do come in a little bit of both. Okay. So does this, can the skirt hair be used for clothing? Like light sheep bowl is used for clothing?  I don't,  not a hundred percent sure, but I don't  think so  only because that's more of like a hair,  their fiber. 15:59 We get the Ariaks fiber from their top half, like underneath their regular hair. Like it's,  I don't know if I'm explaining that right, but it's so soft, so, so soft. I want to say it's probably just as soft, if not more than alpaca. So like an undercoat, like a dog? Okay. Yep. 16:23 And how is a yak's temperament? I mean, I'm assuming it depends on the animal. It depends on the owner, but... depends on the animal. general? I am currently yaks four, Cody zero. Oh, no. Yeah, it's not like they're trying to hurt me. I get in their space and they just move their head and I happen to be in that pathway. Jack is the sweetest yak that we got. 16:53 You could go in there, pet him, do whatever you want. He loves treats. em Some of them they want, they'll come up to you and take a treat, but they don't want to be pet. 17:04 Which is fine, but they're not aggressive animals by any means. Like I said, even though I'm four and zero, it's not out of aggressiveness that they're getting me. It's because I'm just being careless  in their area.  I'm too comfortable in their area, which I shouldn't be because  they are intact bulls. They are a huge animal. I should always have my guard up, but I'm like, oh, they're so sweet.  And I just love them. And I just want to be in there and pet them. 17:33 give them all the treats and there's times they don't want that. Please be careful, Cody. would like you to survive your love of Jack's. They are amazing. I do love them so much, especially Jack. He's  just to know what he's been through.  And I say this all the time on our page.  I don't think we rescued Jack. We might have helped him, but 18:03 in a way like he saved us, he rescued us. I didn't realize that we needed to have the farm open. um We're open to the public and I never thought I wanted people at my place.  I'm kind of private person, but now having Jack in our Yak page and open to the public, mean, everyone comes here and is able to brush  Jack. 18:32 See all the other animals that we have and I absolutely love I didn't know I needed that in my life Yeah, it's funny how animals come into your life and you just your heart just bursts open you had No clue that number one you needed them and number two that you would love them as much as you do. Yep Yeah, we have a dog like that and I'm not gonna spend 20 minutes on her. I swear to God 19:00 She's my favorite pet I've ever had. Her name is Maggie. She's an Australian Shepherd. She's going to be six, the first of August. And I have fallen so far over the love cliff with this dog. It's ridiculous. And I said to my husband the other day, I said, don't think I want another dog after Maggie is no longer with us. And he said, why? And I said, because I don't think I can do it again. I don't think I have. 19:27 the capacity to fall in love like that again and watch the animal live out of life and I'm still alive when it dies.  I can do it. Now that is one of definitely the hardest parts is losing a dog or anything, Cattle. mean, we lost Ivy or we lost Hazel and  I was  devastated. Yeah,  it's. 19:52 I keep saying that grief is not about regret about the death. It's about regret over the potential of the thing that died.  It  seems like you're grieving the life they lived, but you're actually grieving the life they didn't get to continue to live.  And I didn't realize that until a few years ago and my whole perspective shifted. And I was like, 20:23 Oh, duh. If I'm grieving the life that they didn't get to continue, maybe we make the life we're living better while we're here. Right. And that's probably what you think about the acts. probably have to make your life so much richer. Oh, definitely. I I love teaching to begin with. So when people come here and we can educate them with what knowledge that we do have and what we're still learning. 20:49 Just seeing people interact with the yaks or any of the animals we have here,  I just love it. I think it's amazing to see Craig go, my husband Craig go up in the pasture with the yaks with a bucket and just have them  all  follow him and then see people's expressions when you see these massive animals  either running behind him  or  walking behind him in a single line. 21:18 people's reactions is priceless.  love it. I think there's  so magnificent that people need to see them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So how big do they get? I mean, how tall are they at the shoulder? Jack  is 21:42 How tall are you? I'm 5'4". So, I mean, Jack's head comes up to my head. Okay. So their shoulders probably about five  foot, maybe four foot 10. Maybe. Okay. So they're not super tall. No, not at all. Not super tall, just beefy um and powerful. Yeah. How much do they weigh, eh 22:13 Maybe 1200 to 1500 pounds. Yeah. So about the size of a cow. Yeah. Yep. 22:22 But short, but a short cow.  But shorter, their legs are shorter, they've got that skirt, they've got the massive horns. um 22:34 Yeah, mean, just the muscle mass that they have is crazy. The power that they used in the Himalayas to move things and tread through all that snow is  mind blowing. Yes, they're super amazingly strong and powerful animals. um I'm sure you don't want to eat your yaks, but I'm guessing that people eat yak meat like they eat beef. They do. They do.  So that's one of the things that 23:04 We do plan on doing with our, if we get too many bulls when we start calving, that's probably gonna be some of the pathway that we lead to is just ethical breeding, but making sure that we utilize all of our animal. My one bull that I have, he's about three years old and he's supposed to be processed. 23:29 but I can't find anybody in this area that will butcher a yak because of the horns.  Really? Yeah. They can't fit in the squeeze chute that they need, I guess, to be USDA. I can't. And I made sure that we bought some from the people that we got yaks from. They had some meat there and we bought some and it was delicious. It's so lean. It's so good for you. Yeah. Higher in the omega fats. 23:59 It's just,  it was amazing. You just gotta eat it a little bit. 24:04 Rare, not rare, but. 24:08 medium rare, just so it's still juicy. But um that was our plan, but we still have Danny  and he was originally our first yak to process and  I can't find anybody that doesn't want to cut the horns off first. And I'm not doing that. I'm not, that's not anything that I'm interested in is putting my animal through any kind of stress  before that because 24:37 I love them and I value them and I appreciate his time here and his purpose for us,  but I'm not putting my animal through any kind of stress like that. Yeah. And I'm assuming that New York has laws just like Minnesota has laws, just like every state has laws. Yep. That you can't dispatch him on your property and then take him to the budget. No, and not to do USDA so we could sell. Yeah. 25:06 So, no. Huh. Well, that's an interesting problem. And I've  called  everybody. And as soon as they're like, yack, nope.  Like, oh my goodness. I'm so confused because there's longhorn cat.  Yeah, I even called a longhorn butcher. And  I said, will you butcher a yak? He goes,  nope. I'm like,  why?  Just won't do it.  That is so weird. 25:35 guess it's meant to happen. know, Danny's meant to be here. So  sure. But do the female cats have horns too? Yep.  Well, the boys just have thicker. There's are a lot thicker, um longer. I think Danny's probably three and a half to four feet across with his horns. um The girls aren't as big, but they do have them. 26:06 The reason for not doing the females was to grow our herd. Oh, yes, of course. But I was just thinking that. definitely. For sure. We could. Yeah. As the females get older and aren't going to produce babies anymore. And it takes a long time to grow them too. Yeah. About three years to grow a yak to be from what we were told from the people that we got them from to be butcher size. OK.  Because they grow slower. 26:36 Yeah. And it takes about two years for a cow. So that doesn't surprise me that it takes a little bit longer for a They're mostly grass fed. just it's more lean, but we do do a little bit of grain. Yeah. And now it's off of pellets. I'm just astounded that they won't butcher. They won't dispatch and butcher a yak. Yeah, no. I can't find anybody. 27:03 I was willing to travel to PA. I was willing to travel wherever just so we could start our meat production here. That's what we got the cooney cooney pigs for is meat production and breeding. 27:18 They also take a really long time to grow. my first one goes on the 28th  of this month. I'm kind of  really sad.  They're so sweet. Yeah. Friends of ours got a couple of pigs a couple of,  two years ago, I think, and they butchered at least one of them last fall. 27:42 She was concerned that she would be really sad too and she hasn't said anything about being really sad about it. No. I think it went okay. I think this pig will do okay because I knew his purpose this whole time but the babies,  we just got seven more on Monday. And there's two that I have, one that looks like Chewbacca and just one that was a runt that we bought.  I don't think I could let those two go. 28:12 They're going to be friends for life. They're going to be friends forever. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're just so sweet. Um, well, I'm still puzzling over the whole not butchering yaks. So if anybody is listening and knows anyone who does butcher yaks, please let me know or let Cody know. can email me and you can, assume I'll, I can, I'll put your Facebook page link. Yeah. 28:41 in the show notes when this comes out so people can get a hold of you. Definitely let me know, especially if you're in upstate New York. Yeah, or I'm trying to think. I don't know if I don't know how this works. What happens if somebody in Canada will do it and you drive your yak to Canada to be butchered and then it comes back? I have no idea. I don't know. Do I have to cross customs? 29:08 I don't know. think so. I wonder if that's a thing probably. I bet it would cost a ton of money. So maybe that's not even possible. But I'm trying to think of what's before New York because I'm looking at the map in my head and it's a little hazy. What is the state west of New York? Ohio? Yeah, it's down a little bit. But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Ohio. 29:33 Maybe Illinois, maybe freaking Kentucky. I don't know. even reached out to the, um, we follow this group on Facebook, um,  the bearded butchers. They're in Ohio. I absolutely love them. And then I even reached out to them, but I didn't hear anything back. That would have been amazing. This is craziness. Yeah. I'm so sorry that you're having such a hard time with them. Oh, that's okay. I mean, just. 30:01 longer that we get to have Danny here and people get to see how amazing he is and how beautiful he is.  Well, I love that you guys are doing this because yaks and reindeer  are two of the animals that most people don't think of when they think of people who have farms or homesteads and ranches. And my other podcast, Grit and Grace in the Heartland with my co-host Leah,  she's a cattle rancher. 30:29 And I interviewed a lady who raises reindeer with her dad. And Leah had her cattleman husband listen to that episode. And her cattleman husband said, $20,000 for a reindeer? One? That was what stuck out to him from the interview. That's too funny. Yeah. So how much does a yak usually cost, It depends on their temperament. 30:57 The place that we went to, there was a couple, but I think they did this price, there was $18,000. And I think they set it that high because they don't want to get rid of it. But I would say typically between three to $5,000 is normal. Especially with temperament, if they're super sweet, you can get more money because instead of like a wild one. 31:27 um We just got some, just got two new Yaks, Aspen and Ridge on Saturday. 31:39 They're the sweetest things. So sweet. So we have the vet coming out today to do a health check on them and then the babies to get them ready because we got invited to go to the Schenango County Fair this year. Oh, fun. Yeah. Not to be in with the dairy, the bee for anything. Like we won't be in their exhibits, but we'll have our own little tent and set up for our yaks. I think I'm going to bring three or four of them. 32:09 So the vet comes up today and we do checks and. 32:15 Get everyone all ready for the fair in August and it should be a good time. That's exciting. And the fact that they're not putting them with the other cloven-hoved animals leads me to think that they think that they are,  there's a word and I had it before I started talking about it,  exotic. Yes. Oh, for sure. For sure. Your special, Koda, you have exotic animals. Yes. 32:44 So exotic that insurance. Let me tell you, it was rough getting insurance because of the exotic animals. Yeah. So do you have to have like a special permit to own them? No.  No permit. Okay. Cool. Which is weird. That's good though, because permitting can be really expensive too. Yep. No permits.  Just have them here. 33:13 And I know this is new for you, but are there a lot of people in the United States that have yaks or is it a very unusual animal? There's  a few in New York that I know of that I've gotten mine from. um I probably can think of four  yaks. 33:38 Yak Farms. In New York alone. In New York. Yep.  And people have been reaching out about buying some and I just, I don't have. 33:51 the amount yet to be able to grow our herd and we'll see with how many babies we have. Yeah. So. Oh, that's another question. With cows, if they have twins and they're male, female twins, the female typically isn't capable of reproducing. Right. She's called a free Martin. Do yaks have the same issue? That I'm not sure. You might want to check into it. 34:18 I do think that having twins is very rare for them, but they do have them.  that part I don't know yet.  Well, I'm glad I had the chance to talk to you so I could bring it up because now that we're Leah goes through that sometimes. Does she? They don't know whether the female is going to be able to have babies or not in that situation. And so she usually goes to auction and becomes hamburger or whatever because they can't 34:47 keep an animal that isn't earning its keep. Right, exactly. Yeah. So put it on the list, ma'am, to check and see about the free Martin situation with the eggs. Definitely. Try to help every chance I can, because I know just enough to be dangerous. And when I actually think that might be important, I'm like, hey, have you thought about this yet? No, that's good to think about. I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at 35 minutes, Cody. 35:14 Thank you so much for having me. Where can people find you? At Ryan's Yak Farm on Facebook.  And if you go to the website, it's Ryan's Yak Farms with an S at the end of farms.com. Awesome. Thank you so much. No, thank you. I really appreciate it.  As always, people can find me at Atty. Homestead podcast.com.  Cody, thank you again. Love you. Thank you. 35:42 And I learned so many cool things today about an animal that I knew like two things about. So it was awesome.  Have a great day. Thank you. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Jillian at Farm Country Candles. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 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 Jillian at Farm Country Candles in Belle Plaine, Minnesota, which is just up the road from me. Good afternoon, Jillian. How are you? I'm well. How are you, Mary? I'm good. And it's a beautiful day in Minnesota. It just kind of clouded in here a little bit in Lasur, but it's still beautiful. It's not hot. 00:27 and everything is so freaking green right now, it's ridiculous. Yeah, everything is blooming. It's a good time to visit Minnesota. Yeah, I always say May, first part of June, or September, first part of October, because any time in between those two times, it's just hot and sticky, and I'm like, not going to enjoy it if you come any time other than that. Yes, absolutely. But there's always something to do, so. 00:55 Whatever works with anybody's schedule still come visit Minnesota.  Yeah, it's gorgeous. It's absolutely gorgeous any time of the year It's just that you have to you have to understand that Minnesota is I would use the word volatile when it comes to weather You never know what you're gonna get and you can't  Plan  on it being the way you want it to be so be flexible and enjoy whatever mother nature gives you 01:24 Absolutely. Couldn't have said it better. Yeah.  And I mean, I grew up in New England. It's the same thing. I made a lateral move over 30 years ago and I was like, Minnesota is not that different from where I grew up. There's just no mountains to my west, you know, half an hour, 45 minutes, and there's no ocean to my east,  half an hour, 45 minutes.  It's more like  day trips to get there now.  Yes.  That is a big change. 01:51 Yeah, but the weather itself is kind of the same.  And honestly, my dad and my mom, give me weather updates when I talk to them. Oh, they're still in England? In New England,  in Maine. New England. In Maine. Oh, sure. And my dad will say, how's the weather been? And I tell him, and he's like, okay, well, I know what we have coming in three days, because basically whatever we get three days later, they get. So  he said, you're better than our local weather reporter. I'm like, yeah,  weird how that works. 02:21 So that's awesome.  What? That's awesome.  So anyhow, I would love it if you would tell me about yourself and what you do, Jillian. Absolutely. Well, I'm Jillian and I'm  the owner of Farm Country Candles. I started this business, gosh, was it a year and a half ago now? Oh, that soon. That it wasn't that long ago. It was not.  It kind of happened  on accident. 02:51 To be honest, ah my parents  owned a candle company. ah It was on a smaller scale, but they started that  around 2008. So they've had all the equipment and uh now they were like, well, Jillian, do you want to have our equipment? We're kind of downsizing.  And I was like, sure. Yeah, this sounds like fun. It'd be a hobby of mine.  love  the candles  and this way I could have it for myself and maybe gift a few. 03:21 to family and friends.  But then  eventually people wanted to buy some and I was like, okay, maybe I should turn this into a business.  So I did, I rebranded  the company and I called it Farm Country Candles, because it's  the area that we live in, right? Farm Country. uh So it had just a good ring to the name.  And now it's just kind of grown into what it is today, which still have the soy candles. 03:50 but we also have fire starters  and  small space diffusers or car diffusers. uh And  those additional products always came by kind of, again, on accident and they all have funny stories behind them. So  I would love to share those as we continue our conversation today. Well, go ahead. Tell me the funny story about the car diffusers first. Okay, absolutely.  So the car diffusers, uh I don't know if people know what they are because I didn't. 04:19 Okay, so they're just little vessels that have the fragrance and a diffuser base and you can hang them in your car. So  if you look on social media, they're known as car diffusers, but I love them for any of my small spaces  like  bathrooms, um offices,  mud rooms.  You could put them in your benches because shoes kind of get stinky after a while.  I know some people 04:47 by family and friends, have them in their fish houses, their campers,  their side by sides. Pretty much anywhere  you can't have a burning candle, you can put this diffuser. So it's portable  and you just take off the plastic stopper, put the wooden cap on it, turn it upside down,  let it saturate in this wooden cap, and then it hangs wherever you like to put it. So it just, again,  flameless candle, you can put it anywhere. 05:17 And  so how this happened was  one day one of my coworkers,  she's like, well, Jillian, you make candles. Can you refill this thing I have? This is like a smelly little thing.  And I was like, okay, I don't know what you're talking about, but yeah, I could probably look into that for you.  So a week later,  she's like, yeah, like this is it. Can you refill this? And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, sure. I've never seen anything like that.  So  I was able to fill it for her. 05:46 It did it smelled amazing. So I'm like, okay now  now I need these so something I never thought I needed I needed and now it's a product that I carry and it's it's a big hit  so if anybody sees me at the Vendor shows are out and about and people ask  I do call them the flameless candle  nice and they remind me of the the little glass jars that you can get and you put the fragrance oil in the bottom and you put the 06:16 the little wooden sticks in it? Same idea?  Same idea, but the wooden cap replaces the sticks  to the diffuser. Yeah. And then is there a funny story with the fire starters? Yeah, the fire starters. um So the fire starters  came from a little  family embarrassment on my end. um I was at my parents' house  and it was just the immediate family and I wanted to start a fire. So my dad handled me a 06:44 one of those wood shaving fire starters and said, here you go, use this. So I tried  and I couldn't get this fire started. And I mean, it was dry wood and everything. So it was all on  my end,  I was never a girl scout. So let's just start with that. So I  think I was already at a disadvantage here.  So I asked my husband to help me.  And then all of sudden my brother comes over and chimed in. You even had a fire starter? 07:11 I felt like super silly and I was like, okay, I just like walked away.  And I thought, well, if I struggled this much on starting a fire,  maybe somebody else does too and maybe I could make a product that can make it this easier.  So  today, every time I just like make a batch of fire starters, I always think of the way it started, which was my brother asking me, you couldn't even start a fire with a fire starter, but now I can. 07:41 because these fire starters are amazing.  They're really, number one, I bet they work great, but number two, they're really beautiful. I feel like it would be really nice as a, like part of a centerpiece at a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. They're that pretty. They are.  However, I always say, again, if you see me about at vendor shows, I'm like, this is not a candle. We should start by saying that because it's all highly flammable material, right? We got pine cones. 08:10 We got wood shavings in the wax. We got a paper  cupcake liner. So all of this stuff is very flammable. So yeah, you would not want to light that at your centerpiece. Yeah, no, I'm not saying light it. I'm saying  they're really pretty. They would be really pretty  as a visual addition.  Yes. I just had to put that in there just because I wouldn't want people to mistake that. But it is very beautiful. And they smell good because it's all natural material. 08:39 you know, outside. It's pine cones. It's, it's Frasier fir or blue spruce, um you know, branches.  Yeah, they're gorgeous. And I was looking at your Facebook page today and I was looking at all the different candle scents.  How in the world do you keep them all straight, Jillian? Oh my God, there's so many. Yeah, so I kind of went overboard when I'm like, oh, I should try this or I should try that. 09:07 I like, I want to try to blend this  and I kind of been experimenting. So now I have some like house blends actually, which is pretty cool. ah The three house blends that I have, my first house blend was Northwoods. So it's a mixture of blue spruce and Fraser fir. It just gives you that deep woods smell like that, you know, that Christmas tree smell, but then just blend a little bit with the blue spruce. It's very, it's very pleasant. ah 09:37 The second house blend I did was the Armoretto Sunrise. So that one you get the almond top, like top note of it.  And then you got a little bit of vanilla in there.  And then the base is in you get like the orange  zest to it. So that one is, you know, pretty strong. It's probably one of my strongest candles has a nice cold throw and as well as a warm throw. So hot throw when you light it. And then my third house blend. 10:06 which we just  created, I would say maybe 10 days ago,  is called Minnesota Prairie. So if you enjoy like outdoorsy, fresh, clean scents,  this one is gonna be for you. So there's five different fragrances in it.  It's Tienese,  Lillia the Valley, Bergamot, Casimir Cedar, and then just a splash of fresh cut grass.  And it is 10:36 been a big hit. Let's just say I just wanted to do uh a  small batch and all of a sudden it was gone.  I posted on Facebook, like you said,  and then it was gone. So I had to make a second batch  already.  Yes, I was reading the sentence for that one. I was like, oh my God, that's got to be amazing. And  anyone who's listened to the podcast knows that my favorite flower is peony. 11:01 Oh, really? I was like, and I love it when my husband, Moissa Lawn, loves the smell of cut grass and oh my goodness, that must smell so good. This one will be for you then.  Uh-huh. Oh, I'm sure all of them would be for me. I used to be a candle fanatic.  The minute it got cold outside in October, I was like, it's candle season. Yay.  And oh I laugh because I say the same thing. And  a lot of people say it's always candle season, Jillian.  And I'm like, 11:31 Maybe you're right. Maybe it is always candle season because there's a scent for every season. There is, but I have so many windows in my house and I'm really grateful for that. We have lots of windows. We have so much daylight. It's amazing that it feels weird to light candles when the sun is just pouring in the windows in the summertime. So I rarely ever use candles in the spring and the summer, but in the fall and the winter I am all over it. 12:00 Yeah, and that's kind of another interesting thing that people ask me. They're like, you must burn candles all the time.  I make candles almost every day. Yeah. So  I don't burn any because I always smelly whatever I'm creating or making. Right.  So and that stays in your home  for a good 36 hours, I would say, depending on the strength of  the scent.  So  I rarely burn candles.  Not only does it stay in your home, it stays in your nose. 12:30 Yes,  we  do go nose blind if you make multiple sends at the same time. Yeah, we did make candles a couple summers ago and we made quite a few and we sold them at the farmers market and we still have some and we sell them in our farm stand. And every time we would make them, I would go to bed and all I could smell like in my nose was whatever candle we had made that day. And when it was coffee or lavender, 12:58 or lemon or orange, was like, oh, that's so good. But we had a leather essential, not essential oil, fragrance oil. That one gave me horrible headaches and it was not a great scent out of the bottle. And, oh, rough. That one was rough. It makes a really nice scented candle. But when you're making it, it is hellacious to smell. I would 100 % agree with you because 13:27 I was making that for the first time and I could barely stomach it as well. However, now that I came back to it a year later, it's okay now. I don't know why. I must have changed a little bit  through the other scents that I create.  that one, um and I get  all my fragrance oils  from really  well-known suppliers. this one, this leather actually was okay that I was like, okay, I can actually do this.  And it smells just like a saddle shop. 13:57 And funny enough, it works really well when you see me at Pioneer Power. People come just for that leather candle.  Of course, that makes complete sense. ah People  loved the coffee and the leather not together. The coffee candles, the leather candles, they really liked them. And  we're not going to be making them anymore because supplies are so expensive now that  we can't, we just can't sustain it. 14:26 It's just too much money. So we are no competition for you, not that we ever were. But  I welcome it. Everybody should do what they love to do. And this is just something that I love to do. So it works.  I'm normally at shows with  one, maybe two other candle vendors. it's you know, they have different different sense, different styles.  So  it's all OK. 14:55 Yeah. And I just,  we have to make them in our kitchen because we don't have any place to make them anywhere else.  And my husband said, are you kind of tired of having your house to be turned into a candle factory? And I said, do you want the truth? And he's like, yeah. And I said, yeah, kind of am. He said, well, I'm kind of tired of spending inordinate amounts of money for the fragrances and I don't feel right charging people what it would cost us to keep doing it. 15:25 He said, and there's lots of other candle makers in the area. I was like, okay, let's not do candles anymore. So we made the, the not unilateral. There's another word means both of us.  came  to the conclusion together that we are done with candles. And  when they're gone, they're gone. But it was, not going to let your husband talk to my husband then.  But it was fun. It was really fun. And I just talked to somebody this morning on another interview and they make soaps. 15:55 And they were talking about all different scented soaps they used to make. And it reminded me of when we bought sample packs from,  think it was Bramble Berry  of the fragrance oils for Christmas for candles and soaps.  And  I was just in heaven, brought that box in, opened it, started opening the vials to smell the little two ounce bottles. And I was right in. 16:22 Christmas mode and it was August when they came in.  Well, that's what I'll start making. August, September is  the time that I'll start making my Christmas candles too. yeah, yeah. I called my mom and I was like, I am so high. All I can see is your living room with the Christmas tree in it. She said, what is wrong with you? It's August. And I explained what was happening and she's like, 16:48 Oh, I love that Christmas smells remind you of the old house with the Christmas tree. was like, yeah, that's where I am. My mind is right there.  She said, those are good scents. You're going to want to use those. I was like, ah, yes, I am. And there's one, I can't remember the name of it. And it smells just like when you step outside, when it first starts to snow. That real tingly little minty scent to it.  Yeah, like a 17:14 Silent snowfall or something? Along those lines. So good. So good. And I am olfactorally driven. I love scents. So when we were doing the candles, it was really, really fun. 17:30 But it's always fun to experiment and get that delivery because you never know what the scent is going to smell like. It changes per, you know, vendor too. So you just never know. Yeah. It's always a surprise and it's a really nice surprise except for the  1 % chance that it's not. There have been a couple we've gotten here like, no, that is not what we want to be doing for candles. I don't remember. And then I have to be a chemist and mix it with some other stuff to  create it something that is actually going to be 18:00 worthwhile to make. So that's kind of another challenge. Yeah, I don't know. But it's kind of fun. Yeah, I don't remember  what ones we got. There were a couple and we opened them up and they were just little sample bottles. So it wasn't a big deal if we didn't like them.  And I was just like, I don't think I like that one. Do you like it? And he took a sniff and he was like,  no,  you  and you is not a word you expect to hear out of a dude.  Right. 18:28 And it was very much the girl, eww, and I was like, oh, that's not good. If you're saying, ew, we're not using that one. And it's always fun to watch other people's reactions to this stuff. When he's at the farmer's market, he has a sign that says free sniffs for the soaps and the candles. And people see the sign and they laugh. And he's like, no, really. If you want to smell the candles, feel free. And people are funny about it. They kind of... 18:55 It's almost like they're tiptoeing to the edge of the table. And then they very gently pick up a candle and they sniff it. And the one they always go for is the coffee one. And  he's like, honey, he said, it's almost like they can't believe that a candle could smell like a cup of coffee. He said, they look skeptical and they smell it. they're like,  Oh my God, this smells just like my kitchen. My coffee's brewing. And  he's like,  yes, that's what we want. 19:25 And then it's a whole conversation.  So it's just fun. um So go ahead. I do have a funny story about Vending. And this one gentleman came over and he was kind of puzzled by what was all in my  mason jar containers.  And because it's white, I don't add any  dye color to any of the candles. They just are the sarwhack. oh 19:50 then the fragrance. So sometimes they get a little bit darker depending on the fragrance. But again, it's just white otherwise.  And he comes up and he's like, there's so many different flavors  of chicken Alfredo, Alfredo sauce. And I was like,  no, no, no, sir.  These are candles, soy candles. He's like, oh my gosh, I thought these were Alfredo sauce. I was like, no, not today.  So you just never know who's going to come up and 20:19 That is what it looks like though with the soy wax. That's funny. It does. Yeah. was great. But I also do make all these  candles in my kitchen.  So I understand your feeling of like, yeah, kind of taking over. um This is kind of taking over, you know, I guess, extra room that we have. um We have like a formal dining room that we don't use as a formal dining room. So that's not my candle room where I put. 20:48 majority of my supplies.  But yeah, it kind of sneaks into the kitchen a lot and it kind of sneaks in other places depending on if I'm getting ready for anything.  And we recently um just got a fundraiser in Birchwood. um Birchwood, Wisconsin  would like to bring back free movies to the park. So  I partnered  with a resident there that she's a Birchwood native. um And she was like, I have this really cool idea. 21:18 Do you think we could use the candles as a fundraiser opportunity to, you know,  they need equipment, they need to do some licensing. And I was like, absolutely, let's, let's make this work.  And we created  six different labels that are like birchwood, like branded. And then we create, you know, we agreed on six different cents for these labels.  So then I went to town and started making candles,  you know, every single night I would just. 21:48 candles, candles,  But yeah, 360 candles went out  two weekends ago to Birchwood. So they are actively in their fundraiser right now efforts of trying to get free movies to the park. So kind of a cool  kind of a cool thing that we've started doing and just kind of, again, saying yes to my friend with the car diffusers, you know, my coworker and friend slash friend.  But then also, like when an opportunity like fundraising comes up and like, absolutely, we can do that. 22:17 Why not? It just, feels good to give back. yeah, absolutely.  I, that's great. ah Did you say that you have your candles in some local stores? Oh yeah. So that's been also kind of fun. ah You know,  as I started this like 18 months ago, ah I never knew that this would like grow into what it was. ah And my first actually  store that I was in, 22:46 ah I'm not in currently, but the first  place I was in was actually  in Belle Plaine here at Riverview Coffee.  And it was just kind of like something that was so cool. Like people can come in,  get their coffee and, you know, maybe smell some candles as they wait or whatnot.  And they've, they switched ownership. So we are not in there anymore. But then it was like, Oh, maybe I should go and start talking to people and see if we can get these products elsewhere. So um to date, 23:15 We are in Rust in Luster in Chaska, Minnesota. ah Cattle Fish Brewing in  St. Peter, Minnesota. Mankato Vintage Market is carrying the car diffusers. Signature 3D Ink is also carrying the uh car diffusers.  But we also, since they're a 3D Ink company,  they are creating,  I call them 23:43 accessory tops for these card diffusers.  So they have um 3D prints made of cowboy hats like dog paws, hearts where they have a  butt frog. So it's a little green frog with a little butt on the back. um They made crosses,  dragonflies,  and they can custom make pretty much anything. um So if there's something that somebody wants, you can just reach out to ask.  But they have a variety of the diffusers there. 24:12 at their store and the Mankato mall, as well as their 3D prints. So they just put a little hole on top that can sit right on top. it makes it kind of makes it a little bit more fun and you can switch out the tops too. So that's  That's and then I know right. um Then we're also in  at Drummers Garden Center and that's also Mankato for the car diffusers.  We are at Schills Lake Cheesecake. 24:40 in Lonsdale, Minnesota.  They're a new storefront. They make  the most amazing cheesecake.  So,  shout out. you're the third person that's mentioned them to me. Oh, really? On a podcast? Yeah, they're really great. So, definitely try them. um And they  have a little  merchandise, a little section that  carries all of our products. So, that's pretty cool that they're allowing us to do that. 25:08 And then  we just got into Mabel Mercantile  in Newall, Minnesota.  And they  have our fire starters right now. And then we are going to go  into a new storefront in Birchwood, Wisconsin when they open that. So we're just in talks about that  right now. So it's kind of fun.  Super cool. You are moving up, lady. Yeah, it's. 25:37 something that I never expected, but here we are, I guess.  It's so fun and it's so cool that you're doing something you really enjoy and you're having success at it. Is it your only job or do you have like a jobby job? A jobby job.  That's cute. ah I do have a jobby job. I work in healthcare.  My husband and I call it the jobby job because it's the job that you work to support the 26:06 hobby that you have? Yes. Yeah, that is definitely,  yeah, this is definitely a hobby, ah but is growing, you know, obviously, hopefully into  something bigger than I expected. But yeah, my jobby job, I've never heard that. I just love that.  Yeah, I work in healthcare. I work in St. Peter at Rivers Edge Hospital.  Okay. So shout out to Live Well Fitness Center. I always 26:36 I always say like, anytime I'm about like, come check out the gym down at the hospital.  You'll see me.  Do you love that too? Do you love that job as well? Oh gosh, yeah.  Everybody's, I mean, it's a community gym and then we also have a cardiac rehab program. So we  can help people after a heart event, which is  probably one of the scariest times of their lives, right? 27:04 And to see them build back their confidence is amazing. And then they just continue with us. So it's just awesome to be able to hear their stories and then  see them progress and get back to their lives  and enjoy their hobbies, you kind of like this. Like  that's their goal, to try get back into doing what they want to be doing. You are blessing the world on two counts. And  as a mom, you're blessing the world on three counts. So you're doing a great job of everything. 27:32 Well, thank you. Sometimes it's hard to tell when you're doing all the things, but it's just the candles came at a time in my life where I needed something when we, we just, mean, it's a, there's a big story to this, I guess. But I, when I said yes to the equipment, my parents gave us, you know, we were, we're new to Belle Plaine. we just moved here three years ago and maybe three and a half now, but 28:01 I didn't know anybody and as a small town, like it's,  you know, everybody's pretty darn close.  You walk in places, people kind of look at you like, oh, that, person's new.  And that's how I kind of felt. But the candles actually made, you know, me get out of my shell, get out of the house, right? My kids are so tiny and I felt like I was just, you know, going to work and then  coming home and parenting and then going back to work.  But the candles made me. 28:27 um gave me an opportunity to do some shows and get to know people. And I feel like finally I'm starting to grow roots. Like, okay, like I know people. I asked somebody for something and oh, yep, it's so and so and  yeah, here's their number. And it's just, it feels like now I'm in the community, not just  living here. So  that's really cool. And yeah, it kind of seems like, that, wow, Jillian, how do you do it? You know, you're working,  your job, and then the candles. 28:57 But really, it's a full circle thing where now I can  use the candles as an avenue to give back, right? Like the fundraising opportunities we can do.  I have some more ideas up my sleeve that I'm not quite ready to disclose yet, but  it's just more opportunities to get more into the community. And that's what's nice about  having  businesses in towns.  You need to support. You live there, support the  rule. 29:26 the rural businesses support each other.  It's pretty cool.  Yes. And  I,  this is going to sound really Pollyanna, but I do not care.  When people make things themselves, there is magic in that. And I don't mean Harry Potter magic. I mean just specialness. And  if you're going to give someone a gift, don't you want to give somebody a gift that is  special? 29:56 that isn't just something you picked up at Kohl's. Absolutely.  And that was,  it's funny you say that, I actually, this last  Christmas, I was telling, you in the gym where I, my jobby job,  I was like, I'm going to make homemade gifts for everybody that I give presents to this year.  And it was so cool to just try to like find things. And,  and I'm like, wow, now, now it's like something I just do in my, you know, everyday life. Like, 30:25 I was making my own spices and gifting them and it's it's those types of things. It's like, well, I don't have to buy that. It's way better when you just make it on your own.  is.  And  that, that passion and that love that you put into the thing that you make,  you can't, you can't make that out of factory. It comes from you. 30:51 And I have a story about the whole making things and giving them as well. think I've told it once in two and a half years on this podcast. Back when we lived in Jordan,  oh my God, 15  years ago, 20 years ago now, we had learned how to make cold press lye soap, cold process lye soap. And our families found out about it and we let them try it and they liked it. 31:19 to the point that they would call or text and be like, we really like this. I'm like, okay, great. So we literally made a whole bunch of different scents and we went to Christmas that year and we had a box  of all the different kinds of soaps in Ziploc bags, which is really terrible plastic, blah, blah, blah, not good for the environment, but that's how we did it. m 31:43 We basically, when it was our turn to give presents, we were like, do you see this box? And they were like, yes, in the middle of the room. And I said, when you have a minute, pick out whatever soap you would like to take home with you. Merry Christmas. And the smiles on their faces were priceless because we didn't pick out the soaps for them. We were just like, take what you would like, whatever sense you like, take them. They were thrilled and they wanted more. 32:12 And more and more after, you know, my father-in-law still gets soaps from us. it's really neat when you find something that people love and you can just share it with them. And it's really neat when you turn into a business, but that first blush of uh recognition that you've made something that people really enjoy or they benefit from is  very special. 32:40 Yeah, I mean, and people see that they are like, well, you can go buy something, but you made this and it probably took you hours upon hours potentially, you know,  so it does it does mean a little bit more. And it's fun. Let's let's not lie here. It is so fun to make stuff. And I really wish that everybody could have at least a moment of creating something from scratch where they get that  bubble in their chest of 33:10 Oh my God, I made this and it turned out right and it's good. Whatever it is, whether it's food or soap or candles, I don't care. It's just, there's so,  it's like being a little kid again when you're in art class and the art teacher is like, okay, today we're gonna learn how to paint a leaf. And it's really simple. But I remember being a little kid in art class and learning how to paint something. You know, with paint, a brush and a piece of paper, that leaf was not there. 33:39 when I started and it looked like a birch leaf when I was done. I thought I was the bee's knees. I thought I was great. 33:50 That's awesome. Yeah, it's, it's the little things, isn't it?  It always is. It always is. And it's so frustrating to me that the world has become click  and you get the thing that you want or need. And there's no effort. And yes, I understand to make money, you have a job and you're putting an effort, but there's no  creativity of your own to get the thing that you need. And 34:20 Also, when you make your candles, Jillian, you get to  start and end and have a finished product. And it's one of the things that I hated about my jobs when I had a job. I  was only one little piece of  the product, the finished product. I never got to see the beginning and I never got to see the end. 34:45 Right. Yeah, that's,  that's, it is really cool. Like you have, you know, all these supplies and like I said, it's all over my house, but wouldn't I? Yeah. You have all the supplies and then you have your final product and it's all together. It is pretty cool  because it is, it's something that you're, yeah, you're proud of. Um, and it takes time. And I mean,  that first batch, you know, I didn't have it all together, but  it didn't turn out the greatest, but because I kept, 35:15 saying, I got this, I can do this. You know, I was able to figure it out. ah And I just said yes to the next opportunity, even though I didn't have it all figured out, I would say. ah It just it's the same. It's the same. Yes. I think it's really the the go getting attitude and to keep going and keep striving.  And you got something that you love and  people can sense that and 35:44 And people, you know, love to hear the stories. And that's what I love what you're doing is just like letting everybody have an avenue to do that is pretty amazing. So thank you for having me on. oh absolutely. And Jillian, I cannot lie to you. I enjoy these conversations so much. They are the highlights of my week because you guys  love what you're doing or what you're learning or what you're providing. And 36:11 Things are so crazy in the world right now that any positivity or love or kindness just makes me feel like there's hope. 36:21 So thank you for doing what you're doing. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, I couldn't have done it without everybody else. mean, too, it's like the support of my family and my friends and the motivation. Like,  I really thought I had to have this all figured out and perfect, perfected before I like started at all. I was like, well, I can't do it. I can't do a show. can't. I can't put it on a Facebook page. I can't do all that. And somebody was like, 36:50 you're never going to have it perfect. She said, just start,  just, just, just start, begin. And that's where it'll all come together. And I was like, okay, maybe, maybe she is right. So if anybody, yeah, if anybody listening in there just like, I don't know if I should do something like this  or, you know, start a passion or maybe even put it in a business. You don't have to have it all figured out. 37:19 That's one thing I should say. You don't have to have it all figured out. It will come. Yes. And I'm always saying start small, dream big. I'm also, I'm also always saying, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? Yes. So yeah, if you have an interest and you have that little thing in the back of your head saying, I'd really like to learn how to do 37:48 whatever it is you want to learn how to do, take it  one step at a time. And if you get four steps in and you're like, this is not for me,  you don't have to keep going. You can stop. It's fine. Right. Yeah, I absolutely agree. That's the first thing I always say too when I'm, you know, talking to somebody like,  you don't have to like my product if, you know,  if you don't like the smells, totally fine. But 38:15 you know, maybe there should be a scent that you like, because I typically carry like 50 cents every time I go to a show. I'm kind of ridiculous, to be honest. I'm like, hey, why don't you just come over and smell some candles with me? Here, I'll talk to you about my passion. I'll tell you why my candles are presented the way they are. So it's just really funny to see like people's reaction. But people are always just like, yeah, like, let's just have a conversation, you know? And I think that's too, instead of being behind, you know, social media and our phones. 38:44 People still really like that. They like to have that face to face and, oh my gosh, that smells like you were saying, like, oh, my grandma's house or this memory. And that's what it's really all about. When they come up and they're like, wow, this truly smells like my grandma's kitchen. I'm like, yeah, I mean, it really brings you back and you can see the smiles on their faces. Have you had anybody burst into tears when they had something or a mind? 39:12 had one of your candles remind them of something?  Yes.  mean, it was  just a little tear, but it was just it was the sweetest moment. uh It was just like two uh sisters that were out and about shopping. And they came and spent hours just going through the candles. I won't. That's probably an over exaggeration. But  I would say it was a good half hour of them smelling. They went shopped a little bit more and then came back. So it felt like a long time. And they just 39:42 all the memories and  those that have passed away, but they still have those memories of  the holidays or the summer evenings. ah It's  truly nostalgic.  Yeah, olfactory scent is one of the strongest things that makes you remember. And music is also one of them. Hearing music will bring back a memory immediately. 40:09 I'm huge on candles. I'm so glad you had the time to talk with me today, Jillian.  Where can people find you on Facebook? It's, uh what's name of the company? Yep. So it's Farm Country Candles.  So I do have a Facebook. I have an Instagram  and then I just launched on Shopify. So I have, I mean, I have a ton of cents, but I do have 20 cents listed on Shopify. So you can actually order online now  and I can have them shipped to you. 40:39 And it does include my three  house blends. So if you want an exclusive farm country candle scent, uh those three again are the Minnesota Prairie, the Northwoods and the Armaretto Sunrise.  But otherwise I have 17 other scents right now available and I'll be adding more scents as the days go on. Fantastic. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. 41:07 Jillian, I'm so glad we finally found a time to talk. This was great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Heather at Halfhacked Homestead. 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 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 Heather at Half Hacked Homestead in Kentucky. Good afternoon, Heather. How are you?  How are you? I'm good. You were telling me it's really freaking hot in Kentucky. Yes, it is disgusting hot.  It is.  Today will be, um, 00:29 indexes will be over 100. Some talks of areas being pushing 110 with we've had humidity levels this week of anywhere from the upper 60s to over 90s a couple of days ago. So it's just hot and wet and miserable. the dew point yesterday, I think at 630 in the morning here in Minnesota was 65%. Yeah, that is 00:55 Tropical and it's worse than tropical for Minnesotans because we're not used to that kind of heat, right? But back in January or December or whenever the heck it was because I don't remember We had a week this past winter where it was minus 25 real temp for a couple of days The day I was like, this is some crap. I don't like this any better than 65 dew point either 01:24 So we'd love spring and we love fall in Minnesota because the weather is temperate in those two seasons.  wish Kentucky had more of those. We either have uh hot season or mud season. There's really not a lot of in between.  We have allergy season and we have cold season. That's why Minnesotans sound like they talk through their nose a lot. Okay. Well, 01:52 I put up yesterday and it's still my unpopular opinion that I would much rather do all of this in the cold than the heat though. Yeah, definitely. I don't know that anybody will ever convince me otherwise. Uh  huh. Exactly.  All right. So I have to know why is it called half hacked Homestead? Well, a couple of reasons. Um,  one, my initials are HAC. Oh, okay. Yep. So if you, if you, anybody ever sees me refer to as hack, that's, that's me. 02:22 Um, the other thing is when I first started this adventure,  I  was  actually a hotel manager.  I have almost 20 years  in hospitality  and  corporate structures and things like that. And so when I started, I really didn't have a lot of time, but that business side gave me a lot of experience in working in systems  and developing efficiencies  and 02:51 really analyzing,  you know,  data and systems and all the things that go into how things operate.  And so because I was only able to focus on my personal life  about half the time, um everything just kind of became half-hacked and it became a running joke because sometimes, you know,  I do things that are unconventional  or a little, you look at it sometimes and you're like, what the heck is she doing now? 03:21 That's half-hacked. I love that. That is brilliant. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at half-hacked Homestead. So obviously in the last few years I have left the corporate life and I work part-time retail now just to support some of the things. My Homestead does support other parts of it with different things but I have 03:50 An entirely too many amount of animals right now and more on the way. So I think my latest count was about 82 animals.  Wow. How much land?  Five acres.  Oh, you can you can handle that many animals. That's okay. uh Most of them are  chickens, rabbits. got meat rabbits,  Rex's back in December. 04:15 which was very exciting. And then just a couple of months ago, I got started on my quail. 04:25 So I have the quail, the rabbits,  the chickens, and then of course, you know, there's the outdoor cats and there's a couple of dogs and. 04:39 Any goats? No. I don't have goats.  I have a very I have to be strict with myself that I have a no pet poll. Like I'm full on pets. um So everything I have has to have some kind of use now because the cats and the dog um take up the freeloader status.  Yes, they're very good at that, but they're worth it. Yeah, I don't. 05:09 don't foresee myself wanting, I don't like goat meat. And I don't see myself wanting to raise them for dairy, because I don't want to have to worry about keeping them in kid or milking them several times a day. So it's just, they're not my thing. I'll let other people have all the goats. are a homesteader who knows her limits and I'm proud of you because 05:36 There are a lot of homesteaders who get into this and they're like, I want all the animals and all the produce and all the fruit trees and all the asparagus and all the strawberries and all the rhubarb. And you cannot do that unless you have like a whole team underneath you to help. Right. And fortunately I have met some wonderful people out here in Western Kentucky who do have the goats and the dairy animals. 06:01 and the pigs  and we have created this wonderful bond and network of people  so we don't have to do it alone. Right and that's really smart because many hands make light work. Absolutely.  Alrighty so how is your rabbit adventure going because our rabbit adventure lasted a year it did not go well that's why it lasted a year. uh It's going really well so far. uh 06:30 told you I tend to do things that make people go,  oh man. And that's I have a colony set up.  And so I started out with a  trio, with two does and a buck.  And  they have now, I'm on my  third litter from each one.  And there have been, there were some challenges. The very first litters that I had, I didn't quite know they were pregnant because again, being in a colony situation, 07:01 don't have them separated. Right. So I didn't know that they had come of age and that they were  about to kindle  until that week that you were talking about where it was negative in Minnesota. It was also uh pushing zero here. And of course, that's when they kindled.  Of course, because that's how mother nature is.  Exactly. So first time mothers didn't pull enough fur. um They didn't know what they were doing. And I woke up and I went, oh, there's babies. 07:31 So did you manage to rescue them?  We did. So the first, um I had both does kindled within a couple of days of each other.  And oddly enough, I had a chicken go broody and also hatch out  eggs  during that time. So in a week, I had  28 babies born between the three different moms. um And everybody,  I did lose one of the rabbit litters. 08:02 Um, because despite checking on them  multiple times a day,  I, one of the rare days that I had to go to work  and I came back and I was like, Oh, the whole nest is now frozen.  So I did lose the whole first of one of the does, but the other doe raised her rabbits,  uh, successfully. So half a bed. 08:28 Absolutely. And if it was the first time you've ever done it, congratulations. You learned something really important on  the fact that not all mama animals really know how to be good moms. No, and in fact, the one that lost her entire litter, um she lost her second one as well to a completely different circumstance,  which was the spring floods. we um 08:53 I let her choose her own spot and I was like we're gonna do this as natural as possible we're gonna see what she's gonna do and she put them in an area that I could not reach underneath a set of concrete stairs which I've chosen to leave because it's a nice cool place for them in the summer and the rain came and it ran 09:19 just slightly downhill underneath the thick layer of straw that I have in their pen and where she had dug out the little bowl for the nest, retained water. 09:32 It happens. It is not your fault, just in case you're feeling bad about it. It is not your fault.  So I rescued one of them. were able, I found it. It had washed out and was covered in mud. And the second time I rescued Kits from the same mom.  And now she's on her third one and she had 13  and eight of them are still alive. So, and we are at four weeks now. So I think her third time she's finally figured out. 10:02 how to do this. Sounds like your buck has figured out how to do this too. Holy crap, that's a lot of babies. Yeah, they both give me very, very large litters. The other doe that I have has managed no less than 10 and she gave me 13. So out of these two, I have 16 four week old grow outs now that just came out of the nest and are running around. Your rabbits are really healthy. That is incredible numbers. 10:32 That is amazing.  have a very, I'm very proud of them and I'm very thankful to the woman that initially raised these rabbits.  Yes,  very good quality.  I would say so. Like  I'm actually flabbergasted at how many babies these rabbits are putting out. um For the listener, the deal with the colony style raising of rabbits is you don't have your rabbits in cages. 11:02 You have them down on the ground where they can burrow, right? Correct. Okay, so that leads me to a question because that's not how we did it. We had cages for our bunnies.  When the babies are born, how do you know they've been born if they're burrowed? So they,  these guys, the mamas have not  dug deep burrows. oh I have  several totes and places and things  for them to hide. 11:31 When they're not kindling, it's a lot of enrichment and ways for them to  get away from the buck and to have their own little sort of spaces.  Because despite the fact that they like being social and around each other, they also like their space. So that's where  they tend to build their nest at is in these totes. Okay, so you can get to them.  Okay, we have a neighbor down the road from us and she has a colony style. 12:01 rabbit thing. What's the word for it if it's colony style? Is there a word for it or just colony style? think it's colony style. I refer to it as the bunny pin or when I'm being funny, it's Bunningham Palace. Well, whatever. I'm guessing there's probably some term besides colony style, razing rabbits, but that's what she does. And her rabbits are literally, they literally dig burrows and dens and 12:31 She doesn't know how many babies she has until the babies come out. You big enough to come out. So  I don't want to do rabbits again, but if I did, I probably wouldn't do colony style because I would be like, can't see the babies. And  if there's a dead baby and a nest, it will kill the other babies if you don't get it out. Yeah. And that's what happened with the first one is I think one of them passed and the whole nest got cold. um Now I do have... 12:59 what I call the maternity cages that are set up that I can separate  if necessary. Nice.  So I have that just as a backup, but I will probably be now that the weather is  a little bit nicer. I think I am going to burrow a nest box sort of in the middle of the colony because I've seen where people have done that. They have the pipe and then the box down in the ground and just a little hinged lid on the surface  that they can  lift up. 13:29 So I'll probably be trying that in a couple of spots. That's a really cool idea, because then Mama Rabbit can do what she naturally would do,  but you can still do what you need to do and make sure they survive.  Nice, brilliant, fantastic. See,  homesteaders are amazing because they come up with all these  hacks just like your name. And it's great that we're all able  to share those now. ah Immediately, yes. 13:59 Yeah, this age of information I think is wonderful.  A lot of people talk about, you know, historically in the old ways and the ways their grandparents did it  and it's, we don't live in that time anymore.  No, and  okay, so here's the thing.  Back in the old days, we need to remember that families weren't just a mom and dad and like one or two kids.  Families, aunts and uncles and grandparents and the parents and a whole 14:28 hassle of children.  So a home was a community in and unto itself.  And there was  things  that were inherited, whether it be the property or the tractors or  even  the animal sometimes, and the knowledge just,  it was all passed down and passed around. Whereas now everybody seems to be having to start from zero. 14:55 Yes. And the other thing is, that back in the old days,  most people in America attended a church or they went to the town social every month or something where they were with the other people in the town that they were part of.  And if you needed to raise a barn, you let people know a couple of months ahead of time  and said, we're going to be raising a barn on this date  in this month,  show up. 15:26 and people would come and help their neighbors raise a barn or harvest the crop or whatever the project was that needed more hands. And we've gotten so far away from that that the internet has become our community.  I'm telling you Heather, if you've got rabbits you need butchered,  don't have any way to get to you to help from the  As much as I would love to. 15:51 You know,  and that's why I think it's very fortunate that  we do have the ability to connect.  it's it's not been until the last, I would say, year, year and a half, though,  that.  I'm finding more and more of us here within a couple of hours of each other. You know, there's the person that just had chickens who thought they were insignificant or just that person who had a couple of quail that  they didn't feel like they were much.  But when you put all the puzzle pieces together, now we have a whole community and we have a whole network. 16:23 Yes. And it's part of reason I started this podcast because I was like, I need to talk to other people who are doing this stuff  and  I want to learn from them. But I also want to share the information with other people who want to learn from them too.  And I think the desire is there and I'm seeing it more and more every day where people are and whether it be starting  to bake their own bread or to can or to get livestock or to 16:51 to just any little thing to do on their  own.  There's a desire for it now.  Thank God and the stars above because we need people to learn how to take care of themselves again. uh My husband brought in some asparagus  a month ago. We had a really short asparagus season this year. They went  from little tiny nubs in the ground to already 17:20 leafing or seeding out within a week and a half. It was so hot they bolted. But he brought me in so I could have some because I freaking love asparagus. I hated it as a kid.  Discovered a love for it back probably 15 years ago.  And this is the fourth year on our asparagus patch that we put in.  There is there is nothing better than  literally picked 10 minutes ago  snap. 17:49 put in a glass bowl with a little bit of water and microwave for three minutes asparagus from your own garden.  I about cried when I ate it. 17:59 I understand that I was 17 the first time I tasted a fresh green bean. And I went, what is this? It's the most amazing thing I've ever had. Why do we eat these mushy things that almost have like a metallic when we can have this? And I would agree with you, except that I don't like fresh green beans because they're fuzzy on my tongue. 18:29 It's the same principle of uh anything. Yes, yes. And I mean,  I don't necessarily like eggplant either, but I'm sure eggplant right out of the garden cooked the right way is amazing. Oh, probably.  I haven't found anything yet that I don't  enjoy fresh.  Mm-hmm.  Yep. And my mom, I've said this before a couple of times on a couple of episodes so far. 18:58 My mom used to can green beans right out of the garden and actual canned green beans, the way that people used to do this, you know, the canning process, love those compared to the ones that you buy at the store in the aluminum cans. Yes. And canning is actually where I started this entire adventure. Good. Tell me. So I have 19:26 um You know like anybody else again a corporate world doing all the things  Thankfully, my mom had you know taught me how to shop sales and things like that when I was younger um And I had an entire freezer full of meat and the freezer went down oh Probably two thousand dollars worth of meat in one day. Mm-hmm, and I this is ridiculous. I never want to experience this feeling again  And so I learned how to can 19:53 And because I, you know, again, I do things unconventional, I started learning how to can meat. And it has progressed into literally everything. I'm sure somebody at some point has brought up the concept of rebel canning. I have been a part of that from the beginning, thankfully. And so now I, I even can my extra eggs. You know, most people with chickens this year, they talk about. 20:21 water glassing or giving them away or feeding them back to livestock. And I can them so that I have shelf stable hard boiled eggs ready whenever I need them.  Oh, OK. I was going to say, how does that work? But that makes sense. they go in in the shell and they go in fresh. And when they come out, they are in the shell hard boiled.  And it makes meal prepping and cooking so much faster. And I was able to take that concept. 20:49 of shopping sales  and  shop seasons.  And because I could make everything stable and preserve  the expiration date of things  to many years out, know, including things like milk and butter and eggs and you know, my meats and the vegetables. um There's very few things that I found that I don't like canned.  But  it allowed me to start almost this little 21:18 investment snowball into my life, which was  you buy things seasonally and yes, it looks crazy going and buying, you know, 100 pounds of potatoes when they're  cents a pound. But then I didn't have to do that for the rest of the year. And I was able to take that money that I saved  and sort of reinvest it back into myself and into my pantry  on something else.  And that is not crazy. That is smart. 21:49 And so now that has turned into, I think I started learning to can in 2013 or 2014. 21:59 Yeah. Very nice. That's rolled into me having 82 animals. 22:05 You're  doing all the things. You are definitely a homesteader.  I looked at your Linktree thing on your Facebook page and it says consultations. Do you teach people this stuff?  Sometimes I do.  The consultations part is more, it's a little bit um of a side John. It's where I do,  I take what I've learned in the corporate world and big business  and the accounting and the marketing and all the things. And I actually, um 22:35 help people do. Oh, okay. So it's not necessarily homesteading. It's more teaching them how to set up systems and things. Or doing it for them. Yeah. So any sort of virtual assisting or plans or any things that people might need assistance with. I do. 22:54 And a lot of times it's, you know, with small businesses and people who aren't even, you know, micro businesses really that they just have no clue even how to, you know, set up a budget or keep track of their finances to see if it's profitable or what they're producing. Yup. Super cool. I always feel weird because I'm doing old fashioned stuff like making bread or canning or making 23:22 you cooking from scratch or whatever it is that we're doing that is an old fashioned skill, a homesteading skill. But I decided to start a podcast, which is definitely higher tech, two and a half years ago, almost three years ago. And I always feel weird because I'm like, okay, I'm going to go make dinner here in two hours and it's going to be pasta with a garlic sauce. But I'm sitting here talking to you and you're in Kentucky over a computer. ah 23:50 It's just crazy to me. It's awesome.  I think it's fantastic. And I said, I think it opens up a lot of possibilities for all of us to,  to learn how to do things.  There is somebody on the internet who will teach you literally anything you want to know.  Oh, yes, absolutely. And whether that's over the phone,  over zoom, just through videos they've posted.  What a time to be alive, Heather, I swear to God. 24:20 It is so cool to me because I am so curious all the time. Had the internet been what it is right now, when I was in high school from 1984 to 1988, I would have ruled the freaking world by now because I would have ingested every piece of knowledge I could have gotten my eyeballs on. is as I'm a very curious person, obviously, and there's almost too much some days because 24:49 What do you where do you start the executive dysfunction kicks in sometimes so there's so much information that where do you start? But if it wasn't for the internet being what it was I Wouldn't be here because I'm self taught in my canning I taught myself how to crochet and how to knit and how to spin wool into yarn And I had never seen a live chicken until I got them that day. I had never seen a rabbit until I got them I 25:18 None of these things had I experienced before I said, is what I'm going to do. Wow. That is awesome. I love that. uh I was the girl who my parents had bought a full set of encyclopedias when I was probably 12. I read those encyclopedias from beginning to end from A to Z.  You and me both. had the entire 28 volume Britannica set. Yup. I was. 25:47 Like, I didn't even know they were going to get them. And I don't know if they bought them new or somebody had a set, but they were within a year of printing, you know, that year.  they had them on a bookcase at the end of the hallway outside our bedroom door. And if I didn't have a book, I would just go grab one of the volumes and just sit down and read it. 26:14 My mom said to me one time, she said, so what have you learned? And I just grinned and said, everything. The most random, useless, you are wonderful at trivia information you could ever. It was so fun. And I thought then what a time to be alive. But man, at 56, I'm like, what a time to be alive. This is amazing. 26:44 It is it is incredible the information out there. I said there's there's always somebody to teach you  how to do things which which I think is fantastic because  coming into this and I live in a very big agricultural area.  The county that I live in produces the most wheat in the state of Kentucky. It's  big ag a lot of big players here  and  in my retail job they come in and I talk 27:12 very openly about everything I have going on because I found the more you talk, the more it opens up dialogue and conversations.  People get curious. They ask questions. And in some instances, some of these old farmers  come to me with criticism and they say, that's not how you do it or you can't do it this way. And I just say, watch me. Yeah. And then they come back later on and they're like, yo, how's that? How's that going? Or how's this going?  And a couple of years ago, 27:42 I looked at one of these who he kind of been lightly mocking me in a playful way for most of the summer. And I said, my little 600 square foot garden that I have, which started as solid clay, they had excavated the topsoil off, has produced 750 pounds of produce this season. 28:07 And he wrote, what? 28:11 I'm over a pound per square foot. Yeah. 28:17 without bringing in anything extra as far, you know, I didn't haul in topsoil, didn't haul in compost, I didn't  use all of these synthetic fertilizers and things. It can be done with a little time and effort. What did he say after you told him that?  He  didn't have much to say. He just said, wow, good job, kid, and kind of walked off.  Oh, so at least he complimented you. That's good. 28:45 Yeah, he kind of did and I was like, yeah, don't don't tell me I can't do something again because those are like fighting words to me  Yeah  When you tell someone like you you can't do that  The answer for you is always gonna be watch me  And keep doing that cuz  I'm gonna quote my dad, but I'm not gonna use a swear word my dad say opinions 29:13 are like buttholes everyone's  the only opinion that is worth anything in your case is yours absolutely and if I can do it other people can too yeah absolutely and it doesn't take  it doesn't take a lot of money or things you just got to get really creative yes  and creativity is fun that's why people end up being actors or actresses or musicians or singers 29:41 or artists or  I don't know, fiber people who make clothing. It's fun.  And  it's also hard,  know, not  Taylor Swift did not become Taylor Swift by just like opening her mouth and singing. There's a lot of work  she has done.  And there is, there's the sweat equity. Yeah. And I use her as an example because there are so many little girls in the world who just  idolize her and 30:09 I'm really hoping that the parents of these little girls explain to them how much work has gone into making Taylor Swift who Taylor Swift is. Well, I'll tell you something that really gets a lot of people when I talk to them on this topic is. And my data is outdated. I've looked up the current, but at the time when I started, really, which was about 2019, I sat down. 30:38 looked up on all of the the government websites and I said  how many hours a week do I have to work for somebody else just to feed myself? And the answer then was about 10. 30:53 10 hours out of a 40 hour work week, which is our standard full time, 10 hours, that's an entire day of working for somebody else to buy food. Yes. And I think, and that was assuming, if you look at the, I used the median numbers instead of the averages. The median was that, the median household spent $400 a month on groceries and made $30 an hour. 31:22 And I live in a very poor state. I made 12. So if $30 an hour got me 10 labor hours, my wage is half of that. It cost me 20 hours of working for somebody else just to eat. I'm glad that you brought that up because I wanted to jump in and say, I just saw yesterday on the news that the inflation rate for the month of May 31:52 was over 4%. And I'm assuming that's on everything because that was a government number that they were reporting. um The smartest thing that you can do if you live in America today  is number one, if you have  any way to grow any kind of food where you live,  do it because you're going to make money  by doing that. You're going to save yourself money and you're going to eat nutrient dense food. 32:22 that will make you healthier and stronger. that's where I teach if somebody can't at least  start canning that way you can shop price point to price point. Yeah. And I always say if you can't find the people in your area who are doing it and buy your fresh food from them because the food at the grocery store, the produce,  you don't know how old that produce is. You have no idea. 32:51 how long it took to get to your grocery store shelf. And  every day from the day that that produce is picked or harvested, you lose the nutrient density of that produce. When every day goes by, it becomes less good for you. One of the things that I saw was like onions.  Commercially, onions are harvested about September, October? Yes. 33:20 So if you were buying them in the summer, those have been sitting in storage since the previous fall. Well, I think it depends on where the onions were grown as well. Majority of them are, you know, it's those things are sitting in storage in a lot of instances. Yep. And it's kind of crazy, but they I just can't imagine spending 33:48 And now I'm sure it has to be even worse if I were to look at the actual median numbers of  what the average person spends on food and what the income ratio is. Even with everything that I do with my garden and I'm building a food forest, uh my plan's for about a half an acre food forest, which is gonna be super fun. um And I have the livestock animals,  they're small, but they're there. They'll produce a lot of meat for me, enough that I need. 34:16 can't imagine that taking 10 hours of my week, 20 hours of my week. And that opens up free time to do more, to actually live and experience my life versus being somewhere making somebody else $100 for every hour they want to pay me 10. Yes, and you're enjoying the work that you're doing at your Because there's nothing more fun than going and hanging out. 34:46 and a mass of  30 rabbits all hopping around and wanting your attention.  Yes, and even the hard yucky work like mucking out the freaking chicken coop. It doesn't take that long. And I always think that once you do the cleanup work and everything is back to spruced up,  there's such a, I don't know,  there's a word. Number one, satisfaction. 35:13 but joy in knowing that you have given your critters a nice place to live again. Absolutely. Which is where a lot of us,  especially around the online homestay community, um raising meat for food,  people really get upset over the rabbits.  They get very upset.  But  it's hard. Raising meat for food is hard. Yeah. We know from the time it's born, 35:43 what is going to be.  And we're still out there in the middle of the night, bottle feeding babies,  trying to save rabbits, dealing with chickens who just  want to drown themselves or  escape and  possibly, you you get eaten by the pack of coyotes down the road.  We're out here at all hours doing all these things knowing  that's what's going to happen.  That's the end goal. Yeah. But all of us also know 36:14 that we are giving our animals  and our quality  so much better than industrial commercial livestock operations. And you were saying that's really hard. You get a hard time about rabbits. Let me tell the listener.  Rabbits are just really cute chickens. Yes.  The meat is almost exactly the same.  It tastes the entire rabbit taste. 36:42 like chicken breast. tastes like, it's white meat. Yeah, it's really good. lean,  yeah. But everybody looks at them as these cute little pets and they absolutely can be.  There are people that have pet cows, they have pet chickens, they have pet goats, they have pet sheep. Every animal  on this planet can be a pet to somebody. And that person can think they are the cutest thing in the world. Yes, but in Asia people eat dogs. They do. 37:11 In South America, guinea pigs are  a highly sought after delicacy. They raise them as livestock. Yes, and I'm sure there's somewhere in the world where cats are seen as a food source too.  That's also Asia.  So it's yeah, when you when you're looking at producing the most calories per per square foot. 37:36 animal food always produce more. And if it means going hungry and starving, or consuming this animal, people are going to naturally choose to not sacrifice themselves for  a cute animal's life.  yes, and  I was reading something the other day.  It's a book, you know, it's like a fiction book.  And one of the quotes in it from someone who was religious, 38:06 was that the good Lord provided animals for us to eat and survive.  And I was like, you know,  that's probably true. And I have never thought about it that way.  is an interestingly enough, I was just sort of touching on this conversation that I've had,  because I spent four years being a carnivore.  health wise, it was the best. I won't go off on that one. But 38:35 A tomato plant has more biological defenses  than my rabbit.  The contact dermatitis,  the bioavailability of the nutrients, all of the anti-nutrients.  They're minor reactions,  but depending on how much you consume, you can't just go eat the leaves off a tomato plant  and  you're very likely to have some sort of contact dermatitis.  Whereas if you go eat a rabbit, you're 39:05 You're going to be fine. There's really not going to be any side effects.  And if you think about cucumbers, cucumbers have all those little prickles on them. Yeah. Yeah. Plants have...  They don't want to be eaten. We do.  and, know, in terms of the big ag and,  know,  I get into these conversations a lot. You can produce more square foot on on worse land when you... 39:35 when you eat meat versus  all of the  land and resources that are needed to support an all plant diet or mostly plant diet. Yes.  I, my theory is that we're supposed to eat meat and vegetables. You don't have to share my opinion. Listener,  you eat what you want to eat. You want to eat McDonald's hamburgers every day. You go do that. That is fine.  I am not telling anyone how to eat  what I am. 40:04 telling everyone is that if you want to be able to eat in this country in the next year or two, you might want to learn how to grow some produce. You might want to learn how to grow some meat animals.  And you might want to learn how to cook because I don't see this getting better anytime soon.  The cooking is the other part that I am seeing is difficult for people  because I  meet a lot of people who don't know if it doesn't come with instructions on a box, they don't know how to cook it. 40:33 Yeah, isn't that ridiculous? Just about a month ago, I was having a conversation. Somebody came into, I said I work part-time retail, they came in looking for a box of cornbread mix. And I said, we don't have this, but we have cornmeal. Yeah. Well, I don't know how to make cornbread with cornmeal. 40:53 I don't want to be mean about this. I'm not going to be mean. I'm not going to be disparaging. If you don't know how, that's fine. But you can learn. Absolutely. And so I did have to show them. said,  there's a recipe on the back. 41:09 And he went, is it good? I said, yeah, it's good. Try it. Give it a try and let you know, next time I see you, let me know how it was. And he did. And he said, he liked it.  He said, I think I might need to find a little dis of recipe, but, but it was good. said, see now  you know how to make it without purchasing this  convenience box that's overpriced.  And if you want, I'll give you my recipe and  it's probably much better anyway.  Yes. And the other thing that's great about learning to cook  is 41:39 those little packages to make cornbread have a ton of sugar in them.  If you don't want a ton of sugar in your cornbread or your corn muffins or whatever you're doing,  if you learn how to make them from scratch, you can take a little bit of the sugar out so they're not so sweet.  And a lot of people don't realize that those little boxes have more flour than they do cornmeal. Yeah. 42:06 So it's not even really a true and that's, know, people are so used to that now that they're like, well, I don't like, I don't like this cornbread. I'm like, but that's actual that that's cornbread. The other thing is it's a corn cake, you know, and us people in the South get really defensive over what is what. I'll tell you what I will eat cornbread no matter where, how it's made, because I really like cornbread. 42:31 But I really like people who really know how to make cornbread because it's the best.  It's a little something different.  But it's  again, it's the principle and the concept of  these  small things.  Yeah. And I go and I talk to people about making  homemade pasta or gnocchi or the fact that,  yeah, I've gone out to my garden and I've picked a bunch of vegetables and I made the fresh pasta and a fresh 43:00 Pasta primavera with fresh noodles  and  fresh squash and vegetables and tomatoes and  it's the best thing ever.  It really is. And if we can just keep talking about this with people in our lives  and  getting them curious enough to start trying things, we'll have a better situation. um The last thing I want to say, because I'm going to be making this in about an hour and a half, two hours. 43:30 I guess two and a half hours, sorry it's only two o'clock.  I'm gonna be making an Italian sauce, not Italian sauce, sorry, garlic sauce for the pasta tonight.  And tonight it's gonna be butter  and  diced garlic,  sauteed in a pan.  That's just gonna go  get mixed in with the pasta, because we're doing really easy tonight.  But I learned  months ago. 43:57 that I don't have to go crazy on Alfredo sauce.  All I have to do is make a roux  and then put whole milk in until it's thickened up  and then add a little tiny bit of real Parmesan cheese  and some diced garlic. And that is Alfredo sauce. You don't have to be a gourmet chef to make something yummy.  don't. you I  have you ever tried lemon pasta?  No, I have not. 44:27 So do do like a butter noodle with a very simple splash of even just the bottled lemon juice. A lot of places in Italy, they'll serve it with, you know, fresh squeezed lemon and a little lemon zest. It really gives it that little bit of extra. A very simple, just a little splash of lemon juice and the butter, little fresh Parmesan if you want. But it is it tastes high end gourmet. 44:56 I think I will try that some night when my husband's going to be late from work so that if he doesn't like it, he can make something else. is very interesting. some people, know, it doesn't take much. Again, it's that creativity and just that little bit of  play and experimentation and just knowing if you know how things work. 45:21 then you can figure out how to make things different.  No, no, no, it does. It does make sense, at least to me.  All right. So where can people find you, Heather? So I am pretty much just on Facebook right now.  I am in the process of building my own website because some of my adventures are taking me in places that social media does not like. OK. And so we'll be having a 45:49 I'll have my own website here. Hopefully in a few months I'll have it all completed, but who knows what will think. Yay. I wish you luck with that. love websites. I hate building them. Yeah, it's been interesting. But there's an entire piece of this closed loop system of my homestead here that nobody really, nobody likes to talk about and they don't like to deal with. 46:16 but um I find it to be absolutely critical and social media does not like um waste products and end products or what people would assume are waste products.  But we make use of  every part of everything that we can. So. From the snout to the tail.  Absolutely. And  everything in between literally.  Good. 46:43 Awesome because we have gotten away from that too and that's important as well  All right, heather. Thank you so much for your time as always people can find me at a  homestead Podcast.com. hope you have a great day heather. Thank you. Thanks, Mary you too  

Today I'm talking with Keelan and Rachel at Farmer Brown's produce. 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 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 Keelan and Rachel at Farmer Brown's produce in Tennessee. Good afternoon, you guys. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather there? Hot and humid.  Same, darling. Same. In Minnesota, it is disgusting. 00:27 It is too soon in the season for this kind of hot, sticky weather. Absolutely. We've gotten a lot of rain lately, which has been a blessing and bad at the same time. Oh, yes. Yes, yes. We've had a lot of rain too. But as I've said a billion times in the last two years on this podcast, we had really horrible weather the last two springs. It rained every day, May through the middle of June, the last two springs. 00:56 And that is not the case this year. So we're crossing our fingers that our farm to market garden does really well this year. 01:07 The weather here, we had a very, very mild end of winter going into spring. uh It warmed up a lot quicker. Our normal  last frost date is April 20th.  And we, our last frost was actually like, I don't know. March. Yeah. End of March. Nice. So it, with us being prepared, 01:37 for that April 20th, we were actually kind of behind a couple of weeks, but we were able to catch up pretty quick with as warm as it got. Well, that's helpful. What do you got? Well, tell me about yourself and what you guys do. So we originally started Farmer Browns in 2013 in Wayland Springs, Tennessee. And we were we were the first CSA in the area. 02:06 And we just did, I mean, just your staple, you know, peppers and tomatoes and squashes and watermelons and corn. uh But  a big thing that we did, because we were certified nationally grown at the time, was to educate people about the quality of their food, food miles. uh 02:31 why it's better to grow without pesticides and herbicides and synthetic fertilizers and all that. And  the education thing  for us was great and we really did reach a lot of people that way.  And then we got really overwhelmed because we more customers than we were ready for and then we scaled it back up until the last two years where we were just doing  eggs and a few things for certain people. 03:00 And then the last two years, we've really been putting 110 % into it. We've actually done pretty good. 03:11 Thank you for doing what you're doing because it's what everybody in this is trying to do. We're trying  to educate the average American on food nutrition, nutrient density in homegrown produce,  and that nature really needs our help. I think that's what we're all trying to do. So thank you for doing it. Absolutely. 03:38 Um, so tell me again when you started what year? 2013. So you've been doing this for a while. Yes, ma'am. Did you have a background in it before you started? Uh, working in your grandmother's garden. Yeah, that was about the extent. I've always had a passion for for growing. Uh, just garden crops, because I love to eat a tomato out of the garden. I love. 04:08 I love raw vegetables and  that was like the easiest source, I guess.  But  I had just gotten out of the military,  had really just gotten off of deployment too.  And  we had talked about it a little bit before.  And I'll tell you uh kind of a funny aside, Rachel's from California. That was my last duty station. 04:38 And she came out here  for a family reunion when  I was deployed and she decided that this is where we were going to live, you know, and she packed up everything we owned and drove cross country with an infant and moved to Tennessee while I was still deployed. is a hell of a woman, Rachel. Good job.  Thank you.  It was not easy, but made it work. 05:09 You will do what you have to do to get to where you want to be and to who you want to be with. What branch of the service were you in, Kailin? I was in the Navy.  Thank you for your service. My son, my son was in the Marines for eight years. Wow. And he is alive and kicking and happy and married, has a daughter and lives in Nebraska and they are growing gardens as well because they've learned. 05:38 really well from their parents like me and my husband and her parents. So we're raising them up right. Amen. I think it's important, especially in today's society, there's a lot of economic uncertainty. There's a lot of food uncertainty. you know, I hate to say it, but they're killing us with chemicals and, you know, processed foods and whatnot. So I think it's really important to teach this next generation how to grow. 06:08 It is of paramount importance. Yes, it is. And I don't know if you caught the headline earlier, because most people who are farmers or homesteaders or ranchers don't necessarily see the TV very often.  Apparently inflation went up 4. something percent in the month of May. Wow.  Yeah, that's a lot. And no wonder we're all having so much trouble feeding ourselves. 06:35 So yes, I encourage  everybody.  Listener, if you  are an American, and I mean, if you aren't an American, if you live somewhere else, that's cool too. But if you are in America right now,  you should really start a Victory Garden. Look it up on Google. Victory Gardens were a big thing during World War II, I think.  everybody grew a small Victory Garden to have extra food because people were on rations back then. 07:05 So please, please learn to grow food and  cook because  things are not going to get better soon. No, unfortunately they're not.  Yep. It's so disheartening.  And again, if you don't have a place to grow a victory garden or a kitchen garden, a small garden,  yet to know your local growers and put your money  with  them, buy from them because 07:33 they will be the people who save you when everything goes to hell. Yeah, I mean, I know it's been a blessing for a lot of our neighbors and stuff too for what we do because we are really well priced for the area for what we provide. And so um it's definitely helped some of them. And it's also been, you know, most CSAs you pay upfront for the whole season. And for us, we do it on a weekly basis. So if it's a harder week than usual, they can skip if they want to. 08:02 That's awesome. know, helps with the flexibility of that for budgeting. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for doing that too.  You guys are really good. I like it a lot. ah So do you just do produce or do you guys have some chickens  hanging around there too? Well, we got a lot of chickens hanging around.  Do you sell the eggs? We do. And we also have some ducks too. got a few customers that enjoy duck eggs. So  I am unfortunately allergic to duck eggs. 08:32 but ah which is what I had got them for originally. But thankfully there are a people that actually do enjoy them. are you allergic to chicken eggs too? I am not. It's just duck eggs.  Huh? It's usually the opposite, isn't it? they're fully cooked, I can eat them so I can scramble them and I can bake them into stuff, but I can't have slightly undercooked eggs if I have duck eggs.  Yeah. It's usually the opposite. People will get duck eggs because they're usually allergic to chicken eggs, right? Yep. 09:01 Yeah. first duck egg customer was, she was allergic to chicken eggs. That's all she could eat. And she was buying a dozen a week. And we didn't have that kind of duck power at the time. I do now. You didn't have super ducks at the time, but now you have super ducks who produce really well. Yes. We sell duck eggs in our farm stand. Our friend has ducks and they don't have a place for a farm stand. It just would not work very well. 09:30 And she asked me last summer or spring, two springs ago, she said, could we sell our duck eggs in your farm stand? And I was like, of course you can. And  people were,  what most people don't know is that ducks don't lay in the fall and the winter typically.  And we had people asking for duck eggs in November and I was like, there won't be duck eggs until at least May.  And so- And then like turkey and stuff like that too, they're very seasonal. 09:59 Yeah. so for the listener,  ducks, duck eggs are not available typically at farm stands from about September through about end of April, first part of May,  because the ducks are not laying eggs in those months.  And it has to do with the number of light uh out, light. I can't talk  hours of daylight, just like it is with chickens. If you don't put a light in your chicken coop, they're not going to lay as much either. No, no. 10:28 People don't know this stuff. We've gotten so far removed from seasonal stuff and  nature cycles. People just don't know. I've seen a lot of on that topic. I've seen a lot of Facebook videos  where people are like, I'm doing this new thing. I'm doing this new thing. And it's like something that we did 20, 30 years ago. But because people are so disconnected, they're just finding out about this. 10:58 is wild to me. Well, that is like understanding seasonal produce in itself. Like  they're so used to the grocery store where you can get anything any time of year.  And so to be like, hey, we won't have this certain product until this month because that's when it'll be available. You know, that's when it's available in season.  Yes. um We go through that every spring here because we have a huge asparagus patch that we put in. Oh, lovely. But the farmer's market doesn't start until June. 11:28 The asparagus is done by June, for Saturday in June. So this year we finally got to sell four bundles of asparagus in the farm stands. We actually had enough to sell. We were so excited, you guys. It sounds so stupid, but oh. No, not at all. It took four years  to be able to sell four bundles of asparagus this year. And then the other thing too, like for us is we like getting people to try new things. 11:56 I have a lot of customers are like, I don't like this. And I'll say, you know, we'll give them something and we'll like, try this. Here's a recipe. Um, but you have to at least try it once. And if you really don't like it after that, then I won't include, you know, whatever in your, in your bag. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of people who've only eaten certain vegetables or haven't tried anything new. And that's fun too, for me. 12:26 And the same thing with accomplished growing, like what we can grow that most people don't have. Yes, exactly. And honestly, I can't blame people, especially on tomatoes. People will tell me they don't like tomatoes. oh I say, have you ever had a homegrown tomato, like a fresh out of the garden, sun-warmed tomato? And they're like, no,  I get my, you know, the tomatoes I've had have been from the grocery store. 12:53 And I'm just like, need to get a real tomato because real tomatoes taste nothing like what the grocery store has because the grocery store tomatoes cannot possibly taste as fresh or as nutrient dense as the tomato you get from down the road or from your own garden. And I've seen people be converted from one tomato from a garden. 13:18 Yeah, I love tomatoes.  this year, we're last year we grew Brad's atomic grape tomatoes because they're so beautiful.  And  I actually like the taste. They're kind of sweet and tangy at the same time.  We got a lot of really positive feedback on those. So we're growing those again, but we try to grow one new variety every year.  And this year we've added uh the queen of the night, which is another aesthetic tomato. 13:49 um I like,  you eat with your eyes first. So I like really pretty produce.  And heirloom tomatoes are pretty.  I'm guessing that heirloom tomatoes probably grow better in Tennessee because we've tried  so hard to grow heirloom tomatoes here and they just don't do well.  And I don't know why we tried growing um brandy wines  and 14:18 They just, got so big so fast that they split all over them. Not  just because that's what Brandywines do. I mean, they were splitting big. And it happened like three years in a row. And my husband finally said,  I don't think we should try to grow them anymore because we never get any that we can eat. And I said, it's your baby, it's your garden. You grow what you want to grow.  But we've tried other ones and we tried the zebra ones. 14:47 I don't know if there's a word before zebra. There's a zebra tomato. Yeah, they like really stripe either. I can't remember what they're called either, but they're really cool looking.  Yeah. And they didn't do well.  And  I said to my husband, I'll try to find out through Google what we can do to amend the soil. And I tried to find information. I couldn't find anything about what we could do to make these heirloom tomatoes not go to crap on us. So I don't know, but congratulations on having really good soil to be able to grow heirlooms because we can't do it here. 15:17 ah We make a lot of our own compost, uh which I think is, I think that's one of the most important steps. uh Healthy living soil produces nutrient dense crops.  you're reducing waste, you're adding to  nature. So that's like the first step for me and probably number one on importance levels. 15:45 But here we're also blessed with a really good growing season. oh It'll stay hot until October  and  it's warm and it's humid. We get a lot of We get a lot of rain. I can't remember what it's called, the  days of sun that you get. uh our sun doesn't go down until nine o'clock at night and it's up at... 16:14 five o'clock in the morning. So we get a really long grow day as well.  Nice. Do you guys grow cucumbers? We do.  I bet they're wonderful too, aren't they?  love cucumbers. I need to learn how to make pickles this year, I think. I can, I can send you my recipe for refrigerator pickles if you want it.  Oh, please do. They only last for about a month in the fridge, but they taste so good. They're gone before that month. They probably only last about a day with all of our kids, but. 16:44 Yeah, and you can make sweet or you can make garlic. So totally up to you how you do it. Yeah, pickles for sure. I got a kid over here nodding because she's listening. She's like, yes, make pickles. Oh, OK. I will try to find it and I will try to email it to you. Thank you. Do you guys grow squash? Mm What kinds? So this this time of year, it's just. 17:11 We have straight neck and crook neck yellow and then zucchini, but I've already got um butternut squash coming up. We'll probably do  patty pan next and then um we'll do an acorn squash. 17:28 closer to fall.  huh. I don't know a lot of people don't know what patty pans are. I do because we discovered them a few years ago. Patty pans are the craziest looking little squashes you'll ever see  but they're like they are summer squash. So like a zucchini or a yellow crook neck or straight neck or whatever squash and if you slice them into thin slices and fry them up, they're like chips. They're so good. 17:58 That's gonna be the first year we've grown those. We grew them one time ago. And remember we had the ornamental gourd patch? I I lost you guys. I do remember that. We had gotten uh some mixed squash seeds a few, well, several years ago.  And we planted them out. And what was wild was we got these gourds that we had never seen before, like squash.  And, uh... 18:26 Just on the fluke entered them in the fair in one first place because like nobody else had seen them either. Not sure what happened. I lost you. Yeah, we just got kicked out for some reason. Weird. Riverside does not do well in the afternoon is why probably. Anyway, I was saying that patty pans are fantastic. If you fry them up in thin slices in a frying pan, they are like chips. Yeah. I thought about that doing like squash chips. 18:55 Yeah. We, uh, we had gotten a packet of mixed squash seeds one year  and their patty pan was in there and there were some other like gourd type squashes  and they grew into the wildest looking gourds and we had never seen them before. And on a fluke, we just entered them into the fair  and we got first place in decorative gourds off 19:23 something that they had never seen either. was, think we'd replanted those seeds though.  then they come up. Yeah. Huh? Well, very nice on, on winning  a ribbon for your unknown gourds.  That was the first and only time we've ever entered anything in the fair. oh So, well, beginner's luck, or maybe it was, they were just that fabulous. They were just neat looking.  I don't know how to explain it. They were  really cool looking. 19:53 I feel like part of being a farmer or a homestead or a rancher is those kinds of wins, those kinds of surprises.  Because  when it's your world and your property and your skills, you can do whatever you want. You can try anything you want.  if it fails, you learn from it. And if it succeeds, you have so much pride in that success. Yeah, that's true. 20:22 So you said there's a little person listening. How many little people or young people do you have? We have four that live at home and one that's an adult. And so how old are the kids? Let's see. Kalina just turned 30. And then we've got 17, 14, 12, and 10. Wow, that's a heck of a span. Yeah. My oldest is 36. My youngest is 25 this December. So we had a 12 year span. 20:53 It's a and there's and then there's two in between them.  So so are the kids into this? Some of them are. I got about two that are into it and two that are not. OK, well,  half is not bad.  I saw a neat  quote the other day about farming and homesteading that said, just want to do this long enough for my kids to say, I got it from here. So. 21:22 Yes.  Yes, absolutely. And I don't want to beat a dead horse. And that sounds like a pun, but it's not.  Um, we need our kids to step up and take over because  a lot of people are aging out of farming and ranching and farmers and ranchers are the ones who grow and produce the food that we should be eating. So  encourage the two who are into it to stay with it because 21:51 We need them desperately to love it and move on with it. Yeah, and just be good stewards of the land. Mm-hmm.  That too. The other thing that we really need, and I don't if you guys hunt or if anybody  around you and your family hunts,  but we need dads and grandpas and moms and grandmas who hunt to teach their kids and grandkids. And  not necessarily because we need venison, but here in Minnesota, 22:20 Every fall they have special hunts for deer because there are so many deer here that they've become a nuisance. They have become a problem to towns and cities and they've also become a problem to themselves because they're running out of food.  Yeah, we're starting to get that way here in Tennessee too. Yep. So if you've got kids that are interested in learning to hunt or fish, I fully encourage that to happen. My mom and dad both hunted.  I am not a hunter. 22:50 I don't like guns. don't like the noise of them. I hear everything. have a hard time filtering noise. So gunshots are very hard on me. The sound  really hurts my head, but I am an advocate for learning to hunt. think it is an incredible skill to have. Now y'all have mule deer up there, correct? No, no, we have white mule deer. Huh? Yep. And apparently there's some elk in northern Minnesota as well. 23:19 Oh wow, I didn't know that. I'd like to that. We're having some issues with moose in northern Minnesota though for the same reason that their food sources are not as available as they used to be.  Oh wow. There's migrating? I guess so. So yeah.  Yeah, and I'm not an expert on any of this, but because I was raised with a dad and a mom who hunt, I just, it's such a great skill to have. 23:49 And honestly, venison is an incredibly good for you source of protein. It is. Yes. It's pretty tasty too.  I'm not a fan. I don't love it. I ate a lot of it when I was growing up, but don't love it. That's why you are a duck, right? Well, yeah, because my grandfather hunted a lot. So we had quail, duck, deer.  What else? I like I'm missing something. Not that I don't think you ever go hunting. 24:17 beer and eat the heck out of some flails a kid. And I'm going to be real honest, I'm not a huge fan of meat with every dinner. I  try really hard to do two or three meals a week that are just meatless. Yeah.  I don't love it anymore. I used to, but in the last probably eight, 10 years, I've been kind of like,  chicken is kind of not my thing and beef is kind of not my thing. 24:45 Huh, maybe meat isn't my thing anymore. I'll eat. Recipes out now for vegetarian dishes and stuff too. Yeah, I was going to say I'll eat the hell out of a dish of pasta with, you know, steamed veggies in it. That's all good, but I don't want meat with every meal. And my husband would eat meat breakfast, lunch and dinner. we're having a bit of a transition. I'm kind of like that too. 25:15 I enjoy, I enjoy steak.  I'm not really big on ground beef, but like I enjoy like steak or that kind of cut of meat. Yeah.  We have a cousin that has a cattle farm and we bought half a cow from him this year. And I'm like, I'm excited because you know, that means I can have steak once a week if I want to, or, you know, something like that. But we do, eat a lot of chicken and we do,  we do vegetarian meals probably twice a week. 25:46 This variety is a spice of life. it sure is. And the thing that I love about the fact that we cook from scratch here is there are so many herbs and spices that most people don't even know about. We change the flavor profile. So if we were eating meat every night of the week, we could change it up with spices and herbs. 26:15 So  anyway, eh I try to keep these to half an hour, we're at 27 minutes. Is there anything that you guys would like to share before I let you go? 26:28 I'd to echo your sentiments as far as like everyone learning how to at least grow  one thing, even if it's just a tomato plant. But  it's easy to do and it's easy to do even in small spaces. My sister had a whole little container garden on her balcony for her apartment for a long time. So there's ways to 26:58 accommodate smaller spaces or larger spaces for anybody. It's very, very important to  grow your own, not just for the health of the food and the flavor, but just it'll offset your bills significantly. You do have to go to the store for everything.  Definitely.  And again, if you aren't capable of growing stuff at your place,  definitely look into the people in your area who can. 27:26 Oh yeah, there's farm stands popping up everywhere. It is kind of scary. It is.  I'm happy for it though, because  it's a lot of people getting back to their roots of making their own things and most people make them cleaner than you would get from the grocery store. So I'm happy to buy a bar of soap from up the road. 27:45 Definitely and That's it's really funny. You said that because I just wrapped soaps for the farmers market last week for Saturday's farmers market and We do a coffee soap a coffee scented soap Yeah, and When my husband got home from the farmers market I said did you sell any soaps and he said yeah, he said I said I sold a few and I said what sent and he said 28:12 Oh, people want more coffee. said, well, good. We've got about 30 more bars to wrap.  Oh yeah. But that smells amazing. It's so good. We got some goats that'll hopefully be in milk next year. So my plan is to home make some goat milk soap.  Oh, it's so fun. And there are two frames of mind about this, Rachel.  People who make homemade soap. I have done a study, you know, just 28:41 on my own of people I know who make it. if someone has never made it before, they have one of two reactions. I'm never doing this again or I'm making this my life's purpose.  So you're going to have to let me know which you think is your case.  Absolutely. I'm notorious for adding too much on my plate. So if it's too much, I'll probably push through it. 29:08 Okay. Well, let me know because I'll be really curious to add you to the tally of which side you're on. Pro homemade soap or anti homemade soap. All right. Where can people find you guys? We're on Facebook at Farmer Brown's Produce, Instagram under the Farmer Brown's CSA. that's really well, that's it. We don't have a website yet. 29:38 or anything like that, but um social media has been a huge, huge thing for us. Yes. Yes. And I'm telling you, any  way to market without spending money is a fabulous way to do it.  Yes. Before I let you go, can people still sign up for your CSA or is it closed for the season? So  we have a limited number of spots and we offer those January to February. um 30:08 And, we start  in May, mid May.  um, we have a wait list and we're, you know, we're constantly adding people because inevitably you lose customers mid season, either, you know, moving or  travel can't, can't afford it. And we've even done like where somebody has said, Hey, I'm going to be out of town for these two weeks. We've added somebody. 30:37 for just that two week period.  So, I mean. As far as like a full season thing. Yeah, we're booked for the year. But wait list is growing.  Okay. That is so great. You guys are the most accommodating produce growers I've ever met. uh right. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Cannot talk today. Geez.  Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for having us. All right.  

Today I'm talking with Ashley at Wildflour Crumb Company. 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 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 Ashley at Wildflower Crumb Company in Jordan, Minnesota where I used to live. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good morning. I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm good. How's Jordan doing this morning? It is slow and sunny  and beautiful. 00:26 Just how I like it. Mm-hmm.  I am half an hour southwest of you in Le Sueur, Minnesota,  and it is sunny and it is not freaking hotter than the Hades this morning, which is really nice. Right. It is beautiful. The windows are open. have my oven on while it's been on the past two days.  But having the cooler weather has really helped my house not get  so hot. 00:52 Yeah, it's been miserable up until yesterday. It's been pretty gross for the second week of June. Yeah, just a little bit. We should not have weather like this this soon in the season. I'm very, very disappointed in Mother Nature this week. Okay, so I, this is going to seem really weird. You are hyper local to me. I used to live in Jordan. I lived there for 20 years. 01:17 And part of the reason that we moved is because we knew that a whole bunch of things were going to be happening. Like 169 was no longer to have the scary stoplight where people get in car accidents all the time. We knew that they were going to put in a bunch of roundabouts and we just knew all this stuff was coming down the pike. How is it any better than it was? 01:42 I mean, the construction sucks.  That's, you know, nine months out of the year, sometimes 11 if we don't have snow. ah But I think that once  the 169 area is done, I think it's going to  be fantastic just because of it's going to reduce  all of the accidents that occur at that stoplight. ah But as far as all of 02:12 the extra roundabouts going on. I'm not a fan of roundabouts, ah only because,  and it might just be because it was Jordan. It's a small town, but for quite a while with the roundabout that was by Radamachers, a lot of ah the older generation were, they were going the wrong way.  Oh no. ah But that, that has stopped for the most part. Now you just have, you know, your typical teenage driving. 02:41 of being crazy, not being safe. But for me personally, I'm not a fan of the ones by the schools, only during school time, just because those two separate times from like 7.45 to 8.15 and then you're all about, again, 2.45 to 3.15 ish, it backs up bad. 03:09 just because of how they have things set up  with pickups, drop-offs. ah The high school, it used to be before the roundabout was there, that if you were coming out of the high school, you were only supposed to take a right,  which that helped dramatically. Just  so you didn't have to worry about kids crossing, ah waiting to turn left,  all that stuff, it made it easier.  But now with the buses, 03:37 The buses get stuck  in all of that traffic because of  the pickup lines that are long for the elementary school and  things like that. So, I mean, I'm not a fan of those during school time,  but summertime  they're just fine as far as there's no backups, things like that.  It does get people to slow down a little bit more than they used to,  not a whole lot. So in terms of speed wise, there wasn't much change. ah 04:07 And one thing that I was furious with by the elementary school,  there used to be a crosswalk that would go from the school side to  a street called Timber Ridge Court. And they took that away.  I had tried talking to the city, know, hey, why did you take this away?  First, they wouldn't respond. And finally, somebody had said because it's a mid cross. 04:35 side cross and I was like well I don't understand because you have lots of other crosswalks throughout the city that go from a mid-block meaning that it's in the middle of  a city block versus having it be end to end  so lots of them from mid-block to  another street and they couldn't respond to that they just said nope just go all the way down to the roundabout and then come back and I'm like well I'm not gonna do that 05:04 There's, know, I'm not,  that's ridiculous. The crosswalk never should have been taken away.  Um, but it all had to do with a little girl got hit,  uh, because somebody wasn't paying attention. And I had asked for, you know, those blinking yellow lights by sidewalks. Yep.  I asked for one of those. said, Nope, city turned it down. It was too expensive.  Um, but then, uh 05:32 But then they spent all the money for the roundabouts. Yes.  So that's the only part that's made me mad. Otherwise, the rest of it will be fine. think 169 is actually going to be a lot better. um But it's just, you know, waiting the three years for all of it to get done. That's the sucky part.  Sure is. And I have I have one thing to say about roundabouts. I grew up in New England. 05:58 Roundabouts are an important part of traffic in New England because there are lots of places where five or six roads will intersect. That's what roundabouts are actually for. And I feel like Minnesota has seen it as a trend, a fashion trend for traffic. uh Yes, I can see that.  And just a PSA for anybody who doesn't understand about roundabouts. Roundabouts 06:27 you come into them slowly, you make sure you're paying attention to the other cars coming into them, and you follow the directions. And I think I remember in the driver's manual for Minnesota for the test, there's a section on roundabouts.  If you have kids going for their driver's licenses and you live in Minnesota, make sure they read that and they learn how to do it.  That's my PSA about roundabouts.  now  after all that, 06:54 I would love to hear about you and what you do. Perfect. So I, let's see, I've been in Minnesota since, oh, let's see, when did I leave Wisconsin? Go Pat, go. I thought I heard some Skonsy in there. Oh yeah, you did. Let's see, since 2006, I came here for school. 07:20 And a funny story with my husband is that I had told one of my really good friends I had told her is like if this date doesn't work out. I'm moving to Texas  I'm gonna be a police officer and that's gonna be it. We're gonna be good Well, apparently the date worked out because I'm still here 20 years later ah But no, it's been it's been great. um I started 07:45 with school. I have always wanted to be a police officer. did the crossing guard in third grade. ah just everything about it screamed. Yes, that's what I want to do. I wanted to help people. wanted to protect people.  And I went to school to try and do that. And then as things went  on, I became more interested in forensic science. 08:09 And I was one of, you know, the few before CSI came out to do their wonderful effect on people. knew you couldn't swipe screens in midair. ah But how cool would it be if you could?  Oh, my God, that fantastic things would go so much faster. Things would be so much smoother.  But I think we're quite a few years away from, you know, having screens in midair like Iron Man and all of that. It'd be great. Oh. 08:39 man, would it be great, even just for life in general. ah But, you I  went to do all of that, started with, you know, security positions that I would do either in the city for an apartment complex. And then I went to work for  the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  And I absolutely loved my job.  I loved  that. 09:06 People  felt comfortable enough to come to me with questions. They wanted advice. I loved being able to  do all of that.  And I had one incident when  I was pregnant and  I wasn't protected by the people I worked for. And I said, nope,  I'm done. I'm not going to put my... 09:31 baby's life in danger anymore and I looked for a new job. I tried to stay with the federal government and I went to do federal background investigations. So anytime somebody who's going to enter the federal workforce, you have to get a background check done of 10 years or your 18th birthday, whichever one is there first. And so I did that for about 10 years. And when we were told that 10:00 Everybody needed to go back to the office five days a week, no more remote unless it was, you know, something came up and you could work a half day, whatever the case may be. And I cried. I got excited. I got scared. All of the emotions going through because I have a son who has type one diabetes and I needed to 10:30 think about him  before  me,  being that he is younger. And I was like, nope, I'm going to take this package that they're offering. I'm going to resign from my position so I can be home.  Because, you know, it's two kids for two grandparents is way too much. It's, you know, it's not their responsibility to raise my kids. That's my job. Right. So  I... 11:00 resigned from my position and I was like, you know what, I'm,  I'm going to do something.  Um, so I took a couple of months, you know, of my quote unquote vacation, uh, to be with my kids, do stuff after school, do things with them on the weekend. felt  grateful that I was able to be able to do that.  And I was like, I'm going to start a bakery. I, you know, have celiac. I've had celiac for 13 years now and. 11:29 What I was finding, whether it was other bakers or stuff in the grocery store, the freezer section,  it was not  anywhere  near what I wanted to eat. Yeah, I've heard that from lots of people. Yep. When I was first diagnosed, the one thing that I remember is the doctor had said to me, know, you are going to waste a lot of money in the beginning. 11:58 you are going to be throwing away a lot of food in the beginning until you find what works for you.  And that was  100 % true. And I hated it. I hated that I wasted so much.  I got frustrated over things that I tried to make that didn't turn out.  I got frustrated at paying so much for one product to get something so tiny in return. A good example is bread. 12:27 So they've gotten better with bread now as far as size wise ah for some companies,  but you would buy that bread, you take a couple slices out and you have this egg size hole right in the middle through the rest of the pieces. And you're like, well, I just paid all of this money for this tiny one tiny piece of bread. 12:54 and then to have a huge hole that probably takes away half the bread. was like, I can't, no, no, this isn't,  this isn't working. So I stopped buying a lot of stuff. It's unacceptable. Yes. Yes. Yes. And I mean, you could contact the company  and they would say, Oh, I'm sorry. Here's a coupon for another one. You buy that other one. It happens again. You're like, you know what? Don't send me another coupon. I'm just done buying it.  And so 13:22 May of last year, I came up with a name. I was sitting in my computer room. I had a couple glasses of wine. I won't lie. I was scared. This is a huge move.  And bouncing names off of my husband and I was like, you know what? I was like, I want my items to be good. 13:45 down to the last crumb. I don't want people to leave half of it and be like, well, that was okay. That was good for gluten-free.  I wanted it to be damn, that was good. And a take with wildflower is that it's not wheat. These are, have, there's so many different mixtures to make one thing, to make it even close to being like it was full of gluten. 14:13 And I was like, this is wild. I was like, I'm going to do flour because I have to use so many flowers instead of the plant version. So I was like wildflower crumco. And of course, with names, you got to look up to see, there anybody else that has it? If so, where are they located? How many people have it? And I found maybe a wildflower bakery or nothing. That was what I wanted. You were nothing that was gluten free. 14:43 Um, nothing that had to do with crumb co things like that. And I was like, this is it. I'm doing it. I, you know, I put it in, I started my Facebook page and I was like, this is it. I did it. I hit submit. I was like, I can't take it back now. Cause people are going to see it. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. That was it. And here we are today. That is a fabulous story. And I'm to tell you right now, I am so proud of you. 15:12 for trying  to  pursue being a police officer. Because not only is it a uh difficult profession for any human being, but it's really hard for women to get into it. So I'm really proud of you.  I'm also really proud of you for knowing who you are and thinking through your decisions and making the right decisions for you. Because that's also something that's hard for women to do. 15:43 No, tears. All right. Yes.  I'm  sorry.  No, you're good. There's  so much that's expected of  mothers that it's hard when we  want to do something for ourselves, we end up feeling, you know, there's a slight guilt of, well, shoot, I could have did this instead, or 16:08 We're expected to do the job, to do the kids, to do the housework, to do the cooking. And I've been lucky that my husband helps with all of that. But it's just, those expectations that are  put in your mind that every decision you make, it's like, well, am I doing this for me? Am I doing this for my kids? Am I doing this for my husband? What can I do? 16:38 for me that I'm also going to benefit other people and trying to make all those decisions at once, it's no wonder we're all exhausted. And insane most of the time.  Yeah. So I just, every time I hear a story like yours, I just want to say I'm proud of you guys or you gals as it were, because  it's  hard. And I 17:05 I have so many things I could have been, but the thing that I really wanted to be was a mom.  Now I'm going to cry. And I didn't want my kids to be in daycare. I wanted to raise them.  So I raised four kids and they're all functioning adults who are good people. Proudest dad in his life. And then the youngest one decided he was going to move out and I was like, oh my God, I need a project because I can't do... 17:35 Empty nest without a project. I will just be miserable and I started a podcast so worked out Well, I'm proud of you for doing that. That is amazing work.  I Freaking love it. It's so fun And I don't know if you're talking about raising the four functional adults or the podcast or both, but I love I loved Raising the kids and I love the podcast. So 18:00 I don't know how intentional any of it was except for starting the podcast because I needed a project. But  just please keep doing what you're doing in the way that you're doing it because you are being intentional about your decisions  and your life and your family and that's so important. Okay, so let's stop psychology 101 now and switch to you.  You do gluten free exclusively. 18:26 I do because I have celiac. So that is the autoimmune disorder where  if I ingest any size of gluten, it could be the size of a pinhead, um my intestines will be like, hey, that's foreign. And they start to attack itself.  And when that happens, the villi that are in your small intestine,  it's the finger-like extensions that 18:54 grab onto vitamins, minerals, things like that for your body, ah they die.  And so there's nothing to grab a hold  of  what your body needs to  put it where it needs to go.  And so you end up with deficiencies in vitamins. You can have  the dry skin, the gut issues, bruises, brain fog. mean, you know, every 19:23 a symptom that goes along with every other existing issue in the world. uh So  trying to nail down, well, when do I feel this?  And it happened every time I ate. So  going to the doctor, first we did a blood test, which is what you can do. And because my levels, I believe it's the IGA, my levels were so high. 19:52 that my doctor had said if you would like to do an endoscopy to confirm, you can. Otherwise, you don't have to because of how high your number is. And I was like, well,  I'll just skip that. Thank you. I don't want to stick a tube down my throat. Yeah. So no, I skipped all of that.  And so trying to be gluten free, at least for sure in my house. uh 20:18 The only gluten that's in my house, there's a few snacks for my kids, but they stay in the garage just because I don't want,  I don't want to have that issue one for me because it sucks. And two, I don't want, you know, say my kids had a snack on the counter where I bake.  I don't want that to end up in somebody else's food and then they get sick because I couldn't see that crumb because it was so small. I mean, that's all it takes for. 20:48 a lot of people to get sick.  I, know, gluten, gluten free, that's it. When you mix something, a lot of that flour goes into the air. So a lot of the times like for people who have celiac, we can't go into bakeries. Well, we shouldn't at least, at least the back part. um People that make their own pizza dough, because that flour 21:15 raises up in the air and then it lands everywhere.  It doesn't just land, it doesn't just go straight up and straight down because you've got people moving, ah ovens with their air, fans, breathing, and it goes everywhere and then it lands and it stays there for 24 hours. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to cross contaminate. Yeah. So that's, know, and for some reason, 21:41 why I still don't understand even in a 700 degree pizza oven, that gluten does not get burned off. does not die. It just stays and it can fall onto that. Say I order a pizza, that gluten can fall onto my pizza and then that's it. Then I'm done. like, well, that's great. Next.  I have a pretty good understanding of some of this because I have 22:10 I get migraines and one of the triggers for migraines for me is MSG.  I have to read every freaking label on every freaking pre-made thing that I debate eating because if I eat two Doritos chips, my head pounds for two days. Doritos have been off the menu for over 15,  maybe 20 years now and I loved Doritos.  Cannot eat them. And so I get it. 22:39 It's a real thing if you know that if you ingest something and you know the results of that and they're bad, it is such a hard shift to make. So again, proud of you. 100%. 100%. To mend you for knowing your limits, but also trying to help other people who have the same thing. Yeah, and reading labels is such... 23:05 pain because you could read one product, you go to the grocery store, read one product, they go, okay, I can have this. But you go to the store again, they could change their entire ingredient list. They don't have to say anything. You go buy it, you get sick, you're like, well, I had this last time. Why can't I have it now? And you look at the ingredient list again, you're like, oh, they changed it. That's why.  but you find out the hard way before you realize that's the part that sucks. 23:31 Okay, so do you make just breads or do you make cakes and cookies or what do you make? What are the goodies you make? Everything. ah I have bread right now in the oven.  I've made chocolate chip cookies. I've made a pistachio cake. I make a great,  amazing,  and dare I say it, moist chocolate cake. If you hear moist and chocolate cake and gluten-free all in the same sentence. 24:01 Normally it's like a hockey puck or it's dry, but not mine. I don't like chocolate cake. I don't like chocolate ice cream. I'm really strange, but I love chocolate chip cookies. I scarfed down a chocolate cupcake that I had made because I made an extra. have to batch test, of course. Of course. Yes. It's one of the benefits of the job. Right. And no, I scarfed it down. was like, I hate chocolate, but that was amazing. 24:31 cinnamon rolls, ah you name it, brownies, lemon bars. um I've done Twix bars, well, quote unquote Twix bars.  Brownie cookies, I've did rocky road brownie cookies.  Anything that is in a normal bakery, a normal recipe book, you want it, I can make it. That is 24:59 Fabulous. So tell me again how long you've been you've been doing this So baking for business since last May so May of 2025 Otherwise making all of my stuff  for 13 years  So you've been perfecting this for quite a while  it  it's so gluten-free baking is 100 % Science and not art like a lot of baking is with wheat flour  because you have to have 25:28 the correct amount of between your fats, your liquids and your dries. You can't be like, oh, I'm just going to toss in a little extra sugar or take out sugar because I don't want so much. And what a lot of people don't get is that reaction between the sugars and the fats  are what make your gluten free item taste  amazing, taste like, you know, you would think you're eating gluten.  I've had some people 25:58 message me after they've had something and be like, are you sure this was gluten free?  And I'm like, 100%.  You are a magician too. It's it is 100 % magic. It's  you could do  the recipe  one day, it turns out just how it's supposed to.  And you try it again the next day and you  miss 20 grams of flour, it's gonna flop. And it's 26:26 You have to be precise each and every time with gluten-free baking.  Yes. And I'm going to tell you, I tried making gluten-free bread maybe three, four years ago  and it tasted really good. And I don't remember the recipe, so don't ask me. I have no idea how I did it,  but it was so  dense.  Yes.  And I was like, yeah, gluten, gluten-free bakery. 26:56 stuff is probably not going to be my thing. I'm going to leave it to the experts.  Yeah, with my bread, you can leave it on the counter for up to four days and just like fresh bakery bread, that's when it's going to start to get stale and then start to mold because I don't use any preservatives in my food. But for somebody to have a soft sandwich without toasting the bread first is what I wanted people to experience. 27:24 because that's what I missed was, know, growing up, I would have  the bologna cheese and Doritos sandwich or the  ham and Lay's chip sandwich. So I wanted people to be able to have that memory again, that soft sandwich that they've been craving because that's what I liked to eat. And I know I can't be the only one. So I wanted, you know, that soft bread. um 27:51 So it's trying different things to see, okay, well, what can I use instead of this? Can I sub this for this in case somebody can't have that? It's trying the different things back and forth and then be like, holy crap, that worked.  It's a beautiful thing when a plan comes together. uh So do you sell at farmers markets? Do you sell online? Where do you sell your goods? 28:18 through my house, if somebody sends a message or there's a referral and I get an email, a text, a phone call.  I also, at least right now, I am at the All Wheel Wednesdays in Belle Plaine. um Every Wednesday except for July 15th because of their barbecue days. ah That's so far right now. I know I have  an event in Chaska. It's,  oh. 28:47 what is it called? Let's see, I have it on my calendar. At least I hope I do.  Let Freedom Ride. ah It's a car show in Chaska on July 25th.  And  it's  somebody that organizes these to um get  donations and things like that for women who have gone through stillbirths and miscarriages and things like that. 29:14 And they're doing a special one for America's 250th.  So I will be there.  And then there's just, you know, a few things that pop up along the way that are like, Oh, do you have a gluten free vendor? um Or, you know, I've had, there's an art show, not an art show, but like an art class that's actually in Lesour. um I'm doing some things for that, which is 29:44 Tomorrow? No, today's Friday. Yes, tomorrow. ah So I mean, it's just, it's little things like that that you can,  if you're participating in that and signed up, get to, you know, try some of my goodies through there. Otherwise, a lot of it is the word of mouth, posting on Facebook, ah doing things like that and hoping that the one person that did try it tells their friend. 30:12 ah or says, hey, I know this person will be here. I know you're gluten-free, things like that. But I want it to be more than just people who need to be gluten-free to find me because my food, and I hate tooting my own horn,  but I keep getting told that I need to because of how good my stuff is. That I don't want it just to be gluten-free people that find me. want anybody who wants something delicious to find me. ah 30:41 And I think that's really important for  me to be able to  help people like that that want something good that has, you know, good ingredients in it  and that they can feel good about eating and not be like, oh, I just, you know, I ate all of this crap. ah I don't, I don't want any of that. want to be like, oh, that was really good. I feel good about that. She has, you know, quality ingredients, things like that. Yes. 31:11 Reframe it from tooting your own horn to telling your own truth. Yes Because telling your own truth is is a much more positive framework for your brain to accept Yes So so people can find you a wildflower crumb company on Facebook any anywhere else they can find you online Gmail added to that if they want to email otherwise finding me in Belle Plaine on Wednesdays or 31:40 Uh, other random events I've,  I've tried making a website and I've been out of the, apparently I've been out of the computer game like that for way too long because even with help like frames and you know,  Oh, here's a, you know, take this and you can, you know, just change the wording.  I am not having any luck getting that finished in the slightest. 32:10 Do you own your domain name? I do not. Okay. I don't even know how to do that. Okay. Well, I know a little bit about websites. So if you want to pick my brain, you are welcome to do that when we're done recording. I would love to. Okay. So it's wildflower. It's W-I-L-D-F-L-O-U-R. Yep. Chrome, C-R-U-M-B. 32:35 company, C-O-M-P-A-N-Y on Facebook. I want people to be able to find you and find out where you're gonna be this summer. So that's why I said it that way.  Ashley, so proud of you. So glad you're doing what you're doing. And number one, you helped yourself, which is really cool. And then you took all that knowledge and you're helping other people, which is, uh I'm applauding you. Thank you. I appreciate it.  It's nice to hear, you know, feedback. 33:05 Um, like that just because you don't hear it a lot if at all, um, you know, getting the feedback of man, that was really good or that's the best cake I've had. You know, those are all awesome to hear. And it makes me  smile bigger than anybody, you know, could see or know, but just to, you know, have somebody say, I'm proud of you. Like that's a totally different. 33:34 phrase that has a different effect  on your heart. Yes,  absolutely.  And that's why I say it to people I'm proud of because you guys need to hear it because I don't hear it very often either. And when I hear it, I'm like,  aw,  So I get it. All right. So thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it and keep doing the good work. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Have a good day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Carrie  at Bear Country Blooms & Bakery. 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 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 Carrie at Bear Country Blooms and Bakery in Young America, Minnesota.  Good afternoon. Carrie, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for asking. I was like, am I saying Young America right? I hope I am. 00:22 Well, technically it's Norwood, Young America. But since I live on the Young America side, I try not to draw any more attention to our crazy town name than I have to. And so I just  stick with Young America. Oh, I thought Norwood  and  Young America were like just side by side, but it's actually one town. It is.  Back in the  90s, they decided that it would be more fiscally responsible to combine the two towns. But em 00:50 As the story goes, because I didn't live here then, uh the old German  blood did not  allow them to compromise with a new name. So Norwood and Young America combined to become Norwood Young America.  had no idea again. Love my podcast because I learned something new every time I talk to somebody. 01:14 And you might not even see Norwood Young America written because it's too long to fit on most things. So  my driver's license might even say NYA. So  I'm giving it a couple of generations  and will probably just be known as NAYA because  that's what people say when they see NYA and don't know about our town. Wow. 01:41 I have lived here for over 30 years in Minnesota and did not know that about Norwood Young America. I am so glad I got to talk to you today. Yeah, fun facts. I would say how's the weather, but since you're only about an hour north of me, I'm assuming that's been kind of gray and then the sun peeked out and it's kind of gray and the sun peeked out. yep. Humid. 02:01 The humidity has kicked in. um I did learn that a friend that lives  only  two and a half miles from here got significantly less rain than we got. um So that was an interesting fact.  Overnight, she had mentioned that her rain gauge had 0.0 something and mine was 0.8.  Well, Lasur, where I live, in my little tiny 02:28 plot of land in the cornfields and the soybean fields.  Got 1.8 inches of rain yesterday  between 2.30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. oh And so yeah, that's it really varies. I mean, we need it. So oh yeah, um I'm really, really thankful that this spring has not been like the past two though.  Yes. Past two, you know, has just been. 02:58 rain all of May and halfway into June. Yes. And you live on the other side of the river. So  I can relate to that.  Yeah, it was. is not fun to cross anyway and throw in a flood and it just got more complicated. Yes. Luckily my husband could get to work,  but we had a terrible growing season last year and the year before, because our garden was so wet. It took so long to get it It was like soup. Yeah. 03:27 Yeah, I heard that a lot. were,  you know, people come to the farmers markets looking for vegetables.  like, sorry, it's too cold. It's too wet. There's you got to wait an extra, I don't know, four or five weeks  for the second set of seeds or whatever the plant was that they were hoping to see fruit from. 03:49 It was bad. It was very, very bad. So we're happy this year with our farm to market garden. Yes, for sure. wasn't soup in May. Thank God. So all right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, as you can probably guess, I am a gardener. I call myself a market gardener because I don't know many people that grow 80 tomato plants or 04:17 70 pepper plants just for fun just for themselves  Although if you can or you really like salsa, which is why we grow ours You could just be growing those for yourselves, but we grow to sell at farmers markets We used to grow onions and zucchini um And  as my other side of my business took off I had something had to give  And so some of the vegetables got cut from the list um 04:46 but I also grow flowers. So that's where the bear country blooms comes from. I do cut flowers that thrive here. people have to wait after peony season, they have to wait until about July before we're drowning in flowers. But it is worth the wait to grow flowers that are fresh, long lasting and aren't imported, which I think it's like 70 % of the flowers. 05:16 are imported.  our carbon footprint is a lot smaller  because of that. that's a positive there. um And then my bakery side of my business, um I've been a cottage baker for I think this is my sixth year.  But last summer I started  selling sourdough um and now  a year into selling, um it's gotten to the point where 05:44 My husband wishes I would give up the flowers, but I love it too much to do that.  But it's  pretty much an all-consuming  job in that sourdough doesn't give you a day off. It's got to be fed.  It does not. It needs attention. Yes. Yes. So yeah, we do farmers markets. have a 06:10 bakery trailer that's new for us this season. So we have a, we call her Poppy because our most popular muffin that we sell is a poppy seed muffin. And then we also have poppies in our garden. So Poppy is our bakery trailer that we sell from at markets and events. We average around 45 events in a year or so. We're out a lot. 06:38 Yeah, that's a lot of running around to sell things. Yes, yes. And we do have a farm stand. So  after that crazy season is over, about mid-October, then we dial it back  and people order their bread and they pick it up at the farm stand instead. Or  I do a delivery run  on Fridays as well. So  it's  a nice um way for someone who 07:06 likes to do a variety of things. I'm never bored and I'm never doing the same thing  two days in a row. Sure.  I have a question about your panties this season. Yes.  Did it seem like the panty season was one week? Because that's what it felt like here for our panties.  Sarah Bernhardt's, I think, opened  in maybe 72 hours, every single one of them.  Yeah. I do try to plant mine for the most part. 07:36 um We like to incorporate our perennials into our landscaping.  We do have a few rows of them, but they are contained in our flower beds.  And so I put some in the shade and I put some in the full sun to try to spread that out a little bit. But yeah, I did notice that too, that uh my need to look out the window to see if any peonies are starting to pop.  That window is really short. 08:05 as far as time goes. So  yeah,  I couldn't believe it. Last year our peonies bloomed for like a three week window. This year. This year, I swear to you, it seems like they just started maybe 10 days ago and they're pretty much done. Yeah, I,  I maybe have,  um, so I have two plants that are 08:30 in a different location by themselves. so they're still, they maybe have 10 more blooms, but otherwise everything else has either been  taken to the farmers market or is wrapped in um Saran wrap and in my refrigerator until, and then they'll get doled out into bouquets probably for the next four weeks.  But then that's it.  For anyone who doesn't know the Sarah Bernhardt, Bernhardt? Yeah. um 08:59 peonies are the light, light, light pink. They're like white with a blush of pink. And they're my favorite. I love those. They're wonderful. And for anyone else who does,  and also for some, anyone who doesn't know, that was really bad, sorry. ah What Carrie's talking about with them being in the refrigerator and Saran wrap is that if you pick the  blooms, when the buds feel like a marshmallow, if you gently squeeze them, they feel like a marshmallow. 09:27 you can wrap them, wrap the buds in Saran wrap and put them in your fridge and they will stay good for a while. How long,  do you think they'll stay good? Oh, I've heard people doing it for months, but um I don't have the patience to give up the refrigerator space. Yeah. So,  and then by July,  I have, um I think, 1,200 seedlings  of annual flowers in my yard right now, plus 09:55 you know, 40 by 80 of perennials.  I don't need them after  four weeks. So. Right. Exactly. Cause nothing really blooms  until the end of June versus July around here. Yeah.  Not for focal flowers at least.  No, mean, can use, um, you can use herb flowers. You can use sage and basil. Yes. can grow those, but it's just not the same. Correct. Yep. And I, we have, um, 10:25 uh large plot of flocks that becomes my filler and then as soon as things are  Ready, then we've got  zinnias. I'm not a Dahlia grower I don't think I know a sourdough baker who's also a Dahlia grower Those things are too high maintenance to do together Yes, yes. Yes, you're right. I tried growing Dahlia's two summers ago and they did fine but 10:54 I'm not in love with them. I think there's two kinds of women in the world. There are women who love to grow dahlias  and there are women who don't love to grow dahlias and I'm on the ladder. And I'm with you on that.  just  there is a  the payoff isn't there. I need a I need a two week  vase life before that beautiful bloom that only lasts three days is worth it. Yes. And I grew gladiola is the same year and  again really pretty  lovely. 11:23 Glad I tried it. I'm not growing them again. Yeah, no. No, I'm  by the time the garden is done, I'm ready to put it to bed  and not think about it again until January. So digging up Dahlia tubers is  not on my bingo card. Yes. And then you have to make sure you store them correctly so they don't get all gross. And it's just a thing. And kudos to the people who love to do it, who are obsessed with it. 11:53 Please do it, enjoy it. For sure, don't, admire people who do it. I know that this is not my, not in my skill set or my, not one of my gifts. And not your passion. For sure. For sure. Don't use. that all the time about bread. I can't, I don't know how you do it. Well, I enjoy it, so it isn't work to me. So I think that's how other Dahlia growers, or Dahlia growers feel that they enjoy it. 12:23 Yes, life is too short to put your time into something you don't really enjoy. That's a hobby. For sure.  Absolutely. The other thing that I really noticed this particular spring is that the tulips seemed to last forever. they did. Good observation. We had tulip blooms that bloomed and they were still nice a week later.  I still had color on a bloom um a week and a half ago. 12:52 Which is insane because it's, what, I  don't even know the date. It's the 8th of June. So yeah, that's crazy to have tulips. Considering how warm it was for those days, they should have just  blown out and been done.  yeah, it's been an interesting year.  has. Do you  have any crocuses that come up in the spring?  I would have if the weeds hadn't choked them out.  Okay.  We have a few. We have a couple left that come up. 13:22 And we only had like two or three blooms. That was it.  My hyacinths were that way. And I thought maybe it was weed pressure, but they tend to bloom around the same time as the crocus, if I remember correctly. Yeah.  I don't know. It was a bizarre spring for spring flowers. And I talk about peonies a lot on the podcast because they're my favorite flower. 13:50 So basically mid-May to mid-June is my favorite time of year because peonies.  And I made the mistake of saying to my husband last week, I said, don't cut any peonies yet because I don't want them to come in the house until some, you know, a bunch of them have bloomed.  And then they were already done. I was like, well, I guess I'll have peonies next year.  Oh, shoot. Well, you're not too far from me. I've got some in the fridge.  Yeah, no, it's OK. 14:20 I will live and they were beautiful. Like I could see them from the house and they were gorgeous. So how many plants do you have? I don't know.  Maybe 40. Okay.  Do you do uh the early, the mid and the late season? I don't know because I'm not an expert. I can tell you what I have. Well, I don't know what I have. even know what I have.  I just know that I have the uh 14:50 Okay. Yeah, I don't I don't know. I have the standard standard Bernhards. I have Sarah, whatever it is. I was screwed up.  I have the festival Maximus ones, the big white ones. Pretty. I have the I have coral ones. have the typical burgundy ones.  And I have at least one yellow. And I have  I have what I call  I have what I call Hello Kitty pink, but I don't know what the variety is. 15:19 Yeah, I don't. I know what you're talking about. I don't have that either.  There is a peony farm in Howard Lake. Have you ever been there?  Yes. Yes. They're not doing their peony days this year um because they're  doing some  dividing and replanting. But yes, that is one of our the highlights of our summer is going there and dreaming about having. 15:46 more. We only have, I think we might have 60 plants, but my long-term plan is to double that. 15:55 Yeah, we went there,  God, it's got to be at least 10 years ago, at least. okay.  Yeah.  And I  was just so excited. And my husband does not have the same peony addiction that I do. He does not care. So we went and he was a trooper and he wandered around with me as I wooed and awed over the firework display of peonies that were blooming. Yes. 16:22 We didn't buy any plants. We didn't buy anything because it's the wrong time of year. You have to order them to get them in Nepal. And he was like, are we going to do this every year? And he did not say it in a mean tone of voice. And I looked at him and I said, if I said yes, would you do it? And he said, maybe every other year. And I said, I don't ever have to come back again. It was worth it just to come once. Yep. Yeah. 16:50 And we haven't been back since, because I just was like, whatever peony um roots people want to give me, I will take, and I will just grow a whole field for myself. Yep, yep. It's only 45 minutes from our house, so  it's not. We make a day of it. My oldest daughter is an artist, and she sits off in a field by herself and  draws. And my younger daughter and I go and take his  notes as furiously as we can while we were taking pictures. oh 17:20 because we love it. Alrighty. So we talked a lot about blooms, but we haven't talked about the bakery part of your situation. So  do you do sourdough? Do you do yeast breads? What do you do, Carrie? Well, I started with um quick breads.  So  banana, pumpkin, zucchini.  We grew  our own vegetables for those things.  But then I wanted to learn sourdough. So I spent about six months. 17:49 figuring that out um and then  started selling that. So now I don't do any yeast breads at all. um Everything is sourdough um and  it's really taken off, completely changed our lives. 18:07 So are you using sourdough for like cookies and cakes too, or is it just sourdough bread? We have  a  chocolate chip cookie recipe that has sourdough in it.  And then we also do uh a sourdough muffin, which  tastes like a bakery style muffin, the big jumbo with the dome tops and all the crumble on top. uh And those actually ferment longer than my bread does. uh 18:36 we mix the batter um up to three days ahead of time. the  sourdough will, or the discard, I should say,  will mix with the flour that's added in the recipe. So they're gut friendly as well. Nice. Okay. I gotta know, did you get a sourdough starter when you started this from a friend or did you try making it yourself? Oh, this is a great question. 19:04 So we had been gluten-free for many years and that's  one of the main reasons why we started sourdough so we could  eat better tasting bread.  And I tried to do  a gluten-free starter,  which I was successful in making the starter. I made both starters at the same time,  one with um regular flour and then one with gluten-free flour. um But  because I was so new to sourdough, I wasn't good at either one of them. 19:33 and gluten-free  ingredients are so expensive.  I kind of let that one  fade away.  because  we were able to eat the regular sourdough,  we just kept that one alive. yes, I have been,  I started from scratch, my own  start.  And it's been,  it'll be three years in October that we've managed to keep it alive.  Nice. Yeah. um 20:02 I was trying to avoid sourdough.  I've told the story at least once on the podcast at some point.  I was trying to avoid it because I didn't want to have to deal with it. And a friend of mine brought me some sourdough starter.  And I kept it alive for like two weeks. And I went to move the jar and it slipped out of my hands and hit the floor and the jar broke.  Oh, shoot. There was no recovering it. Yeah, don't want let it start. 20:31 Yeah, no, that would be really awful. So she gave me recipe cards with, you know, how she made the starter and she gave me a starter recipe for something. And I looked at the recipe for how to start sourdough starter. Well, that's a lot of start words in there. Yeah. And I was like, well, I could try making some of my own and I did. And it worked. First time worked. I was like, oh, it's doing the thing crazy. And 21:01 I got it to the point where I could actually make bread with it and I made a loaf and it turned out very bagel-ish. The loaf was like bagel texture. Yeah, and I loved it.  Loved it. Like if I could do exactly the same thing again, I would do it that way because I really like bagel texture.  And I happened to have cream cheese in the refrigerator. Yum. 21:25 It was bagel bread. I was so excited. I didn't care that I would never use it for sandwiches. I was just like, okay, I just learned a way to make bagels without having to make bagels. Right.  And as people say in Minnesota, as people in Minnesota say bagels, it's not bagels, it's bagels.  And a bag is a bag. Who knew? Right. So  I ended up loving it. And then about a week later I made another loaf and it was, it was not quite as undercooked, but it was still really good. 21:55 And I was like, huh, this is too easy. And I kept doing the thing with the sourdough starter because I didn't realize that I could just put it in the fridge when I didn't need to do anything with it. And it was fall and we were bringing produce in from the garden. And as anyone knows who brings in fresh produce into their kitchen, fruit flies absolutely know when you have produce sitting on your counter. 22:26 And I had the lid on the sourdough jar, starter jar, and those little, I would say a bad word, but I'm not going to. Those little buggers managed to get under the rim of the jar and get into the sourdough. And I didn't know. And I came downstairs like two days later and the sourdough had the orangey pinky color to it. And I was like, I'm done. I'm done for now. So I made another starter. 22:56 uh, three months ago  and it has been sitting in my refrigerator. It's been sitting in my  refrigerator for a month now because I was like, oh, I can just put it in the fridge because I'm not going to do anything with  it Um, but the thing that was heartbreaking about the fruit fly situation is just before that happened,  I took a spoon and it was,  I don't know what possessed me, but I was like, I just drug it through the sourdough starter in the jar. 23:25 And it made that crackly noise because of all the bubbles.  Oh, so it's And I was like, oh, it's perfect. It's perfect. And then it was dead two days later.  Yeah, gosh, those fruit flies  are  rough. We keep, we end up just putting produce straight to the fridge so the fruit flies don't even know that it's there. But yeah, it's, it's its own season for sure  when you're bringing in produce. 23:55 oh It is and you really can't put tomatoes in the refrigerator because they get all mealy. Yes. So that was part of the problem. We freeze our tomatoes. So we'll core them and then freeze them immediately so we can process them as we bring them in without having to have  so many pounds to make a batch of something. So I can process four, I can process 40. It doesn't matter. They can get... Yep. 24:25 put in right away because yes, fruit flies are such little devils. 24:32 They are little effers. I wouldn't say the actual word, but they are little effers.  So I learned my lesson the hard way. It was heartbreaking. I was very sad. My husband got home from work and I was still mad about it. And he looked at my face and he said, somebody pissed you off today. said, my sourdough starter  was invaded by fruit flies and I had to throw it out because it got pink mold in it. Yeah, you don't want to risk like your baby. 25:00 He said, you're a baby. You've been tending for months. And I was like, yep, it's dead. It's in the trash.  He was like, do you want to talk about it? I was like, no, I want to forget about it. And he was like, OK, never happened. I'm like, OK, good. So yeah, it will break your heart. And it's so dumb. If you ever want to make one again, um you can let some of it,  you can take a piece of parchment paper and smear some on that. Let it completely dry. 25:29 And then I have probably in three different places in my kitchen bags of emergency sourdough starter. Kind of back up. learned that after, Carrie. I learned it after that. However, I have a question. when I, when I do that, there's no question. It's not an if, it's a when. When I do this again, can I take some of the starter smear it on parchment paper? 25:56 and put it in my oven at the lowest temperature and dry it or does it have to dry, you know, in the air? people use, in Minnesota, if you actually want to sell your sourdough starter, it has to be dehydrated. So um oven on low or an actual dehydrator either or um is a very common and  best practice for  saving starter.  Okay, good to know because we use the 26:24 We use our gas range to dry herbs on the lowest temperature. So I was guessing that the sourdough could be done the same way. Yep, for sure. Perfect. Awesome.  So I'm assuming that you have gotten feedback or reviews on your sourdough breads. What do people think of it? Well,  those reviews are the reason why I keep doing what I do. um Just hearing people say it's the only bread they can eat. It's the 26:52 um only sourdough that they will buy, the best they've ever had. um And that's the beauty of  sourdough is that you can find your audience and your customers.  And that doesn't mean there can't be other bakers in the area because everybody has different preferences. um So we have quite a few sourdough bakers  in our area, um but we all have our own customers  and  it all works out. 27:22 um And it keeps me motivated to uh keep my standards high so people  get what they're expecting. I was actually  unaware that  I should probably be using bread flour um because it's got a higher protein content.  But because I started with all purpose flour,  I  don't want to change because  I don't want to mess with my recipe. 27:51 I, that's the one part of business  that hasn't changed.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Right. There are a million other things that I have changed and streamlined  or dropped because  they weren't  worth it  time or energy wise or resources. um But that recipe that  I  had from the very beginning, um once I perfected that, I just stuck with that. 28:22 Fantastic. Yeah, my dad used to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So yeah, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Right. And even though every recipe comes, always have, so one loaf of bread, I'll always have, you know, a quarter cup extra, which is like 50 grams. Um, and then I multiply  one recipe for me now, one batch  is 25 loaves. And so I always end up with extra, but I don't dare, I'm not changing it. I know how long it takes to ferment. 28:52 And so, yep, it's not broke. I'm not gonna fix it. Good, don't make it exactly the way you've been making it because it works and it's great.  All right, so Carrie, where can people find you online? um I am on Instagram at Bear Country Blooms, um Facebook  under Bear Country Blooms and Bakery. And then I have a website,  just my first and last name. So Carrie Pauly. 29:23 at or KariPauley.com. So C-A-R-R-I-E-P-A-U-L-Y.com. That's where awesome. So if people want to order bread from you, they can? Yes, we bake all year long and we have a pre-order system so people can let me know what they want and then not have to stand in line at the market. They can just come right up to the pre-order window and 29:52 pick up their order. 29:56 Fabulous. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, Carrie. I appreciate it. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Have a great day. Yes, you too.  

Today I'm talking with Matt at The Cottage Foodie. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 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 Matt, at The Cottage Foodie in  Minnesota. I think it's Eden Prairie.  Good morning, Matt. How are you? I'm fantastic, Mary. Fantastic. How are you? I'm good. Are you in Eden Prairie? Yes. Yeah, you got that right. Good. I've talked to a lot of people in Minnesota lately and I was like, I... 00:27 Don't remember where the heck he is. know the conference wasn't even very so.  All right. So Matt's been on the podcast, I think three times already. Might only be two. This might be the third. I'm not sure.  And typically I would ask how the weather is, but I'm guessing you have the same kind of overcast gray, drizzly day we've got going in  Lasur. Yep. Exact same thing.  I think the rain has passed over us and, but yeah, it's, 00:55 It's just kind of a dreary, dreary day so far. So hopefully the sun can break through by this afternoon.  Yeah, we got 1.8 tenths of an inch, 1.8 inches  of rain yesterday between 2.30 and 5 o'clock. Oh wow. That's more than we got here. I  looked at the rain gauge and from uh my front window, I can't see  that anything is in there. So I know I did not get an inch.  Yeah. 01:22 It was sheets of rain coming down yesterday at about 2 40. Um, my husband had gone to have lunch with his dad for his birthday and he drove in just as it started raining sheets of rain. came and he was soaked and we need the rain. You know, I hate to sound like a typical homesteader, but as a homesteader, we need the rain. Yeah, but that's a lot in just a few hours. That is, yeah. 01:51 That is a lot. Luckily, the ground is probably dry enough that it soaked it all up. if that would have been where even the ground was  partially wet, could have been, eh you know, that could cause flooding and things like that. So it's good that we needed it and we got it. Yeah, we have a useless garage and there's a cement pad in front of it. Like we don't use the garage because the doors are broken. It was that way when we moved in  and we were told that it's not even worth fixing it.  And  it's a low spot. 02:21 And every time it rains like that, we say, oh, Lake Lewis is back because that's our last name.  So anyhow, that's the weather report from Minnesota today.  Yes.  And it's going to be super freaking hot tomorrow and Wednesday. So for those of our friends who live in Minnesota, definitely stay hydrated because otherwise you're going to feel like crap tomorrow and Wednesday. 02:49 Yeah. And what are they describing the humidity level? They call it, it's going to be tropical.  So yeah, that with the heat, you're absolutely right.  Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. In the second week of June, it's not supposed to do this until at least the last week of July, as far as I'm concerned. I don't love this at all. This is not my favorite weather. oh So,  um,  you,  I met you because of your Facebook page, Sergeant Shortbread. 03:19 Yes.  Are you still doing shortbread? Yes. Yes, I am. um Sergeant shortbread, much like Matt Rosine, is he's not completely retired like Matt Rosine is. yeah, just slowly.  I don't do a whole lot of posting on my  Sergeant shortbread  social media accounts anymore, a little bit here and there. But uh and I do some uh some some events, farmers markets and things like that here and there. But 03:48 For the most part,  my focus is mainly turned towards um what can I do for the cottage food industry as a whole. So that's kind where my  focus has turned, but I do still take orders. I just did an order  in February, which is my largest order ever.  A company in Chaska, Minnesota ordered 187 dozen cookies and they wanted them  packaged in packs of three cookies per pack. 04:17 Oh my god.  So yeah, that was a big order.  So yep, still doing it, but I think most of the people either know me or they find me through Google now because I just don't do a whole lot on my certain short put  social media like I mentioned. Okay, I gotta know.  187 dozen.  How do you do that? Do  you make a few batches and freeze them and then you'll just keep adding or how do you get that done? 04:48 So  the nice thing with shortbread, course, you can make the dough ahead of time. um You know, they're icebox cookies. So I made the dough the week before  and it just sat in my fridge. And then when it was time to bake,  I  baked, think for three days,  three days straight. It was just nothing but baking and packaging and then delivered them on day four. Cause shortbread cookies,  you know, they stay good for, you know, two, three, four weeks. um 05:17 So yeah, it, yeah, I baked, literally did nothing but baked and packaged for, I think it was two, three days, three days straight, and then delivered them on that fourth day. You must have been so happy to be done with it and have them off your plate. Yes. Yes. And to be honest, one of the worst things, and I've said this from the beginning, one of the worst things that I hate the most about the, I don't want to say, 05:45 you know, doing the shortbread cookies. It's the packaging, putting all the stickers on. You got to put a sticker on the front. You got to put an ingredient label on the back. And so it just seems like it takes forever. And if I was to ever hire somebody, it would be to put the stickers on my packaging and do my dishes. Those would be the two people. So if anybody out there is looking for a job to put stickers on and wash dishes in my home, just let me know. Right there with you. I had to label some soaps last week at the farmers market for this weekend. 06:15 And it was only a few. And the thing that I hate about putting stickers on is I have this thing where I want the stickers to look perfect.  And they're round. They're like  one and a half inch diameter stickers.  And I want them to be centered and I want them to be straight. And it's really hard to do that by hand.  And I was like, nevermind. We are a rustic homestead. They don't have to be perfect.  I agree. 06:42 It sounds like I have the exact same sticker. I think it's a one and a half or between one and a half and two inch round sticker. Oh I gave up on that a long time ago. I'm like, can't. These just have to get on there, make them at least 90 % straight and we're good. Yeah, having OCD with stickering is not a good plan and I don't have it. So that's good. But I do definitely lean toward perfectionism. And if it isn't perfect, it drives me a little nutty. 07:08 So yeah, I get it. Stickering things and not only the process of doing that but the cost of labeling things is just ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I order all my, I order my, my, I do my own ingredient labels. I print those myself, but the, the logo sticker that goes on the front that um I just order that pre-printed and yeah, that, that adds up quickly. 07:33 but you can't not do it because that's how you have marketing right on your product. you've got  to do it. It's so frustrating and so important at the same time. It's just the way it is. okay, now we've got all that.  don't think I ever asked you what prompted your interest in  furthering the cottage food  registration or law. 08:02 thing. Yeah.  So mean, when as I was doing Sergeant Shortbread  and this,  I believe we talked about this last time maybe, but I'll just kind of, this is kind of how part of the whole story, guess, went from Sergeant Shortbread to the directory,  the Cottage Foodie directory, which then of course, led to  Cottage Foodie Con, the conference. um So  the directory, I mean, that's, I thought I saw a need or I found a need. um 08:32 where people were cottage food producers were looking for uh visibility. And so I thought, well, I'm going to create a directory. They can put a profile on there and then I will just do paid Facebook ads for them driving customers to the directory, not necessarily to individual  cottage food producers, but to the directory itself where the consumer could then start shopping for somebody in their local area, for the product that they're looking for and so forth. And so once I 09:01 Once I started that in order to create visibility for myself in front of cottage food producers, I went to Cookie Con in Reno a year ago. So was March of 2025. I went to Cookie Con and had great response at Cookie Con. I had people come up, ranged everywhere from, they came up to me and they're like, I have never heard of you and I have no idea what you do, but tell me what it is that you do. 09:29 I'm interested in  hearing about it. And so I would tell them. And then I had all the way to the other end of the spectrum, people will come up and say, we came here just for you. How do I sign up? And they would sign up right on the spot.  And  so while I was there, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is great. This is just really great visibility, whether they sign up or not. This is just incredible visibility. uh so  then as I was there, I was like, okay, but I need to add, is cookie con is for just decorated sugar cookies. 09:58 And so then I realized, well,  I need to get in front of all of the cottage food producers, regardless of what product. And so that's where I came up with the idea to do the cottage food conference, which  I Googled it and  in-person national in-person cottage food conference had never been done before. The last uh national cottage food conference was a hundred percent virtual and it was in 2023, I believe was the last year. uh 10:26 but it was  100 % virtual.  anybody who knows me knows that  I  am a in-person, I'm a very outgoing type of guy. So I need to see people in person. And so that's why I decided, well, this has to be in person. So let's try to figure this out. uh But yeah, that's how  everything built. But yeah, I guess my passion for just helping grow the cottage food industry is just, I've just been an entrepreneur, I believe, all my life. 10:55 For part of my life, was hidden,  I just always have been an entrepreneur. so I've got a real soft spot for entrepreneurs who are just trying to  do their own thing. And it just so happens that I found a passion for  baking and the food industry. so that's  kind of where the passion for helping grow the cottage food industry came from. Okay. That catches everybody up to right now.  cottage foodie comp. 11:24 The Cottage Foodie Con was back in April and I want to hear how it went. It went fantastic. It was incredible. It was just, I mean, it's almost hard for me to talk about because it just was so great. I can't even figure out words to describe it. yeah, so overall we ended up with 143 11:52 individuals physically walked through the door at the conference and they ranged from 18 different states were in attendance  and even two countries. we had  friends from Canada come down,  cottage foodie friends from Canada wanted to attend. And so uh we had 160 registration, but 143 of them actually showed up.  So it was just, it was amazing. It was two and a half days of just networking. 12:21 and breakout sessions,  a couple of keynote speakers.  And it just the biggest takeaway that  that people were giving us as far as feedback goes, is they couldn't get over how it just felt like almost like they were in their home kitchen with with people all around them. I mean, it was just everybody was there for the same reason. There was no like competitions. There was nobody trying to outdo each other. It literally was just a huge community. 12:50 of like-minded people all in the same building and learning at the same time and sharing stories and networking. it just, yeah, it went fantastic. We're beyond excited how the first one went and of course, how year number two, 2027 is it going to go. Awesome. So my next question is how many of the attendees did you actually get to talk to as the person who was hosting this? 13:20 So  funny thing is, that was my job, was to talk to everybody. So I bet I probably talked to oh probably three-fourths of them. oh that was, uh we knew going into it,  all of my co-organizers, were like, man, you have one job and one job only during this conference. And that is to take your personality and your  outgoing  attitude and you need to just talk to everybody. 13:48 So yeah, think I got to talk to, gosh, probably three fourths of them. 13:55 Awesome. When it was over, did you need two days  to have some quiet and regroup?  I did. I didn't get it, but I did.  after it was all over and we had everything cleaned up from the venue and  we left, four of my co-organizers, they're all from out of state. And so they all had flights to catch and then none of them 14:21 I mean, the earliest one was like four or five in the afternoon. So they were, and we were done by like 1230, one o'clock, I think on Saturday. And so they were like, Hey, you know, we're to go grab lunch. Matt, you want to come with? Absolutely. So we went and grabbed lunch. And while we were there, we all made the commitment. We're like, okay, we were going to take a week off. We're, not going to, we're just going to re just think about everything. We're going to kind of gather our thoughts. We're going to catch our breath. We're going to rejuvenate and then we'll come back a week from Monday and 14:50 jump on our regular column or start we'll start planning 2027. Well, Sunday morning at 8am I got a an email, Matt, what do think of this idea? Super long email about here's an idea for next year. I was like, and I'm available right now if you if you want to hop on the phone. So and that was that was David Crabill who does the the forger podcast emailed me Sunday morning. So so yeah, I got probably about I don't know. 15:20 16 hours to gather my thoughts and catch my breath. it's great. It's awesome. were all, we were just riding high from the whole experience. And then once we started getting feedback, that just threw fuel on the fire because we got great feedback. It was good and bad. There were some things that people want to see different, which that's what we wanted. I would have been 15:46 pretty upset if everybody would just said everything was great don't change anything because that's not true. We have to change something there's no way that it went perfect because we know that it didn't go perfect so um yeah  it's it's exciting we're  ready we're ready to uh we're ready for  for year two.  I am so glad that it was pretty much everything you hoped it would be from what I knew you hoped it would be. um 16:15 I said before we started recording, had two questions.  One was  how many people who attended were brand new  to the cottage food concept? And the second question is how many people were already in cottage food production, but just wanted to learn more?  Yeah. So we  had it broken down to  when they registered, they had to  kind of tell us where they were at in their journey. And so I'd have to 16:45 dig the exact numbers out, but I broke it down by percentage. And I think I remember correctly, it was probably 60 to 70 % were at either three or more years of experience. And then one to three years of experience was another, I think 20%. And then there was maybe a dozen to 15 individuals who hadn't even started yet or. 17:13 for less than one year. yeah, was, the good majority of it was  people who have been doing this for  three or more years. And so  next year, we really want to,  we wanna expand  on um those demographics. So next year, we're gonna be a little bit more um intentional about having specific classes for brand new. 17:40 people who either are looking at the cottage food industry or know they want to do it, but just don't know where to start. So we're going to be more intentional about having a broader variety of classes geared specifically towards the zero experience up to a year of experience. That's awesome. Cause that'll draw new people in. And it's also kind of hard because I'm going to say this, I shouldn't, but I'm going to anyway.  We have had so many,  um, 18:10 little cottage food stands popping up around here, around LaSore.  And I'm really tickled for the people who are doing it. There's one young woman, I don't think she's even 25 yet, and she lives right in town in LaSore, Minnesota. And she has a little shed where she sells her cottage food baked goods.  And she has really good success because she's in town.  People know she's there and they just stop by on their way home from work and pick up goodies or bread for dinner or whatever. 18:40 And that's fabulous. But  I,  my husband and I had this conversation this weekend because he was at the farmer's market  and  it was okay. He sold some things, but it wasn't like a big killer weekend for  money coming in.  And  I said, it because it was so sticky out? Cause it was so muggy this weekend. It was hot. And  he said, I don't know. He said, I think maybe. 19:09 He said, but he said, do you know there's like at least 10 farm stands within a five mile radius of Lesor? Oh my gosh. And I said, no.  And he said, yeah. He said, it's great. He said, I'm glad that people are doing it. He said, but he said, that's a lot. He said, Lesor only has like 6,000 people.  said, our market share is going to be split. 19:39 more this year than it was last year. And I laughed and I said, well, good, my podcast is doing its job, encouraging people to grow their own things and sell it. But it's also bad because other people are growing their own things and selling them. And he just laughed. I guess it's that be careful what you wish for, Adij. You there? Yep. You're kind of cut out. 20:06 I say, guess is that be careful what you wish for adage that we all hear.  exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's yeah. I mean, I think the latest count uh for cottage food producers in Minnesota is fourteen thousand.  And so,  yeah, it's  they're starting to pop up everywhere. And so, yeah,  I just hope that it doesn't end up being like uh like we're seeing with with breweries in Minnesota. There are so many breweries. 20:35 you in the last 10 years or so. now it just seems like every time once a week, I see here's a brewery closing, here's a brewery closing. And so, um so yeah, it's, uh you know, you just you hope that that's not the case in the cottage food world. but um yeah, that's where the cottage food producers in these farm stands, you just you need to figure out a way to differentiate yourself from the next person. Even if you're selling the same products, you got to figure out a way to differentiate, differentiate. eh 21:04 differentiate,  you know, that word. ah You need to stand out.  Yeah, need your stand to stand out.  Yeah, exactly. Okay, so I was looking at your Facebook page today and I saw that there's something very new on the horizon that you weren't at Liberty to talk about a month ago, but you are now. So what is the new thing? ah Well, we just, mean,  with the, what we believed 21:32 as you know, the success of Cottage Food Econ, we wanted to create something and actually  myself and my co-founder, we've been thinking about this for a few months now. It wasn't just like, Cottage Food Econ went great, so let's do this. But we've been actually talking about it for a few months, but just kind of like, okay, let's just focus on Cottage Food Econ right now. Let's get this off the ground and let's get the first one in the books and then we can uh think about  this new venture. um 22:00 So yeah, it's the National Cottage Food Alliance, which it's a nonprofit organization and it's going to be dedicated to uh empowering cottage food producers through education, resources, uh advocacy,  and  just a sense of community, a place for cottage food producers to find that community that they find at Cottage Food Econ, but they're going to be able to have that throughout the year. 22:28 It's a non-profit, so it's going to be set up. We're going to be applying for a 501c6 status, which means we're going to be set up almost identical to a trade association. So it'll be identical to a chamber of commerce. cottage food producers will be able to sign up for memberships. we're in talks with vendors who 22:56 partners and vendors who will offer discounts to our members through whether it's packaging or um online or you know digital marketing  or  Ingredients I'm drawing a blank, you know anything that a cottage food producer that needs as a resource uh So packaging things like that. We're we're in talks with different providers that are going to be willing to partner with us and give discounts to our members so 23:26 Yeah, that's, that is what is,  is, uh is on the horizon. Well, it's not even on the horizon. It's, it started. have, we have incorporated as a nonprofit here in Minnesota. We have our, our board members and  we've already had our first board meeting. So, so yeah, things are moving forward for the Alliance.  So this is your baby. You, you came up with this? Yes.  Good God. 23:55 Yep. Yeah, it's that that was that was my wife's reaction to.  Yeah, it it just I don't know. mean, it just it it just goes to the the passion that I found for the cottage food industry. I'm just looking around like what else can I do? How else can I help? You  know, being retired military, I have the time to  put into this. And so I just keep looking around like what else can I do? How else can I help? What? 24:25 What else do  they need in the cottage food world? I can't do everything. ah But if there is something that I can do, which is, you know, plan a conference where we all can come and learn and network, and then also do a nonprofit where we can help cottage food producers grow in their business through financial resources, you know, education, things like that, then I'm going to do it.  So,  so yeah, it's, it's myself and Lisa He from 24:52 My Custom Bakes and she also owns Borderlands Bakery. She was also one of the uh co-organizers, one of the main co-organizers for Cottage Food Econ. Fabulous. um I have a couple things you can do. You can  educate our state representatives  and senators about it's not going to kill anybody if we're allowed to make buttercream frosting and sell it as cottage food producers. 25:20 And it's probably not going to kill anybody if they let us do cheesecake because I'd really love to sell cheesecake and we can't do that. We're not allowed. And be able to ship outside of Minnesota because apparently it's next year we're going to be able to ship our cottage food goods in Minnesota, but not outside of Minnesota. Yeah. I believe August of 2027 is when that is scheduled to go into effect. yeah. 25:49 It's just in Minnesota. So that's great. That's a great first step. And we're thankful for that first step because, you know, we can't we just sometimes it takes baby steps, but it just I don't know in my in my brain in my mind, it doesn't if we can ship in Minnesota, why can't we ship to South Dakota and California? What's the difference? Uh huh. I know I've talked about it like seven times in the last year. Yeah. On the podcast, because it's so frustrating to me. I'm like, it's all about knowing 26:19 where the food leaves from  the cottage food producer to where it ends up so that it can be tracked if someone does by some chance come down sick.  Well, if we're shipping,  that's why the US Postal Service has tracking numbers. oh It drives me insane. And I was talking to somebody about this. It might have been Stephanie.  Can't think of her name, her last name. 26:49 She has a radio show. think she was one of the people at your college. Yep. Stephanie Hansen. Yeah. I was talking with her and we were talking about it. And I said, it's so unbelievably frustrating that two years ago someone said, I'd like to buy your granola, but I am up in Detroit lakes or wherever. And I said, that's not, I mean, thank you, but I can't ship. 27:17 And she said, what? And I said, I  can't legally ship it to you. oh I said, I can ship it to you as a gift.  said, but I can't sell it to you that way. oh she was like, why? I said, ask our legislature because they're the ones that say so. And she was like, oh, my friend brought me some from the farmer's market, from your booth. And I loved it. And I said, I can give you the recipe. It's really simple. I know you can make it.  And she said, 27:47 I'm not a cook. And that was pretty much the end of the story. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. I just had an order. um A company in St. Louis Park ordered cookies for their office here in St. Louis Park. But also they  said, you know, can you ship three dozen? I think it was three to two or three dozen to our office in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.  for sure. A, I'm definitely not going to deliver that. So  just. 28:15 But I said, and I can't, I can't ship I don't have because I don't have my wholesale license anymore. I let that expire and I'm not in the commercial kitchen anymore. So I'm totally out of my home. And so said, I can't do that. But what I did is so then I, I said, you know, I can do one or two things, I can either refund you for, you know, that part of the order, or I can bring those and give those, you know, I can include them on the order that's going to your office in St. Louis Park. She's like, yeah, just included in the order that's going to St. Louis Park. 28:43 And um then I'll ship them from here up to Thief River Falls. So oh what I did was I brought them the box that I would use because it  was a standard size box that  I would ship those if I was shipping, when I was shipping. I brought the box, I brought the packing material,  and  I brought it to them. It was still, it was unopened. said, 29:08 If you want to ship these to Thief River Falls, here's the box and here's the packing material that I would use if I was going to be shipping them.  But I can't legally ship it or box it up for you. But here's the box and the packing material. And so just that little, that little extra customer service is going to go a long way. They're going to remember that I  went above and beyond like that and  brought that to them. So then all they to do was drop the box in there, slap a label on it, and then they could deliver to the post office. 29:37 YouTube found a great workaround. Yeah.  Oh,  it's so maddening.  I just, I do not know when  people are going to learn that when they're in positions of power and they're making a decision for the rest of the people, they might want to research how things work  and define  why  it's not unsafe to do the thing that we want to do. Yeah. 30:08 But that requires research and time.  I actually talked with um Brad Tabke back a month or so ago. He's  the rep for Shakopee Area.  And it was  just  after  all the stuff had gone down with ICE in Minneapolis. I talked with him  off record. 30:35 And I'm not going to go into big detail because it was off the record. Yeah. He was so tired. He and all of our representatives were just so tired because they've been dealing with all of this for over a month, over two months, think.  And I just told him, said, Brad, said,  I refuse to identify as Republican or Democrat. I'm just a person. I said, and  I appreciate all the work you guys do. 31:04 So thank you. And there was this very long pause. And I was like, Oh God, did I offend him? know, he was like, Mary, thank you. He said, we're doing the absolute best we can in a really terrible situation. And I was like, I know you are. Thank you. So, so I don't want to, I don't want to bad mouth our government, but 31:29 I feel like so many people are so far removed from the basic life skills of like, you know, cooking, or growing a plant,  or keeping a chicken, that they don't understand  what it is they're saying has to be true. Yeah. Yes. It's hard.  But anyway, I'm so thrilled that you came to talk with me about the Cottage FoodieCon experience. 31:57 and this new alliance that you're developing as we speak. And I will keep my eyes open on Facebook so I can see what's happening there. is the information for the alliance going to be on the Cottage Foodie website or is it going to be a website of its own? It's going to be a website all itself, all its own. So yeah, it's completely separate. It's not... 32:23 associated in any way really with the Cottage Foodie the directory. This is completely separate. mean the Cottage Foodie is for profit. The  Alliance, the National Cottage Food Alliance is a non-profit so they are completely 100 % separate. uh And so yeah, so the website and it's still in development. I think we just have a home page right now just doing newsletter  sign up and things.  It's  ncf-alliance.org. 32:53 Okay. Awesome.  And where else can people find you online, Matt? Social media, of course, uh Facebook and Instagram. It's Cottage FoodieCon on both uh Instagram and Facebook.  Now, NCF Alliance  is on uh Instagram and Facebook as well.  yeah, the Cottage Foodie is on both. Sergeant Shortbread is on both. So yeah, if you can't find me, then... 33:23 You're not looking in the right place.  Then you're, then you're looking on, um, Twitter cause I'm not on Twitter.  so you won't find me on Twitter. So anybody's on Twitter slash X anymore. Oh yeah, that's right. It's X now. See, that's, that's how much I, that's how much I follow up with that. I know, I know about that, but yeah, that's,  I would say the best, the best place to reach me is either  through the new NCF Alliance on Facebook and Instagram or, uh, cottage food icon  on Facebook and,  um, 33:53 Instagram. Okay, fantastic.  Again,  so thrilled we got to talk about this. I've been thinking about it since you said yes.  Yes, well thank you for having me and  I'm sorry that it took so long but I was kind of uh pushing it off a little bit because I really wanted to  be able to tell you about this and we'll do a big announcement. I I  did put it on  social media but this is another great way to kind of do the big reveal. 34:21 kind of pushing you off just a little bit. And plus I was in Texas for a while to see our son before he deployed overseas. So there was a few things going on, but thank you so much for having me. Always, always a pleasure and always have fun visiting with you, Mary. So thank you so much for having me on again.  Absolutely. And I will have you back again, I'm sure, because we're really fun to talk to and listen to.  As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com.  Have a great day, Matt. Thanks, Mary. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Christi at Tee’s Kitchen. 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 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 Christi at Tee's Kitchen in...  Oh no, I forget. Where are you Christi?  I am in South Louisiana. So I live just south of Lafayette. Yeah. was thinking for some reason, Missouri popped in. like, no, she's not that close to me. I know she's not.  If you were, would come see you.  I know, right? 00:29 Yeah, Christi's been a guest on the podcast twice already and I absolutely love her voice and her accent. She is just the sweetest sounding woman I've ever heard. So welcome, Christi. How are you? Thank you so much. I'm doing great. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Louisiana? The weather is hot. It's getting hot. it's like the heat index is like 85, I believe. 00:57 This week we're getting a lot of rain, but it doesn't really cool everything off. It just kind of steams things, if you know what I mean. I do. Minnesota has been very, very hot for, well, it's now June 2nd or 3rd. June 3rd. Something like that. Close enough. But the last two weeks of May were kind of a little warmer than we would like it to be. It's supposed to be 84 for the high today. Oh, really? But we don't have the humidity. 01:27 Building yet. Thank God right right. It's the humidity that makes everything so  So gross yeah, so gross. Yeah, I don't even know so gross  Yeah, when you step outside and it feels like you're walking through a mist it's not a great feeling  No,  it's not Now if you're in Maine at the ocean and you get up in the morning with your warm cup of coffee and step outside And the air feels like mist  it's because it's mist coming off the ocean 01:54 And that's a beautiful feeling, but that's a great thing. Sticky grossness is not okay.  Um, it is sunny here. My panties are blooming like crazy. My whole driveway, the edge of the side of my driveway looks just beautiful right now with all the pinks and corals  and burgundies and whites. It's my favorite time of year. How gorgeous. Oh, I'm going to have to go check out some pictures on that.  It is beautiful. I've posted a few. 02:22 I will post I'm going to have to check that out. Oh, I bet it's so pretty. We have our summer garden going and like I'm friends with some people, you know, through TikTok and all that. And they'll message me and say, I cannot believe you already have cucumbers and tomatoes. And yeah, we've been in full swing for a while. So that's always nice. Those summer gardens, know? Yes. Yes. And you get them so much. You get produce so much earlier than we do up here in the North. Yeah. 02:49 So when did you plant your tomatoes and cucumbers for this year, this season? Well, I say we. I am more like the supervisor. Yeah, me too. I'm a brown duck. So my husband planted, gosh, it pretty early March, I believe. We usually plant around Mardi Gras, but we planted a little later this year because for some reason it stayed cooler. 03:16 a little bit longer. So I think it was March, maybe late March that he planted. Um, and yeah, that's his thing. I just reap the benefits from it. Yeah. My husband is the gardener too. And I never take credit for actually anything that's the gardening.  I take credit for cooking the things that he brings in from the garden.  Exactly.  And we are,  yeah, we're about two months behind you. My husband started planting, I think, 03:44 the first weekend in May.  And our tomato plants are looking real sad. They've got the early blight. It's the first time this has ever happened to us.  Oh.  So he's trying to figure out what to do to  cure them. And  he hasn't quite figured it out yet. And I'm afraid that by the time he does figure out how to save them, there won't be anything safe or saving. I don't know yet. 04:08 Oh, my no, my husband went and picked  a few tomatoes from the garden and he picked them early because they had holes in some of them.  So we just put them on the window sill. That's all you can do. And it's better than, you know, them just sitting there and  rotting, you know. Yes.  Yes. And we're used to the blight that comes at the end of the season. That's fine. Yeah. But we've never had early blight before. And the saddest part is that there's over 100 tomato plants in the garden that are sick with this. Yeah. 04:38 So we don't know how that's going to go. Luckily he still had some plants in the greenhouse, so he planted those and he made sure that the bottom leaves were off of them, so not touching the ground. that's nice. So maybe we'll have some to eat. I hope so. Yeah, this gardening thing is a crapshoot. It is literally gambling. It is. Last year I feel like his garden didn't do as well and then this year it seems to be doing great, but 05:07 Here it only lasts for a little while and then the bugs just completely take over, you know? Yeah. Gardening is like, it's so good for your soul, but when things don't go right, it's painful. Yeah. All that hard work and I really feel bad.  I feel for him, you know, because he puts so much work into it. 05:31 But he did downsize a little bit.  Normally we do a much bigger garden and this year he was like, I'm only gonna plant.  I'm  not gonna do so much this year.  And it's working out good so far. Good, I am very happy for you and I'm very envious that you get to pick tomatoes and cucumbers right now. I  would  love some tomatoes mixed with garlic, some mozzarella cheese, and some basil, and some olive oil, and some... 06:00 balsamic vinegar or toasted bread.  That would be lovely. I actually had that this morning, like right before we  came on. I fixed avocado toast and then I sliced some of those tomatoes on top and did, um like I put some garlic butter seasoning and what else did I put? Oh, I did a little salt and pepper and then I love hot honey. I'm into hot honey. And then I also put a little drizzle of balsamic glaze and man, it was so good. 06:28 Yeah, I have to acquire some things to make the thing I just explained and I can't think of name of that this morning either. Bruschetta.  I'm getting to the point where I haven't had it in probably four or five months and I'm like, know, bruschetta sounds really good.  I posted a...  We always have an abundance of basil, so I make basil oil, which is, you know, most people comment and they say, that's pesto. It's really not because it doesn't have... 06:58 pine nuts and it doesn't have the Parmesan cheese, but I make a basil oil and we just, I'll make homemade bread and we dip that in there, but I'll also make,  I use it for my caprese salad. So I'll do the fresh uh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and then that basil oil. then if I, sometimes I put balsamic vinegar and sometimes I don't, but I just did a video on it and made myself hungry again for it. 07:24 When you make the basil oil, it olive oil and basil leaves or how do do it? Yeah, it's olive oil, basil leaves, you put a little bit of  garlic, a small amount of water. It's pretty simple, you know.  Do you crush the basil leaves so the oils come out? Yeah, I blend it all up. Okay. That sounds fabulous. We might have to do that. We have some really nice basil growing this year, so we're going to have enough to do some fun things with it. 07:53 Yeah, always uh one year I gave it as like a gift and I made  homemade bread and I with a  little jar of the basil oil and  I gave it to some teacher friends and  they still request it, you know. Yeah, that's the danger of sharing your creations with people because  you think you're making it for them once and then they come back and they're like, do have any more of that? oh That's when you turn into a business. Yeah. 08:20 Well, fun fact, I used to do that. used to run a little small bakery out of my home. Oh, okay. Yeah, but it just, got to be too much, you know, because we have a camp in Pecan Island and so people would request cakes and things on the weekends and I wanted to go to the camp. So we just cut that out, but maybe one day I'll get back into it again. You just reminded me, I was supposed to do this a week ago. I need to renew my 08:50 cottage food registration because I live in Minnesota and uh I wanted to make granola for the farmers markets this year and I can't sell it without that registration.  Oh,  I need to get that done. I need to go look that up today because I forgot all about it completely because the world is a crazy place right now and it's really easy to get distracted. It's true.  Man, I love a good farmers market.  Yeah, the first one is this Saturday. 09:20 And I don't go because I am really shy and I really hate sitting in the sun.  I do not love being hot. So my husband actually loves being social. He loves  selling stuff. So he'll be going on Saturdays to downtown Lesor, city of  six, seven thousand people maybe. Well, that works out that you can get him to do it. Yeah. He loves it. It just fills his cup so much and he's made such good friends. 09:48 With the vendors that are there. It's so fun for him.  Oh nice,  but we should have some  Lettices for sale we'll have of lip balms and some candles and some  cold processed lye soap that we make  and  Maybe some peony blooms that that's all  for sale. So  I just I just love a good farmers market. That sounds fun 10:18 I love a good farmer's market where they have food, but they also have things.  There's a guy at our farmer's market that makes jewelry  and he makes the most unusual things. And looking at them, I would be like, what would I wear that with? um And I don't ever buy any of it because I don't really go out, so I'm not going to buy jewelry. 10:45 But it's just so interesting to see the creativity that people have and how they express it.  I know. I love that. I love helping  small businesses or just local, just people that make things with their hands. I'm so intrigued by that. And I always  say, I'm a sucker. I have to go with tons of money because I  fall in love with everything and I fall in love with their story and I just want to buy their stuff and I want to share it and help them.  Yeah. uh 11:14 There's a lady that sells  baked goods and she makes these little silver dollar sized lemon cookies. ah And my husband brought them home to me last summer once and there were six little silver dollar cookies in a baggie. And I said, honey. And he said, what? And I said, can I just eat these? Can I just have these? Like, do you want one before they're gone? Because I love lemon, they're going to be gone. Right. Act now. 11:42 And he said, well, yeah, you can have them. He said, I know you love lemon. That's why I got them for you. And I ate three right then and they were so good with a glass of cold milk. And I had to force myself to wait till the next day to eat the other three, because I really wanted to eat the other three right away. know I have zero self-control with sweets. I'm sorry. 12:08 No, anything lemon I'm just done for. I love sweet lemon. um So refreshing in the summer too.  I was going to say they have a Formers Market here that's really popular and  it's in Delcum. It's right on the water. So um the shrimpers will come  and you can buy shrimp right off the boat.  It's the coolest thing. I love it. So  they call it the Delcum Seafood and Formers Market. 12:36 So it's mostly like people just go with their ice chest and go meet the boats and they'll just load up on fresh shrimp or whatever, like crabs and just it's amazing. They have great, great things over there.  because I am terrible at geography,  your  ocean as it were,  is um the Gulf of Mexico ocean? Yes.  Yes. So is that Atlantic? Is that part of Atlantic or part of Pacific? Do you know? 13:06 I don't know.  I don't know either.  I mean, I don't know. It's the Gulf of Mexico.  I don't  really know. I guess it would be Atlantic.  Now I feel really dumb.  I don't because there's just so much to know in the world. You can't know everything. um The reason I ask is because you guys, do they have like the little bitty shrimps up to the big prawns or is there a specific kind of shrimp that you get? They have different sizes.  I mean, they'll catch 13:36 They'll catch,  you know, it just depends on what size you want. But, um, yeah, I mean,  there's all sizes.  Must be nice. I know, I know. I've worn loxanam. I don't get good seafood in Minnesota anywhere.  And we, um, my favorite is soft shell crabs.  Um, and so sometimes if you get lucky, they'll sell those.  Oh man, it's just, it's awesome. I love, I love,  and I enjoy peeling shrimp. 14:05 Like some people just, it's like therapeutic for me. So I love just getting fresh shrimp off the boat and  coming home and peeling it and vacuum sealing it and putting it in the freezer, you know? You go into the zone of creativity.  Yes. Yes. You don't think about anything else.  That's the best part of  food prep and of actually cooking.  And we talked about that last time. um So  one of the things that's great about seafood 14:32 And  people who live in the Midwest will not know this.  It's so easy. It's so easy to cook it because mostly you boil seafood. Yeah. And then you just peel the shell off and eat the meat. And it's so good just like that.  But there are so many things you can do with it too. And I just laugh because I used to hate seafood. I grew up in Maine. I hated seafood. I hated fish. 15:02 The only fish I would eat, my dad used to go fishing and he would bring home these great big bass. Yeah. And he would cut the head off and he would scale it and  obviously take the egg out of the inside,  gut the fish. I don't know what they call it, clean the fish. Yeah. And then he would put um stove top stuffing  in like a Dutch oven pan. He put it around the edge. 15:29 And then he put the fish right in the middle of the stuffing and he put salt and pepper on it and he'd bake it for however long it took to be done. And that was the  only fish I would eat. m just sitting here talking about it, my mouth is literally watering.  And we went home when my youngest was probably  10 and... 15:55 youngest wanted to catch a bass because this was a big deal. He Grampy was going bass fishing. Yeah. And I said to my son, said, if you catch a bass, I said, talk Grampy and he'll let you bring it home and he'll cook it. And the reason I said, talk Grampy into keeping it is because my dad started doing the catch and release on bass when I was probably 25 and well moved out of my, parents' house. And my dad doesn't like to keep bass anymore. So, um, they get home and 16:25 I said, do you have any luck? And Cameron says, I caught a five pound bass, mom. And looked at my dad and I said, is it in the cooler? And he said, sweetheart, it is. He said, and we're having big bass tonight. I almost cried. Like I had tears in my eyes because he does not do that anymore. So it was special just for me. And this is the thing about food that's so interesting because 16:55 I'm sitting here thinking about this tearing up and food brings back so much to your feelings. I know it does. It does. And it's why I love talking to people like you who have the same experience.  I know it's  and that's you know kind of why I started like the Tea's Kitchen thing. It's because you know my dad had passed away and my mom was sick with  dementia and which she passed away last year but oh 17:25 I have both of them are gone and my mom was an amazing cook. My grandmothers were amazing cooks. And it's like  that sort of, when I make things like that, it sort of brings part of them back, you know? And it, um it like stirs up memories in you. And sometimes when  I share certain recipes, I'll get people that'll say, um man, you know, this, haven't had this in years. This reminds me of my grandma. 17:50 One of the nicest messages I ever got was from this lady and she said my husband and I used to cook together It was our thing and she's like we would watch your videos and we would make your recipes and we would you watch them together and then we would cook together and she said you know, he recently passed away and so it's when I watch your videos like it makes me think of him and it's keeping his memory alive and I just want to thank you and I Mean that just touched my heart. It's like something so 18:19 that you think so simple as food can just really,  really do something special for people, you know? Yeah. Well, I feel like food is like music. You know, when you hear a song that you listen to with someone that you really cared about, it brings them back. If you make food that you shared with someone you love or they taught you to make it, it brings them back. Yep. So music and food are tied together. Right. Right. 18:50 You know, and food is, it involves all five-year senses. So, you know, that's why it's, so strong. Like those food memories are so strong.  Um,  so, you know, it makes sense.  Yeah.  And I'm going to say it for the billionth time. I swear, if you don't know how to cook, you really need to learn how to cook for many, many, many reasons beyond being able to feed yourself. Yeah. There is so much. 19:18 satisfaction in learning to make something from actual ingredients, not just sticking it, you taking the ingredients out of a box and putting it in the microwave. Yeah. Yeah. It just, I don't know. That's how  I always say that. That's how I show my love. I cook for people, you know? Yeah. And I'm not saying don't make something from a can if you're not feeling good and you need, if you need Campbell's soup and a can of ginger ale to not feel sick. 19:48 go for it. Yeah. But if you make homemade chicken soup when you feel good and you have some in the freezer, that's probably going to make you feel way better than Campbell's soup from the start.  absolutely.  I know my husband had a bad cold a couple of weeks ago and  I was like, what do you want? Chicken noodle soup. I'm like, okay. So I made  homemade chicken noodle soup and he's like, man, it's just,  I mean, it's like the cure all, you know? um 20:15 Someone's sick, someone passes away,  that's the thing you think to cook. oh My mother-in-law recently wrote, she was like,  I'm so hungry for eggplant dressing. And so  I made that for her and sent it over. um That's just how I show my love. Yes, and I think anyone who loves to cook probably does the same thing. I've done it all my life since I learned to cook in my mid-20s. Yeah. It's not for everybody. Some people say, 20:43 I really hate cooking and understand that because there's things that I hate doing too, you know, so, but I just, can't relate to it because I just love it so much. Yeah. I was a late bloomer cooker. I, I just didn't, I didn't really cook until I hit 25, 26. Yeah. And then I was just like, I don't know. I kind of want to learn how to do some of this stuff. Mostly because I went, you know, when I would go to restaurants, I would try something new and I really liked it. 21:12 But I knew that I wasn't going be able to afford to go to that restaurant all the time to get the thing I liked. And I was like, if they can make it, I can make it. That's probably what started it. Right. I know. And it's just, you know, you have to be nowadays, you have to be self-sufficient. You have to figure out how to take care of yourself, you know? Yeah. Especially with the cost of food. Oh my god. That too. 21:40 You know, was telling my, we went on a little small vacation and I told my husband, I'm like,  and I'm not saying that like to brag or anything, but I just feel for some reason now that I'm, we cook so much at our house. And I mean, my husband and,  and the boys are, they hunt and they fish. So we have our own meat and all this, we grow our own garden.  And so now when we go  eat at a restaurant, I'm like, it's good, but I don't enjoy it as much as I do whenever I'm at home. I just prefer eating at home. 22:10 I don't know why.  The first time I made something, the first time I made something that I had had at a restaurant and I did it right and I added the things I wanted to do to it and had it.  When I had that again at a restaurant, my first thought and I felt so snobby was I can, I've made this better. I can make this better than they do.  Yeah. 22:35 I thought, man, how arrogant is that? And then I thought if it's not true, if it's true, it's probably not arrogant. know.  And I do. feel bad saying that, I'm just, I don't know.  They just can't get that home cooking right.  Nothing beats home cooking. And  I don't know if it's just because things are different.  I'm to the point now where we have deer meat and so  I don't really eat beef. And so now when we eat ground beef, I'm like, 23:05 I feel like they're adding stuff to this because this doesn't  taste the same. don't know. just, it's just, I guess we've become accustomed to just eating at home and I just enjoy it so much more, you know? Yeah. And you're not wrong. Ground beef does taste different in the last year or two.  I don't. watery. Do you find that? I just don't like it. don't like how it tastes anymore. No, we went to the store and bought that. I don't know why. I think we didn't have time to defrost the deer. 23:33 The deer ground beef that our deer ground meat that we had in the freezer  and I was like, it's really watery. I don't know Yeah, I'm adding filler to it or something. I don't know what they're doing. But I do know that if we have beef from  like If we were gonna buy a half or a quarter beef from a local farmer Mm-hmm, know butchered  that ground beef is fine.  Oh, yeah 24:00 But the ground beef we buy at the store, I'm just like, God, how can you still eat this honey?  know.  When we were younger, my dad and my grandfather raised cattle. so we always just kind of growing up,  we would slaughter our own calf, you know, and  I grew up eating that until, you know, my dad was a deer hunter and my husband's a deer hunter. And now we have, we use that in place of the beef, you know, but I don't know, I guess we've just got, we're spoiled. 24:29 Yes, you're fortunate. You're  fortunate.  So we were going to talk about uh cold foods for summer eating and you said you had a couple new ideas. So let's get those in. What were your new ideas for cold foods?  Well, I guess just, okay, so we were talking about, I know last time we talked about beating the heat and things just get, it gets so hot. And so to heat up your oven and your stove when it's really hot here is just unbearable.  But um I don't know if 24:58 You have one like this, but I feel like for us,  I have this little electric griddle that we just plug in.  Do you have one like that?  I don't right now, but my mom had one when I was growing up. I know what you're talking about. And I feel like it just, it saves me so much. And I went thrifting the other day and cause my son, m oldest son just got a job and he travels a lot and he stays in hotels and stuff. And I bought one for him. 25:24 And he's like, mom, it's so nice. I can just plug it in and grill burgers or whatever he wants, you know? But um I feel like that helps to not heat up the oven and stuff. also use my air fryer a lot. um But I was going to say, like, we do a lot of, I love like a cold pasta salad.  Me too. Yeah. And I mean, you can even get like a rotisserie chicken from 25:47 from the store and  use that instead of heating up any. I mean, you can just make it completely that way and not have to heat up the stove or anything.  But yeah, pasta salads and um quick sheet pan meals. I know you have to heat up the oven, but you're only heating up the oven, you know? And it's quick. So we do a lot of sheet pan meals and um use a lot of the fresh vegetables and make salads. And I don't know, that just helps. um We also do this too. 26:16 I don't know if you ever make this. call it spa water, but I think some people don't know what that means.  like, you know, if you go to a fancy spa to get a massage, they always have this fancy water or they have it in hotels.  The cucumber water. Yes. So we just slice up cucumbers  and mint from the garden if I have it, but you could leave that out. I do cucumbers, mint  and  lemon, like slices of lemon.  And I just put it in a pitcher, fill it up with water and we drink that throughout the summer and we all love it. 26:46 And for some reason, I feel like it's a little more hydrating than just water, you know?  It's also really good if you just, if you have just a little bit left in the pitcher, not enough to get a glass,  pour it over your hands and splash it on your face. That's all good for your skin. Yeah, that's one. know  we, uh, the guys are,  we have a fishing tournament that we do every year. It's this weekend. 27:09 It's fishing for memories and it's like to raise money for  Alzheimer's. And so the guys participate in it every year and they usually end up placing or whatever.  And so um I have a, we'll do ice chests and we'll put  Florida water in it  and those cooling towels and they'll bring it with them on the boat. And it just, it's so refreshing, but the lemon would be, the lemon and the cucumber would be a really good idea for them to do. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. um 27:37 Did you know you can do watermelon water? Watermelon? No, but I'm sure it's delicious. Yeah. All you gotta do is take some chunked up watermelon and put it in a food processor or a ninja or whatever thing you have and you spin it. And it makes like a chunky liquid. And that sounds disgusting, but just bear with me. If you want to put it through a strainer, you can, but you don't have to. 28:07 You do half water, half that, half the smushed up watermelon, and  it's so good cold.  Yum. That's kind of how I make a watermelon martini.  I mean, that's not exactly hydrating, but you um Well, if you just hold the booze, it'll be very hydrating.  No, the guys sometimes they'll do that too. oh We make like watermelon balls. 28:34 and put it in a Ziploc bag and they stick that in their ice chest and it's hydrating when they're out on the water like that, you know? Yeah, watermelon is the unsung hero  of the melon group because it's so good for you  and you can eat a whole one if you want. You'll probably be sorry the next day. Yeah. But you can eat as much watermelon as you want and you won't gain a pound. Wow. Yeah. Because it's sweet, but it's not it's not processed sugar. It's actually really good for you. 29:04 Yeah, yeah.  So.  Yeah.  Yeah, I was so excited when I when I when you said you were going talk to me today, because I was like, yeah, we can talk about summer food. And then I went back and listened to the last episode and I was like,  we already talked about summer food last summer.  Damn it. It's OK. It's OK.  I just I get so caught up in what I'm thinking that I have to go back and listen if it's a guest I've had before. 29:31 I'm like, I don't want to do the same episode twice because nobody's gonna listen to it again. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's different things you can come up with, you know, there's always something new to talk about.  I tell you what I've been loving is  my husband bought me a cooling pillow for Mother's Day. uh Oh, wow.  He knows me so well. You know, I'm in my late 40s, so I get hot.  I have a  cooling blanket on my bed and I use that every night and it's just amazing. um 30:00 And so, yeah, that's what he bought me from, or one of the gifts that he bought me from Mother's Day was a cooling pillow. I'm like, this is genius. I love it. So does it, I don't know anything about these. Does it have a thing inside of it that keeps it cool? Is that how it works? um I'm assuming that's how it works. ah On this one, I don't know if they're all the same, but on this one, that one side of the pillow is cool. You can flip it to the other side and both sides are like really soft, but 30:28 oh Yeah, the cooling side when you touch it, it feels really cool.  I May have to look into that because I am NOT in my mid 40s. I'm in my mid 50s  So I am I am over the hump as it were  But I do sometimes I wake up in the middle of night and I'm like god, it's so hot Mm-hmm. I hate this. So yeah, I'll have to look into that because that might help It's it's definitely worth it. And then now everybody wants the pillow. So 30:57 We may have to order more. you have any idea of what price point they are?  Oh gosh, I don't even know. I have no clue  where he bought it or anything. I can maybe find out and I'll send it to you. Okay. worth it. And then this cooling blanket is worth it too. Now this,  it was a brand last year that reached out to me and said, hey, we want to send this to you  to try. And I was like, yes, absolutely. And it's  amazing. 31:25 It's kind of thin and I mean over here, we, just can't have thick blankets. I love, I admire all the ladies that have the beautifully made beds with all the pillows and all the blankets. We can't do that here. No, you'll be a puddle in the morning. Yeah, no, we're not doing that. Yeah. Isn't it exciting when a brand reaches out to you? had that happen last week and I'm waiting on some, some deodorant samples from a company called Pretty Frank is the name of the company. 31:54 Oh,  it's nice. I'm kind of picky about who, you know,  it just depends on what the terms are because some things I'm like,  if it's I'm not a beauty influencer and I'll get that all the time and I'm just like, this just doesn't fit with my audience. Nobody.  No, I mean, that's not my people, you know,  but are like sometimes they'll offer to send it and then it's like,  oh, and you also  have to give us all the rights to the video and you have to do all these crazy things. I'm like, 32:22 ah No, thanks. That's not worth it for a  $20 product, you know? Yeah, no. about what it is, but if it's something really cool and it fits the brand, you know, fits what I'm all about, I'm like, oh yeah, I want to try that. Yeah, they emailed me and I thought it was, I'm going to  tell the truth here, I thought I was getting scammed because no one ever has emailed me out of the blue. 32:48 It is. It's you have to be careful, you know? Yep. So I went and locked him up and I rolled back and I was like, um. 32:57 Yeah.  And the person said, can we schedule a phone call? And I was like, okay, yes, a phone call would be great because then I can get a feel.  Right. And they were telling me all about this deodorant and it is all natural. They have, um, they have a baking soda recipe and a no baking soda recipe because some people have, they have a skin reaction to baking soda. Yeah.  And telling me all about this product. And I was like, 33:25 Yeah, I would love to try this and yes, I would love to promote this. This is fantastic. Yeah. So, but I don't want to promote it, promote it. I want to say this is great until I try it. Right. But I the concept. That's usually what I'll tell them too. Like I'm happy, you know, they'll say, we'd love to send this for you to try. And if you feel like it's a good fit, you know, you can share and tag us or whatever. And I'm like, absolutely. But if they, you know, 33:51 and I haven't even tried it, I just feel weird about sharing something with someone if I don't truly love it, you know? um And I tell that to people that, you know, like my little community, I'm like, if I share it, it's because I've tried it and I really like it. I'm not gonna share something that I don't like, you know? And if it's like local, even better. I love supporting like our little local community and all the Cajun products and stuff like that. That's like my thing, you know? Yeah. 34:20 And the thing is in social media or digital marketing or whatever the heck they're calling it now, I swear what you and I do has had at least eight different names in the last five years.  The things that you start with are your voice and your integrity. Yeah.  And if you lose your integrity, you won't be  using your voice anymore because people won't listen. Exactly. Exactly. I know I have to be authentic to myself, you know. 34:48 Yes, I did. don't know if you watched, I think since the last time we talked, I started this  Let's Rode series. Have you seen it on my  page? I don't know because I see you and I watch stuff, but I'm not necessarily like paying attention closely. So what is it? Well, I haven't shared it in it's been a while, but like that's something that I started. And man, has speaking of like authenticity and stuff. It just has brought me so much joy and it's so I think that's what connects. 35:18 People is like whenever you share something that you really love or you're really passionate about and people can sense that, know? oh But like my following has grown so much since I started that. And what it was is just oh like when my grandmother, so my grandmother would always say, let's go Rode. And so it's like the Cajun French word for like just  going around town, riding around, going all over, you know? And she would say that, oh, let's go Rode. And so  I was on my stories one day and I said, 35:47 I don't know if y'all have this, but this might sound cheesy, but I have a bucket list on my phone and it's all places like in Louisiana that I want to go to.  And if I find a place, I'll just put it on my phone. And I said, I want to start, I'd love to start a series where I just go to these places and people just flocked to it and they were like, yes, yes,  I love that idea. And so I came up with the name. I was like, how about we call it let's road eight. And so I started this series and that's what I'll do. I'll like, 36:15 go to places on my Louisiana bucket list. So it's usually like I'll visit a town and I'll go to their coffee shop or their if they have a local thrift shop or antique store. um Like I'll try their a restaurant or if they have something that's like a museum or um I'll go to visit  if they have a grotto or something or a cool chapel. I'll go and I'll visit these places  and 36:42 People have just loved it so much. Now, I mean, I'm a teacher. So once school is in, I don't have as much free time to do it.  But usually in the summer, you know, like this summer, I'll ramp it up again and start doing it. But that has just been such a cool thing. Like it's evolved so much and so many people and so many businesses have said, oh, wow, you brought so many people to our shop. And I don't know, it's just been so cool to do. It's something that has brought me so much joy. And it's, think the 37:11 I've gained more followers just because it's who I am and it's a part of my culture and it just, think people enjoy that, you know? Yeah, it sounds like fun. And there's so little that is just pure fun once you get past 40. Yeah. Like kid feeling fun. Right. And that's the thing, I'll go to these places, most of the time I go by myself. I'll take the drive and most places are like an hour away and I'll just go visit and I just... 37:40 I'll enjoy going to these places just by myself. Sometimes I'll bring my son, sometimes I'll bring my family. It just depends, you know, but,  and I've, there's so many places in your own backyard that you don't even know about. And  I'll get those messages from people that'll just say, I don't even realize we had this here. You know, you don't have to travel out of state. You can just go on these little day trips, you know? Yeah.  I meant to ask you last time and the time before that, and I didn't. 38:10 You have kids. How many kids do you have? have two boys. So I have a 19 year old and an 11 year old.  So the 19 year old is uh off to college or off on his own now. He's off on his own. Yep. He went to, well, I mean, he still technically lives here, but he's never here cause he travels, but he went to electrical school and he works for this great company where he's doing like em industrial. So they go work on solar plants and stuff and he loves it. So. 38:40 He'll be gone for  a few weeks and then he comes home a few days and he's back again.  Okay. And your youngest, um is he what, fourth grade, fifth grade? He is going to fifth grade.  Yeah. Does he help with cooking? Does he like cooking with you?  He does. He loves to cook. Yep. And sometimes he'll say, oh you know, let's do a video together. don't know, lately, yesterday I said... 39:05 Why don't we do this video and he was like, no something can oh, I hope that doesn't Don't let it end if you can if you can gently nudge him keep it going Number one because it's so good for you guys to build those memories. But number two Boys men also need to know how to cook for themselves So if he keeps doing it with you, he is showing other males that it is totally cool to cook. Yeah 39:35 And it's great too because my husband is a great cook and he cooks a lot.  he shows our boys and like my 19 year old, he'll call sometimes and say, hey, I'm making  whatever. know, mom, how do I do this? And I just kinda, or he'll send me a picture and say, is this look good? I'm like, yep.  Coming over, when's it ready?  Now, I mean, most of the time he's in a hotel room or  Airbnb. So it just depends on where he is and what he can cook. 40:03 Yeah, he'll go to his girlfriend's house and he'll message me and be like, look what I made. And he's a great cook and he's only 19, but that's just from watching us and being around us, you know? Yeah, exactly.  All right. Well, I try to keep these to half an hour and we're good. 10 minutes over,  Christy. uh I adore you. Please keep doing what you're doing. is mutual. The feeling is mutual. Thank you so much. And people can find you at T's Kitchen on Facebook. 40:31 Yep. I'm a Tease Kitchen on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.  You need to get on YouTube. I do. Well, I actually am on YouTube, but I haven't posted there in over a year just because  I don't understand it. I need to do some research on  the ins and outs of YouTube. I don't understand it as much as the other ones.  Okay. Well,  maybe one of your sons can  help you. Maybe. 40:57 Yeah, because my youngest says that, Mom, you need to be on YouTube.  Well, yes, and he's not wrong. Again, you have the most beautiful speaking voice and you have a beautiful face  and you have a great attitude and you're talented.  Share it. Share it all over the place. Thank you. That means so much to me.  All right, Christy, thank you so much. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. ah 41:23 I hope at some point we actually get to meet in person, Kristy. I think that would be so much fun. Me too. That would be awesome.  All right. You have a great rest of your day. Thank you. Same to you.  

Today I'm talking with Mary at Front Forty Farm. 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 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 to a fellow Mary at Front Forty Farm in Missouri. Good morning, Mary. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I don't talk to Mary's very often. I always think it's a very common name. Yes. think you're the second Mary I've talked to in over two and a half years on this podcast. Oh, really? I've always thought it's like a very boring square name. 00:30 Yeah, I honestly, I was nicknamed Lynn when I was a couple weeks old because I'm named after both my grandmother's Mary Evelyn.  And my parents had a disagreement about which name should have come first. So they decided to nickname me Lynn.  And when I went to kindergarten, they did the roll call  and they were asked, you know, they were calling my given name. 00:57 And I didn't know my name was Mary. I thought my name was Lynn. Oh, wow. And the teacher called my mom and she said, there's a girl in our class  and we don't know who she is. We think she's Mary. And my mom was like, uh okay, this is really weird.  And my mom's okay, describe the girl. And they described what I've been, what I was wearing and my hair color and that I was this tall, whatever.  And my mom said, well, yeah, that's Mary.  And 01:26 They said she doesn't respond to Mary. And my mom laughed and she said,  of course she doesn't because she's never been called Mary. She's been called Lynn.  So there was a very big mix up the first day of kindergarten. then in high school, I switched back to Mary because I was like, it's my real name. I should use it.  my close friends for a long time would call me Lynn, but no one except my husband calls me Lynn now. 01:55 Oh really? Interesting. Yeah, so names are crazy. Yeah. Okay, so the reason that I asked you to be on the podcast is because of your farm name Front 40. I'm assuming that is the opposite of Back 40. Exactly. My husband came up with it because he's like, well, you know, people are always saying out to the Back 40 or, know, whatever. And in the assessment plot, we are the front 02:24 east 40 of the whole section. so there you go. Well, 47 actually, but yeah. Well, it got my attention. So I'm glad you called it front 40 arm. And it's three F's in a row. So that's cool too. So when did you, when did you start the farm? We moved out here in November of 22. 02:51 Okay. And were you city folk or do you have? Oh yeah.  Um, yeah, we got married in October. He's a widower and I've been divorced for a very long time and we got married in October, bought the house in November and we lived in Independence, Missouri, which is, um, a suburb of Kansas city and the urban sprawl and all the crime and everything. So it wasn't a great place  and we wanted to be more self-sufficient. Yeah. 03:21 I think COVID woke a lot of people up  and yeah,  so we did it. He sold his house, I sold my house  and me came out here. Did you guys have any farming or homesteading background before that? Not really. He was raised on more of like a farm.  They  had a milk cow and they butchered rabbits and things like that. And I grew up on Lake Michigan. uh 03:50 So no, not really. had my first husband had to farm horses and  a few cattle. So I do a little bit  from that.  And we just kind of wing it.  We do a lot of praying for wisdom. Well, that's good because even when you've  been brought up in a homesteading or farming family,  you can't know everything. Rice can't.  So it's good that it's a learning process all the way through.  Yes. So you guys have highland cattle, you have sheep. 04:20 You have chickens? They're angora goats.  Sorry, angora goats. They look like sheep. Oops. do.  You have chickens? Chickens and guineas and one turkey at the moment.  And am I missing an animal?  Dogs, cats, bees.  Bees, okay. Cool.  I think that's it.  Okay. I want to talk about the angora goats and your 04:46 Your minis, but I said I wasn't going to ask about this, but I am going to ask about this because I'm a sucker.  Your dog,  dogs, both dogs?  have four altogether. Are two of the dogs the Wolfhound Australian Shepherd Crosses? Yes, they're a brother and sister. Okay. We were breeding Aussies and it was too  questionable how they would turn out, whether they would kill our 05:14 chickens and we had two goats killed and  then we were like, okay, we're done with Aussies. They sold well, but it's like, yeah, we're not taking that chance anymore. we had one, it's hard to find a group of dogs that work well together, get along  and don't try to like chase the cattle or kill the chickens. And we had one. 05:40 We had two Aussies and the one got hit by a car which only left one. So then I found on Frexlist the  Australian Shepherd slash Wolfhound cross, drove four hours over into Kansas  and got the female.  She's gray and white with blue eyes. And a week later went back and got her brother. Okay. The thing that I didn't ask you before we started recording about this  is was the cross 06:09 an oopsie for the people that had them or did they breed them on purpose that way?  was an oops. Okay. That's probably why I've never heard of it before. Because I was like, that seems like a really interesting cross. Yeah, they're great dogs.  Yeah. They're big.  Like their head is twice the size of our Aussie just about. And the thing is, I have no idea what wolfhounds are like because I've never met one. 06:36 I've seen pictures, but I've never actually been in contact with one. Are they, are they lovey?  they really good temperament? Oh yeah. They're  very lovable and have a great temperament. They're sight hunters  and you know, originally bred to fight wolves.  And so  we do have coyotes around, although we haven't really had any issues with them coming on our property,  but we thought it would be helpful to have  the great big dogs for that reason.  And, um, 07:07 So yeah, they're pretty mellow, really. They're protective. We've had the female is more aggressive towards strangers than the male is. And so we have to be a little careful about that.  Yeah. And the other question I have is, this breed that you find yourself with,  are they as people focused as Aussies usually are? Because our Aussie is like,  she can't lay down without touching one of us. 07:34 Yeah, they're not quite that bad.  If we do have an Aussie that's like that also, he's very needy.  but they are very,  um, yeah, people focused, I guess is the right phrase to use. They're happiest when they're with somebody. So if we're working out in the yard, they want to be where we are. If we're working in the barn, they want to be where we are. Yeah. Um, my husband was out cutting down ash trees yesterday in our tree line. Cause we got the emerald  ash borer bug. 08:04 Oh, He cut down, I think, nine trees yesterday. Wow. And Maggie was outside and she was laying in the grass at the far end, as far as her lead could reach, laying in the grass, flat with her head on her front paws, just looking where he was. Like, I wish I could be over there with you. Right. Yeah. It's it's amazing to me how how much she wants to be with her 08:34 people, her people. So and they all take a person like our female  Wolf on Ossie. My husband is her person. The male,  I'm his person.  Maggie's persons are whoever is home.  I have I've spent the majority of the time with her because I'm not I don't have an outside the house job. Oh, okay. 08:59 So she doesn't listen to me as well as she listens to my husband because he's not here all the time. Right. It's typical kid behavior.  I think of her as like a three year old  kid. Right. And she's actually going to be six in August. So. But I said I wasn't going to bring this up because I would talk about Maggie the whole half an hour. I am not going to do that.  So tell me about the Angora goats first, please. Well, we were working on Fence Line. 09:29 And we have a ton of poison ivy. And I was like, all right. And I am I'm horribly allergic to it.  And the cows eat some of it, but, you know, not all of it because they're fenced in and they can't get their heads through to to get the stuff. And I was like, all right, we got to do something about it. And we didn't want to spray with chemicals because of um floating in the air and getting the bees or we just try to be as chemical free on the farm as possible, no matter what animal we're talking about, including ourselves. 09:58 Amen.  And uh they're like, OK, we can get sheep or goats, but they have to have a purpose besides just eating the poison ivy. And so we first got some Nubians that were given to us  and uh some Nigerian dwarves. And they were constantly getting their heads stuck in the fence, constantly getting their heads stuck, getting on stuff. And we were like, 10:28 This is not,  these are not the goats for us.  So we sold those and then we're like, we saw a picture of Angora  and I've always been interested in learning to spin and weave and all of that kind of stuff. And so it's like, all right, well, let's, let's try Angora's. So we got them. I think we're down, we're down to five now. We were up to like 13 and we sold several this year. Um, and they're just very mellow. 10:58 They're not like Nubians or Nigerian dwarfs. They don't get their head stuck. They're more like sheep. Their temperament and everything is more like a sheep. Yeah. And apparently they look like sheep because that's what I thought they were when I saw them on your Facebook page.  But you can milk them. We don't do that. I  did some milking of a Nigerian  before we sold them because the 11:25 kid was only nursing on one side and we didn't want the other side to get infected. And I'm like, this is for the birds, milking these little tiny teeth. Not your jam, huh? No, no. I'd have to get like a milker or something. My hands aren't that strong after having carpal tunnel surgery on both of them. They're just not that strong to do that kind of stuff. So, so yeah, we shear them twice a year and we have yet to do anything with the, with the hair, with the fiber. So. 11:55 oh Eventually, when we have time. When I have time, I guess I should say.  We'll get around to that. Do  you know if there's any market that you could sell it? There is around. It's like a niche market. There's actually a goat expo going on at the  state fairgrounds in Sedalia this week.  There's a whole bunch of fiber people that are going to be there. 12:22 And we're hoping to get there. We're on vacation this week to get a whole bunch of projects done around the farm. And we're hoping to make it there one day to em kind of network with people. Yeah.  And so  there is a market for it, depending on if you sell it as is,  or if you're going to clean it  and  sending it off to get cleaned is very expensive. So that would be more cost effective to learn how to do it myself, but I have a full time job. 12:51 And so does my husband. And so some of those  projects are kind of, they're gonna be down the road.  Well, at least you're learning a lot about it right now. Yes. Yep. Okay. And then you have Highland Cattle? Yes. Like a lot or a couple?  No, we only have, I think there's  13 or 14 out there. em And two that are cross. 13:20 that we're going to  three calves, we're going to pick up two more calves this weekend to bring in some more bloodlines,  heifer calves. Nice.  I don't want you to answer me exactly, but I'm assuming those heifer calves were not inexpensive. No,  no.  No. Because no calf is inexpensive right now in 2026.  Especially Highlands. 13:50 And so it's like, all right, some other projects we were wanting to get done are on the back burner now till probably next year because we're buying those two. And then, um, my husband's son who had purchased a couple of cows, cause he wanted to get into the raising his own beef. Um, but I don't think he realized Highlands grow slower than other cattle breeds. So you have to wait longer to butcher them. So you return it's not as quick. And so we're buying his cows also. 14:20 from him. So do you, do you not breed your Highlands? No, we do. We have a really great bull.  Um, but we only have, we have different registrations like the ACA registration, American Highland Cattle Association  registration is cream of the crop.  And we only had two of those cows to breed to, to make that herd bigger.  Uh, which the two calves we're getting this weekend are the ACA. 14:50 And then we have the  HHCA registration, is Heartland Highland Cattle Association registration. And we've got two of those cows. And then we have their calves. And then we sold a couple of um calves this spring, heifer calves. And we have a couple bull calves, but they're like a dime a dozen and they're hard to move right now. Yeah. 15:17 So our Aca bowl is great. We have people bring their cows here  so he can breed them. Well, that's handy. Yeah.  Good job, buddy. Keep doing your job. Yeah, he's great. So I'm assuming that that brings in a little bit of income. A little bit. I mean, we don't charge a whole lot, but selling them definitely does. Yeah. Yeah. But we don't we don't gouge people. 15:46 I mean, there's people out there that ask, you know, six, seven, $8,000 for an unregistered heifer, which I think is absurd. So we don't do that to people. That's some expensive milk. Yes. And you can milk Hyland's. We just don't. We are not that hands on with ours. Like we don't halter break them and we don't brush them. And we've had, we do have one that she's I think two and a half now. 16:16 And my husband, there's videos on our Facebook page of him rubbing her down and giving her attention. And, but it got to the point where she didn't fear him. And so when he was done rubbing, she would horn him like, I want more.  And we were like, yeah, that's, yeah, that's not okay. And so we don't want that  much hands on to where they're too comfortable with us.  makes sense. 16:46 Yeah. I mean, it's fine when they're calves, but once they're older and their horns grow, then it's a problem.  Yeah. Do you guys have kids?  You have a son  or he has a son. They're all grown and gone.  Yeah. So you're on daughter that still lives at home, but all the rest of them are grown and gone. So you're almost empty nesters. Yes.  Yeah, we are. And I was very afraid of it for a long time because I felt like I didn't know what I would do. 17:17 once the kids were out. And honestly, I did my job and I did it right. And now my job is to figure out what I am doing. Right. What do you want to do now? Yeah, I want a podcast. I'm doing it. I it. you go. uh It's It's really fun. I feel like I feel like I'm doing it for me because I'm so curious about everything. 17:43 But I've had so many people say to me, don't stop doing the podcast because we're learning so much from it. Oh, that's great. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm not going to stop it. We're good. Good. Good to hear. Yeah, it's been great. And I say this to everybody, whether I say it on the recording or not,  I appreciate everyone who takes the time to talk with me. Well, I'm flattered for the invite. yeah.  Good. Because 18:12 I just, don't want people to think that I don't have any appreciation for the fact that you guys take time out of your busy lives to spend half an hour with me.  Oh no. Yeah. I'm honored to do it actually. Yeah.  Good. All right. So,  um, we talk about chickens a lot on this podcast. So I'm just going to say,  do you have chickens for eggs or do you  use them for meat? Do you use them for both? And do you sell the eggs? Both. 18:41 All of the above. em Yes, we butchered our first batch of chickens last year  and we got the heritage  breeds to butcher instead of the crosses that grow faster.  And I don't think we would do that again just because  first of all, you have to wait like  16 weeks or whatever it was em for them to be  big enough to butcher. 19:09 and move them around and fresh grass and everything. That was a pain in the butt for that long. I'd rather just do the eight weeks and be done with it.  Plus they didn't have nearly the amount of meat on them that the hybrids that you see in the store have. So that was a learning experience doing that. Our neighbors helped us because they used to do  butchering like hundreds and hundreds of chickens every year. And so they were gracious enough to help us and teach us how to do it. 19:38 And so that was a good learning experience. And then yes, we do  sell eggs. I don't really market it much just to people we know or,  you know, whatever. Yeah, we have 14 chickens and we have a dozen eggs a day consistently. So we sell a dozen eggs when we have them in our farm stand right now. I think there's four dozen out there because we don't go through, we don't go through eggs fast in our house. Right. 20:08 I really would love to sink the money into another 50 chickens because I know the eggs would sell. But egg prices are coming down at the store and we sell our eggs for $5 a dozen. I'm like, I don't know if it's smart. Not everybody wants to do that. Keith takes them to work and sells them to all of his guys at work. we have like, I think we're down to 42 chickens because the dogs have killed some. 20:36 But we've got some baby chicks coming up. So we get,  when we can find them all, because ours free range,  we get about two and a half dozen a day, I think, something like that. And we charge $350. 20:51 Nice. I am very much looking into buying an incubator because we buy an incubator when it's on sale, you know, like 12 egg incubator. And then we find someone who laying eggs, hatching eggs for sale. It would be way cheaper than buying already laying hens. Right. So I'm doing the research on that now. Yeah, that's a good idea. And that way if we do one. 21:19 chickens we have a way to get them at like you know a buck and a half a chick instead of six dollars a chick or whatever they're selling right now. yeah definitely good idea. I was told by someone a couple weeks ago that the chickens the baby chicks  at  Tractor Supply you know chick days.  Some of them were up to ten dollars a chick and I was like that is bullshit that is not okay. 21:46 That must be some of the fancier breeds, like maybe that lay the colorful eggs, I'm guessing. I don't know, but I am not. I can't imagine a circumstance where I would spend $10 for a three-day-old chick. Yeah, that is... I'm guessing it's a fancy breed. Yep. And I can remember, and I think it was more than a couple years ago, somebody pointed out that I was probably underestimating how long ago it was. 22:14 But I can remember at least 10 years ago, you're going to tractor supply and they'd have chicks for like a buck and a half piece.  Oh yeah. They do that towards the end when they just want to get rid of them. Cause I bought a bunch at our local, it's not a tractor supply, it's bomb guards, but  they had them for a dollar each just to get rid of them. Yeah. And if I could get, you know, 50 of those at a buck a piece, I'd probably do it. Yeah. And you can, a lot of the, um, hatcheries, if you're wanting to get, um, 22:44 Butcher chickens, they'll do that for like a dollar each or a dollar 50 each. I'll have to look into it. But I still think an incubator situation would be really fun because we've never done that before. there's an interest learning curve fun factor to getting an incubator. Oh, yeah, there definitely is. I did not want baby chicks this year. I wanted the hens to do it all. And so we had five hens. 23:12 setting in this  nesting box my husband made that had like six slots in it.  And they were doing so great, stayed on there. The first hen, the baby chick hatched. She decides to get off. I guess motherhood was not for her. So I found the baby chick. It was cold by the time I got home from work, stuck him under a light and then put all the eggs in the incubator and hatched, hatched all those out. 23:42 And then a week later, another hen does the exact same thing.  And it's like, oh, you chickens. It's so bizarre to me that these chickens get broody. And they get broody when you don't want them to. They don't get broody when you do want them to.  And then they're either the best moms ever. And you can put even other chickens, babies in there with them. Right.  They're right on it. 24:11 Or they're like the one you're talking about and they're like, eh, this is more work than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. Yeah. We've had a couple that have been really broody in the barn and we keep taking their eggs out from under them and they've been there for weeks and they're laying together really, really close. And then I've had other ones that are broody and to the point where they must not be getting off and eating because their combs start getting really pale and they just start. 24:41 looking bad. so I'll take them and I'll throw them outside, you know, to get them as far away from the nest as I can. So that maybe they forget about it for a minute and do some foraging and then they'll start looking healthy again.  Yeah, they're just just for anybody listening. Chickens are not the smartest animal on the planet. 25:04 And silkies are the dumbest of the chicken breeds from what I've heard. They are.  But they're funny looking. They're beautiful, but they're dumb.  Turkeys are worse. think turkeys are worse. Yes. Okay.  We butchered turkeys last year too. Yeah, this  is going to sound really bad, but I'm going to say it anyway.  When we take animals from the wild and we spend years domesticating them, which is how we have 25:33 turkeys that we raise on farms and chickens we raise on farms.  We breed out their smarts. Right. Because turkeys are not stupid animals in the wild. They manage to survive. Right.  All on their little own. And I don't, I don't think chickens are native to the States. I think they were brought over from Asia. Probably. Yeah. 25:57 I'm assuming that the chickens in Asia were wild at one point too and they managed to survive or we wouldn't have them here. So  when you breed the wild out of an animal, think that you breed their smarts out of them too. Well, it's like that with everything  for bees, for example, we have tried to be hands off a little bit and let  nature take its course. 26:22 We don't feed them sugar water every single week like  they tell you to in any class you go to. I had read somewhere that sugar water em actually lowers their immune system. And that's when mites  and  things like that can come in and get in the hive and start infecting the bees.  Yes. And so we try to be as hands off as possible with all of our animals because it's like, well, they survived. 26:49 long before man started intervening and doing things and just kind of let's leave them a little bit more the way God intended them to be. So that's what we try to do with everything. I think that's smart.  And the other thing that people don't know about chickens is chickens don't have any self-regulation when it comes to eating because the way that they get food is they spend their days pecking at the ground for insects. 27:19 and seeds  and bugs. I'm sorry, insects and bugs are the same thing. Whatever.  That's how they eat when they're left to their own devices. So when you fill up a chicken feeder with pellets or with the crumble,  they're going to eat all they can eat until it's time to go to sleep. Right.  And this drives me insane because my husband will fill the chicken feeder to the top. And then they won't go out and forage. 27:46 And  it'll be gone in a day and a half. I'm like, dude, only fill it halfway. And then they'll go out and  pack for bugs and seeds. And he finally got it and he only filled it halfway. And about a week later, I said, how are the chickens doing with having half rations? And he said, they're fine. So  heads up, you don't have to fill a chicken feeder all the way up if they're outside, because they'll eat outside too. Right. Because you'll get... 28:14 some chickens that they just want to stay in the coop. They don't want to go out and forage. And then you'll have the ones that are out at the crack of dawn because that's what they like to do is be out foraging and yeah. have two right now that keep escaping the run and they destroyed our raised bed of baby radishes. Oh bummer. I am  so pissed off about this because I was really looking forward to pickled radishes like a week from now. 28:43 They destroyed the bed a week or so ago. Bummer. And my husband actually rigged a thing to keep them from flying over the fence. And they have figured out that if they just go to this one spot, they can still get out. And I'm like, OK, maybe they're not as dumb as I think they are. Right. Oh, but they won't. There's only two now that are getting out and they don't go after the garden. So we're OK. Right. Well, that's good. That's good. Yeah, animals aren't. 29:11 uh anywhere near  as dumb as people think they are. We've learned a lot with the cattle. I had no idea that they're as intelligent as they are until we actually got them and started observing them. For example, when we butchered our first one a couple of years ago, um we had a person come to the farm and put him down and dress him out and everything and then haul him off. And as soon as he left, 29:39 all the whole rest of the herd started bawling  because they knew something had happened.  And we have our own train station of sorts  in the back 40 of our front 40  and where we take remains and everything.  And they followed my husband and the tractor as he was hauling the remains out to that spot, moaning and bawling the entire way. 30:09 and then stayed out there the whole rest of the day. Way to go making it harder on you guys, cows, jeez. Well, it reminded me a lot of how elephants are and how they  examine a corpse and bones when they find it and they touch it and they smell it. And that's exactly what they did with the remains of the first bull that we had butchered. And they mourned. And it was shocking, but 30:39 awe-inspiring. It was just interesting. It's really interesting because I've heard exactly the opposite kind of stories too where somebody butchers a cow or a bull on the property and the other cows don't care. They don't even notice. Maybe it's a breed thing. I don't know. I no idea. Or maybe it's just a them thing. Maybe because they've done it with, we've only butchered two so far and they've done it both times. Yeah, I don't know. 31:08 Maybe it's because our herd isn't enormous  and so they're a close-knit group. that's why. That could be, yeah. I don't know. would...  This sounds really strange. I would love to have a way to see how animals think  and we just will never know. Yeah. And to go back to Maggie, because why not end the episode where we started, um with my dog.  I can read her like a book,  you know, she... 31:38 She has facial expressions that tell me what she needs. She has sounds that she makes that I know what they mean. It's no different than when you have a baby, anyone who's had a baby and nursed a baby. You know that there's a certain cry that they do that tells you that they are hungry. Right. And I used to call it the la la cry because it sounds like la la la la instead of wah wah wah wah. 32:05 And the way I cry was when she was wet or poopy. And somebody said to me one time that they didn't understand when I just knew  that she didn't need to be changed, she needed to be fed.  And I was like, you can't hear the difference in her cries? And they were like, no. And it's a thing. It's a thing with moms. You recognize the different sounds that your child makes. an animal that you spend time with, you know what they're telling you. 32:34 Right.  And they know,  I'm going to go back to cattle for a second. They know their names. All of ours have a name. They know their name when I say it. They know when the stranger's here because they won't come to the fence for treats. If there's a stranger, some of them will because they're too food, food focused. But we have other ones that they'll be like,  uh, we don't know who that person is. So we, we aren't coming. 32:59 Yeah, we've got a barn cat who absolutely goes and hides when somebody pulls in the driveway.  And he's the oldest one. He's like  seven or eight years old and he's a big black fixed tomcat.  But he is just scared if it's somebody he doesn't know, he's like, nope, I'm out.  So  again, I wish that I could understand how  animals think and 33:29 They do think, but they don't have any concept of the future. As far as we know. As far as we know. In everything that scientists have studied, which is not as much as I would like them to study, uh we think that they don't have any concept of the future. It's just, I'm here. The things I need to accomplish today are stay alive. And the way to stay alive is to eat food and drink water and get out of the weather.  And my second thing is to take 33:57 the fact that I'm still alive and make more of me.  That's it. Yeah, I don't know.  It's hard to say. I'm sure there's  some thought process besides just instinct.  God created them for a purpose and they have a brain for a reason.  Yeah. So again, I'd love to know. I would love for just an hour to be inside of my dog's brain and be like, how does she think? 34:26 And only an hour because I think it would be so foreign to me that it would ruin my own brain I don't think I could even handle an hour. Yeah, maybe just start with five minutes. I Don't know that five minutes would be enough for me because I would be too curious to know where that was gonna go. Mm-hmm. Yeah Anyway, this was really fun Mary where can find where can people find you on? Are you on face? You're on Facebook front 40 farm 34:52 On Facebook, it's the big C with the F to the third power. That's the logo. Cause there is another front 40 farm. oh Um,  and we're in Holden, Missouri. Yeah. And I have, we do have a, also have a tick talk,  um, page where we post some videos, some fun videos and stuff. Okay. I have questions about tick tock, I will ask you after we stop recording. Okay.  All right.  Uh, as always people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast.com  Mary, thank you for taking the time to talk with. 35:21 I really enjoyed it. did too. Thank you. Alright, bye. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Steve and Jennifer at Outlaw Farm Alpacas, LLC. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 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 Steve and Jennifer at Outlaw Farm, Alpacas, LLC in Ohio. Good morning, you guys. How are you? Good morning, everybody. Doing well.  I love that. No one has ever said good morning, everybody,  on any episode of my podcast so far. Thank you for doing that. I'm glad I'm the first. 00:29 Uh, were you in radio by any chance? I'm a performer and I own a production company, so I'm pretty familiar with this kind of stuff. Yeah. I figured you had to have something in your background because most people would never have thought to have said that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So the first thing I always ask is how is the weather where you are and you're in Ohio. So how's the weather in Ohio this morning? Well, it's a little overcast today. It says it's 60, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. 00:58 It is raining here in Minnesota this morning and it has been overcast for the whole week. I am praying that we get some sunshine tomorrow because  I am a, I'm a sunshine girlie. I really do like it when the sunshine is pouring in the windows. And this week I've gotten up every day and watch the sun come up, what little sun there was, and then it's been gray. So I am ready for it not be gray for a little bit. think we have a couple days of rain in store for us here then before we hit some sunshine again. 01:28 Yes,  I this spring has been so weird and I don't dare to complain about it  because the last two springs here all it's done is rain all of May and into the first half of June and it really ruined our farm to market garden  So I'm not complaining I'm just saying it would be nice to see the Sun peek out a little bit this weekend. That's all I'm saying  Okay, so you guys how did you get your name number one? 01:57 Well, let me tell you, um we bought this place um about eight years ago  and it's located on Law Road in Grafton, Ohio. um we were  brainstorming for a name and we're thinking of crazy different names we could name an alpaca farm. And I said, what about outlaw farm? And she says, what do mean? We're not outlaws. And I said, you know, but we're on Law Road. So that made a lot of sense and it stuck. we ran with it. 02:25 And again, it's attention grabbing. of the reason I love this so much is because part of the way I find people to talk to is by you guys' names. And I saw Outlaw Farm, Alpacas, and went, oh yes, I must find out about them. Okay, so when did you get into this? Well, we got into it around 2018. We bought this place and... 02:52 It was, it was really in need of some work. So we cleaned up the old barn, which was built in like, I say the late 1800s, a lot of cleanup. We cleaned it up, made it look nice. And we thought, yeah, let's get a couple of animals because it's such a nice barn. We could use some more pets because we have the land now. Well, my wife has a cousin that has alpacas as pets. So  she mentioned alpacas. She contacted her cousin and they said, you know, we'll sell you a couple. 03:22 So we bought four pets,  two males, two females,  and  it just went from there. um She started researching alpacas and the fiber and the showing and  the breeding. And she just wanted to make it a business because  she was set to retire in a couple of years and she wanted something to do. So that's, that's basically how it started.  minor midlife crisis situation.  Small one. 03:50 I just did the same thing almost three years ago because my youngest was going to be moving out,  youngest of four,  and I didn't want to face emptiness syndrome without a project. So I started this podcast. So I'm right there with you. Awesome.  I get it. It's really hard when your life changes in a big way and women tend to find projects and I won't say what men tend to find. And that would be a very terrible thing to say. 04:18 I don't think that men necessarily find projects. I think that men find distractions. I'd have to disagree because I have a lot of projects. Because of the farm, he has a lot of  I mean the men who are enlightened. You're enlightened, Steve. We'll give you that today. You are an enlightened soul. Awesome. Thank you. So uh do you guys, I want to talk about the alpacas because I haven't really talked in depth with anybody about them.  But do you have other animals as well? 04:47 Yes, we right now we're at 34 alpacas and we are expecting nine creas, which are the babies. Anytime I have our first one actually do now and they'll birth all the way through probably the end of September. But we also have five goats, just pets, all males, weathers and then 30. Oh, let me see where we at. We're at about 40 chickens, I think, and six ducks. 05:15 aside from numerous dogs and barn cats and the like. Whatever else shows up on the property, know.  Yeah, I saw you have barn kittens right now.  Yes, we seem to have. had a mama kitty that kind of hung around and now her kids came seem to come here and live and.  Add more barn kittens to our farm, so I think we just have two. Those are the only two I have seen so far. 05:44 But there could be more.  For everybody listening, if you want to see some really cute kittens, go to Alpaca's Farm,  the Facebook page, because there's a couple photos and they are very sweet. um I am a sucker for a barn kitten. We have two females right now who I suspect are pregnant.  And if they are, they're probably due at the very end of June versus July. And I am so looking forward to barn kittens again, because we haven't had any in a couple of years. 06:14 They're lot of fun. They're cute. It's fun to watch them grow up. They keep the mice population down too.  Oh my God.  Yes.  When we bought this place back in 2020, it was August  and the big old pole barn that was on the property was empty except for all these little packets that were ripped open on the ground in the pole barn. And come to find out it was  rat poison basically because 06:44 We had a pretty good mouse issue going on in that pole barn that we didn't know about.  And so  my husband was out puttering around in the fall and he had opened up one of the drawers on the old workbench in the pole barn. And he came in and he said, do you have a minute? And I said, yes, what? And he said, come with me. So I walk out to the pole barn and he's like, be quiet and just look, just look. And he opens this little drawer in the workbench. 07:11 and there's four little tiny field mice babies all curled up sleeping in the drawer.  He says, uh we need to get some cats. He said, cause where there's that many babies, there's lots more mice.  So, okay. So we ended up getting like three cats and then we had a stray show up. She was a female. She had babies.  I think she had three or four litters in a couple of years. And one of her daughters had a litter and 07:39 The thing with barn cats is that barn cats flake off or they get killed by cars. And so  every year we lose a couple. So I'm very excited that we have kittens coming, I hope.  We don't keep tons of cats, but  when there's new babies, it's fun  and everybody likes a kitten. So we usually find homes for them pretty easily. 08:03 Yeah, we try to do. I mean, there's some people interested in the kitties and when they're old enough, I'm sure we can  we can get them some good homes. Yeah, I just I get real antsy when I talk about the barn cats because the big thing is they and neuter your pets and I agree completely stay and neuter your pets unless you intend to breed them as a business. But when it comes to barn cats, barn cats have a job. Yeah, yeah, it is not the same premise is not the same thing so. 08:33 I try to walk a fine line between, yes, have millions of animals on your property that you can't afford  and that aren't being treated well. Don't do that. That's not a good plan. Have a plan.  So anyway, ah what kind of dogs do you have on the property? Well, we have four German Shepherds and we have a Dalmatian, which is the oddball.  Is it a girl or a boy? Girl.  What's her name? You'll never guess. Purdy? 09:02 Yep. I love it. I have never seen a Dalmatian puppy in person. Wish I could say that I had because I bet they are freaking adorable as the They are the most adorable little puppies. As the spots start to pop out. Yeah. Yeah. Because Dalmatian puppies are white when they're born, right? Right. Yes. Yeah. And then their spots come in slowly. 09:29 Right, about two, three weeks in, they start getting their spots. Yeah.  See, I'm such a freaking encyclopedia of worthless information.  I know that about Dalmatian dogs, never actually met a Dalmatian dog in person,  but I know nothing about alpacas. So, go fig. So tell me all about alpacas. Start from the beginning. Well,  I guess the main thing to know is they are actually quite 09:59 shy but curious. They're not an animal that you can just always walk up to on pet unless they really get to know you and really trust you. But once they do, they are a super, super sweet, calming animal. um That's the one thing that I find attracts a lot of people to them is their calming nature. Just they're very gentle, they're very curious. um you know, once you get to once they get your trust, you know, 10:29 They come up to you and approach you.  A lot of people use them, um obviously, for their fiber. Their  fiber is much  warmer, actually, than wool. um It doesn't have landlin in it, so it lacks that itchiness that you get when you wear wool. So a lot of people that are allergic to wool um can actually go ahead and wear alpaca-fibered products. 10:58 It doesn't cause that itchiness or allergic reaction. Well, I didn't know that. Yeah. Um, their fibers are also hollow. So that's why they are able to stay, um, cool in the summer most of the time, unless it's a heat wave and then warm in the winter, traps that heat inside those hollow fibers and keeps them warm. Uh, their fibers also moisture wicking. So. 11:23 You'll never see it. Well, you might see a soaking wet all pack of it stands out in a good thunderstorm. But most of the time it just rolls off it like it has a rain X on it. um, see what else they're pregnant for almost a year. Oh That's true. Um, let's say I'm trying to think. Um, as far as there, let's see, they're pregnant pregnancy. So we have nine girls that are pregnant now. Uh, they are pregnant for pretty close to a year. 11:53 we start watching it about 340 days of pregnancy.  And  usually they deliver before that year is up. So usually about a good 11 and a half months.  They have one baby at a time. um Did they never have twins?  Rarely. They very rarely have twins. And usually  if they do happen to get pregnant with twins, they lose that pregnancy prior to  full term. Okay. Or uh 12:21 If they do have two, they're extremely small and a lot of times don't survive. um There have been cases where they do and they're fine. But um for the most part, rarely do they have twins that do survive.  And the babies are called creas. C-R-I-A.  Do you know why, what, do you know anything about that word, where it comes from? I have no idea, honestly. Okay. I didn't know if it was Latin or Greek or something. So. Yeah, no idea. Okay. 12:52 How big is a crea when they're born? Usually anywhere between about 15 pounds to generally about 20. We've had them as small as 10 pounds and as large as 22. So it can be varied, but usually generally I would say, you know, 15 to 20 pounds is about your average, at least for our farm. How much does an average mama alpaca weigh? Females generally are anywhere between 13:21 140 to 160 pounds. So they're about the size of a deer. Yeah, they're not super large. They are, you know, they're part of the camelid family. so llamas would be like the next size up and they're generally like 250 to 350 pounds. Okay. Where most alpacas, you know, once they reach adulthood or anywhere between 140 and 175, 180, or take. 13:49 Okay, I thought they were bigger than that for some reason. That is good to know because  I,  we don't have room for an alpaca. If we did, I would actually consider it now knowing that they don't get as big as llamas. No, they're not as large. They're definitely not as tall.  And, um, they're just, you know, once they look bigger, guess,  um, you know, especially we just had our short on Wednesday, but,  um, they look really large when they're all full fleeced. 14:18 Cause some of them will have, you know, five or six inches of fiber on them. So it makes them look quite large. And then once they get shorn down, you actually see how small they actually are. mean, yeah, they're probably about the size. I would say probably about the size of a deer actually when they're shorn. Not real large. Yeah. Um, have a question about their fur hair, whatever you call it.  Um, if you were to walk up to an alpaca that you know really well, 14:47 and lean in and sink your fingers into their fur on their shoulders. Do your fingers sink in or do they stay on top of that six inches of fur? Oh, they sink right in. So it's not real dense. It just depends on the alpaca. Some of them have much denser fiber. I do have some that are extremely dense, but you can get your fingers in there and wiggle them down to the skin. 15:16 Some of them are just finer. you know, more, um, you know, they're, they're fibers finer, not quite as dense as others. So, you know, it varies. Okay. I, I've never actually pet an alpaca. I have pet llamas and I don't really enjoy it because the llama that I met, he was very friendly, but he was also very skittish. Like he really wanted you to talk to him and pet him. But the minute you moved, he would kind of startle. 15:44 And it made me real nervous because I was like, you  going to spit at me or are going to bite me? Because I don't really want either. Yeah.  I think llamas are more prone to spitting than alpacas. Alpacas do spit,  but it's not generally at people. It's generally at each other. um The females tend to spit at each other,  you know, especially pregnant because, you know, they want the food. um 16:12 So if you get spit at, you're probably just got to gotten the crossfire of it. Um, and boys, the males tend to spit each other, especially, um, this time of year when, um, it tends to be breeding season, um, for those that are not already currently pregnant. Um, they do spit a lot of each other just basically to, you know, fight for that position, so to speak. It's so gross. Oh my goodness. It's the best smelling stuff. 16:41 And  I understand that the creator gave every animal a way to assert dominance and defend, but what a gross way to assert dominance and defend. Yeah, it's not real pleasant. you know, as far as Elpac is, that is pretty much their only defense.  They are a predatory animal, so they really don't have any natural defenses. So a of farms. 17:09 you know, then have the guardian livestock animals, especially if they don't close theirs in, you know, at the night and during nighttime. So, but we do close ours and some farms don't, um, ours don't seem to mind it. They kind of just put themselves away most of the time when it starts to get dusk and then I just closed the gates. So, that's helpful. Yeah, very helpful. Okay. So tell me about the babies. Are the babies, um, like, 17:39 like goat babies who are basically up and nursing within an hour or so, or does it take them a little longer? Generally, rule of thumb is they should be up, standing and nursing within about 30 minutes. Some do take a little bit longer, especially if the mama is, know, first time mamas, they're kind of a little unsure about what's going on. But you know, our season, season mamas do really well. They, they get those babies get up. 18:07 We kind of do help get them standing up and help them find, you know, where to nurse. And once they tend to find that they're kind of pretty much on their own.  Um, one thing about alpacas, unlike,  um, dogs or some other livestock is they do not,  um, clean their babies.  Oh, so, um, I kind of, I like to be home and around when I know it's definitely going to be birthing time. 18:36 Um, because for any particular reason, that generally, once they start the birthing process, you know, the placenta does break, but if for any particular reason it doesn't, that baby just basically suffocates because mom, unlike dogs or other cats or whatever, they don't clean that baby off and lift that placenta off. So, huh. Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah. That was a, that was something I really, I mean, I didn't know that either. And, um, but we've. 19:06 Again, pretty good at  delivering them and,  um, taking a couple of classes at Ohio State University on ways to help if there seems to be a uh issue that arises. But, um, for the most part, it goes pretty well. And, know, they, they just like other livestock you want nose and toes. You want that Superman position coming out. Oh yeah.  And, um,  once that happens, then, you know,  baby is born and, 19:35 We kind of just dried off real well  and try to get it up and standing and nursing usually within 30 minutes. Okay. Thank you for all that. Cause I just learned a couple of things I wouldn't have even thought to ask, let alone  knew the answer to. So I love my podcast so much because I learned so many new things from you guys. I'm so  thankful  and grateful that you spend the time to talk to me.  Um, 20:02 So anyone who's listened to my podcast knows that I am a sucker for babies. So I must ask, do the babies let you handle them? Do they let you hold them and pet them or are they really skittish and all they want to do is be with their mom? It kind of depends. I have some babies that like the minute I walk in the barn, they walk right up to me and they want like little kisses on their noses. 20:28 And you have other ones that are just like, take one look at you and they run the other way. So it just kind of depends.  Um,  but for the most part, we had, you let's say we had eight babies last year and I would say only two of them are probably, I don't want to say they're not people friendly because once you, once you grab them or get ahold of them, they're perfectly sweet and fine, but they're just not their personality is not to come up to you and initiate, you know, loving or whatever. But for the most part. 20:58 Um, I,  it's hard because they're cute as can be.  I try not to be too handsy with them.  Um, especially males because they do have what's called berserk male syndrome. Okay. So as you know, if you over handle a, a male CREA, especially as they become like a yearling,  um, they 21:20 can get this syndrome, is basically they've imprinted on you and they think you are an alpaca and then they have no problem trying to assert dominance over you. ah And it can be quite dangerous,  especially if you have a very large male. So I do try to make a very conscious effort not to be too hands on with them, but hands on enough that I can do what I need to do, give shots, weigh them, administer any medicines that they might need. 21:50 Um, but for the most part, try really hard not to be too handsy with them.  So  I'm assuming that  you sell their fiber. So is there a market for their fiber?  Um, there is, I do have,  um, one particular farm in Tennessee that, um, she buys quite a bit of a certain color fibers  of our alpacas.  Um, the rest of it, honestly, I send to a fiber mill. 22:18 And  we have yarn and rug yarn  made from it.  And then we turn around and make products from that or we sell the yarn in our our farm shop or online. OK, so can people find a way to order it from you on your website? Yes, you can.  Once you go on the website, it does have a link  on there for our Etsy store at the moment.  And then. 22:47 If you're um in our area,  then we do have um a shop set up where you can come and take a look at our yarn and purchase if you'd like. Okay, awesome. I'm all over the place  today with questions because again, haven't really talked to anybody about all packets. um Ohio gets hot in the summertime.  I know it does  because I've driven through Ohio as a kid. Well, I driven, I've ridden in my parents' car. 23:17 through Ohio as a kid, because my grandparents lived in Illinois and my parents and I lived in Maine.  And Ohio in July and August gets  hot.  Yes.  So how do the alpacas handle that with their fur? it because their fur is  hollow? Do they stay cool?  Sometimes it just depends. Some of them can, like the lighter color alpacas can  tolerate a little bit more. ah But we do run barn fans. 23:46 And a lot of them,  uh,  in the summer, pretty much 24 seven, unless you get a nice cooler day. Yeah. But they'll go out in the morning and they'll hang out in the pastures in the morning and munch. And when they start to get warm, they come in and lay in front of the fans.  And then,  uh, evenings, when it starts to get a little bit cooler, they will.  Um, head back out to pasture. So, but, um,  you know, you can  sometimes I hose off their legs, their bellies, their necks. never want to hose off the. 24:16 backs,  then that just kind of like traps the heat in their fibers. they do like the hose. um They do like to stand in their water buckets because the water is nice and cool. Oh, which I don't care for. um But, you know, it's not too bad.  Last summer was extremely hot and they spent most time inside than outside. um We haven't had too many days where it's been too warm yet, but 24:44 we're getting there. But now that they're shorn, they'll stay outside a little bit longer. oh So is, is, is fall and winter  better for them?  Are they comfortable? Yeah. Yes. Okay. You they're from, you know, basically Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, their area and  in the Andes mountains. So they're used to that kind of climate, the cooler temperatures to snow. They don't mind the snow, honestly.  Um, 25:13 they like that cool weather and  they'll lay outside when it's snowing.  And  again, I know lots of things about a few things and a few things about lots of things.  People worry, people who don't know anything about livestock worry about horses and cows being outside in the wintertime and they've got snow on their backs.  And that's good. If they have snow on their backs, it means that they're warm. Right. It means that they're insulated. 25:42 And I assume it's the same thing with the Alpacas. Yes. Yeah. Their fiber is extremely warm. And we were shearing the other day and it was a cool day. It was what probably low, low in mid maybe mid fifties or something in there. Yeah. And I was freezing. uh Our shears were freezing and they were sweating. Like we pulled off, you we pull off you, you shear them in  sections.  they're basically from their shoulders. 26:12 back to their bottoms and then pretty much mid sides that top area is where that's their prime blanket. That's where the yarn is made from.  And we pulled off and it was damp to the touch. They were like literally sweaty. So they were quite still warm as we were all bundled up in sweatshirts and jackets.  So.  Okay. So I got a couple more questions. try to keep this to half an hour, but I have two more questions.  How much on average does it cost to buy 26:41 Young alpaca like not not ready to breed yet. Okay. Well Cause I never had  an average so  males are generally Less expensive than females because of course you can breed the females. Yeah, goes by color grays blacks Rones  are your most expensive whereas your least expensive or generally your white or beige alpacas um but you can 27:11 You can get a good pet, for depending thousand dollars by a hundred to a thousand. Um, if you want something quite substantial, you can spend up to 30, 40,000. Um, so it just kind of depends on. You know what your purpose is with them. guess if you're, if you just want a pet, you can probably, you know, you can find them. 27:37 quite inexpensively. If you want something that you want to breed and show, you're going to pay a little bit more. Yeah, I was, I was, my second question was going to be if you're looking for a female that is old enough and ready to be bred, is it exponentially more money? Not necessarily. Um, it kind of goes, but prices are go by color and fiber quality. So you're more dense animals. Um, you know, better fiber is going to go. 28:06 more than one that just has, you know, maybe not a lot of crimp, but a lot of staple length to it. So there's a lot of variance in the pricing. We sell ours, tend not to, we're somewhere in between probably pet quality and, you know, mid range. I wouldn't say we, know, nobody, none of our passers is going to sell for like, you know, $30,000. 28:34 Some farms definitely would have that because they have a larger quantity. You know, have more capital that they can put towards theirs. All right, well, if anybody listening wants to buy an alpaca,  you now have more than enough information to keep looking into it and seeing if you would like one because  Jennifer has filled me in on all kinds of things that I didn't even know about. uh Where can people find you guys? Well, our website is  www. 29:02 outlawfarmlpakas.com  and there's links to our Etsy shop and our Facebook page on there. So pretty much all our information's on that webpage. And we are on Facebook, of course, Outlaw Farm L. Pakas  LLC.  And you can look us up there.  And we  post a lot of things on Facebook, a lot of photos of the farm and photos of the store and stuff like that. So you could see what's going on over here. Yes.  And  can I give you guys a little piece of 29:32 I don't know, encouragement? Sure.  Can you post some more actual videos on your YouTube channel of the babies? Because I know you have the one the one video, but that's all I saw. Yeah, we just started the YouTube thing.  Yeah,  we're going to start targeting that more. Yeah, once the Koreas are born, we're going to do some shorts and we're going to put it on. We're just getting started on YouTube. So, yeah, definitely we're going to we're going to post some more content on there for sure. 30:01 good because I will become an avid fan if you do that.  All right.  I love those babies. They're so cute.  All right, you guys. Thank you so much. always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Jennifer and Steve, I hope you have a wonderful day. You too, Mary. Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Connie at Rusted Gates Farm. 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 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 Connie at Rusted Gates,  uh, farm? Farm? think it's farm.  Yeah. Pennsylvania. Good afternoon, Connie. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well. Good. How's the weather there? Rainy, but we need it. I think almost everybody in the United States needs some rain right now. 00:30 Yep, they sure do. Other than us, we've had we had half an inch two days ago and it's been cloudy for the last three days. And I'm like, you know, sunshine, you could come back out any time now. There's baby plants in the garden that need you.  Yes, there are.  It's so cute. look out my living room window and there's a big old garden right out the window across the driveway and it's all good, rich, black dirt. 01:00 And then there's these little green baby plants in there and I'm like, oh man, this is my favorite part. Watching everything just in finally after a long winter. Yep. When you finally, everything starts finally waking up.  Trees have their leaves and all the plants are flowering. It's a pretty time of year.  I freaking love spring. I love fall more than I love spring because fall  is the, uh 01:28 the reaping of what we planted in the spring. So I like fall because we're eating squashes and the last of the tomatoes  and um pumpkin pie and all those good things that we associate with fall.  Okay. So your last name is Gates. So is that why it's rusted Gates farm? Yes,  it is. And why rusted Gates?  Well, ah 01:56 We had a daughter and her nickname was Rusty. Cute. I love that. Yeah. So, yeah, so that's why we name it Rusty. Sweet. Very sweet. Okay. So your main thing that you do at Rusty Gates Farm is fainting goats. And I want to hear all about that. Yeah, about 15 years ago, I got started in it. 02:20 Yeah, but what else is there anything else that you do on the farm as well as the goats?  We have an assortment of animals. To run down the list, we started with silky chickens. We got a couple of ceramas, chickens, couple of Polish chickens, a couple of golden phoenixes. We got ducks. We got bunnies.  We got a  we got a sepastra bull goose  and  a hubby. 02:50 Sterling, we named him Sterling and uh and Hope is the other one and Hope's a little famous.  She  is used in this uh photographers  as a prop  and a lot of the kids put up pictures. So she's been a prop in a couple of uh the photo shoots. Hope is a goose? Yep, Hope is a goose. Okay. 03:18 And she's almost 13 years old. So I'm not sure how long she's going to be around, but she's 13 now. So she's getting up there in age. That sounds like a very long life for poultry. Yeah, it is.  We have a couple of turkeys.  We have a zebu cow that originated over in Africa. How did you get that? 03:41 Um, there was a breeder in Bedford County that we did. I wanted Highlands and I couldn't afford a Highland. I really wanted a miniature Highland, but like I said, that, was a no go for the price tag.  So  we settled on the Zeeboot because it was a much more reasonable price range for someone that's on social security.  Yeah. The Zeeboos are the ones with the hump. 04:06 in their backs. Yes. They look like almost like the Brahmans, except they don't have the long ears and their hump's not quite as big and their miniature size.  Nice. All right.  And his name is Seb. We have two ponies, Louie  and Chunky Charlie.  And Louie I use for pony rides for his birthday parties. And we have a little donkey and he's kind of famous in our community too, because 04:34 He goes to church with us quite a bit.  His name is Festus. um Festus has been in a couple Christmas plays at Celebration Community Church.  And then at Easter time, went and he was in,  they had a special program for the kids about, and they took each day of Jesus' life in the last week of him being on earth.  And they had a different station for that. 05:02 Festus was of course the first one because Jesus rode on in on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem and kids lay pumped down and  pumps down in front of him and he walked over him.  Have fun.  Yeah, and an interesting fact about donkeys while we're on donkeys  is  Festus has a cross on his back. He has a dark stripe down his back and a dark stripe over his shoulders.  So it makes a 05:32 cross. So that was kind of a blessing from Jesus for carrying him  on Palm Sunday. And pretty much all Mediterranean donkeys have that cross.  I was gonna say not all donkey breeds have that, but that specific breed does. the Mediterranean donkey stew. Funny.  So yes, so that's his claim to fame. And then we have all kinds of pigeons, all different breeds. um 06:00 And I think that's about it. So why do you have pigeons?  That's my husband's hobby. OK. That's something that he's always been fascinated with. And  so that's what we have. We have homers and we have some that are called Birmingham rollers.  They're really cool because when they catch an airdrift that goes up, they roll in the sky. 06:26 and then they catch another drift and they go way high and then they roll. It's really fun to watch them. Yeah, birds are so interesting. Like, I don't want one in my house. I never want a pet bird. And we have chickens and I really don't enjoy touching the chickens, but I absolutely enjoy having the eggs from the chickens. Of course, they're good and fresh that way. 06:53 Yeah, I think that birds belong outside. I really enjoy watching them. I don't want to be up close. are kind of messy and dirty. Yeah, I don't want to be up close But not as dirty as ducks. Ducks are the worst.  So I hear. I don't have ducks. My friend does. And she's actually selling her duck eggs in our farm stand again this year for the second year. Oh, well, they're very good for you. Yeah. And I just, I'm like, I don't want ducks. I'm good. Chickens is more than enough. 07:23 Well, you get more chickens for eggs.  Chickens lay eggs for a longer period of time than ducks do. Ducks have a very short laying cycle. They do.  And it was funny because her ducks stopped back last fall and we had a few people asking where the duck eggs were. And I was like, you clearly don't know anything about ducks. And I didn't say that because that would be rude.  And I was like, they don't lay past. 07:50 Yeah, end of September 1st of October when the daylight gets short, they don't hmm. So and now they're back and everybody's like, yay, duck eggs are back. I'm like, yeah, because the sunlight is now back. Yeah, because all of agriculture is influenced by weather and daylight. That's right. We need to get people back into this. I swear, it's part of the reason I do this podcast and my other one, because people need to know. 08:19 how the cycles work and how nature works and that eggs don't come from the store, they come from chicken butt.  Yes, yes,  it's interesting.  We're so far removed and it's so sad and it  took such a short amount of time.  One generation, it's all it took. Yeah, it's nuts.  I refuse to be removed.  I  will not be removed from where my food comes from. 08:48 because I was raised by, well, I wasn't raised by grandparents, but I had grandparents who had gardens  and my parents had a big garden and my parents hunted. They heated their house with wood, with a wood stove. So I know a lot about gardening and I know a lot about hauling wood. And I refuse to let people remain in their little bubbles of the grocery store is where food originates and that's where we get it. 09:15 Or you turn on the switch and you have heat.  That too. Yeah. Yeah. So what's still is a little bit more work.  Yes. If you do it right, your wood should warm you four times.  The saying is three, but it's actually four because you got to cut the tree when you sweat, when you cut a tree, you have to cut up the fallen tree.  You have to. You have to split the wood and then you have to move the wood to wherever it's going to be stored. So that's four times. 09:45 Yep. then it heats you when you need it in your wood stove in the winter. Correct. So I guess it's five times. It might even be more than that. Who knows?  All right. So let's get down to fainting goats because I have not talked with anybody about fainting goats.  Why do they faint? It actually started out as a genetic mutation. So and of course, things that are interesting. 10:15 man perpetuates.  So they started with the,  they're called MGRs or short hair  goats in Tennessee.  And  the 10:30 they have a fading gene. And what happens with that is their muscles lock and it's from their neck down  and it's only about 15 seconds, but  the goat is fully awake, fully aware and is aware of its surroundings. It just can't move. It's just been  startled or scared and it just freezes. 11:00 Sometimes they fall over and our goats, once they get about four weeks old, the babies start fainting, which is, and they completely fall over. But as they get older, around six months or so, they start to learn how to control that faint so that they just freeze in place for 10, 15 seconds. 11:27 And then as they get older, it's just their back legs  that they can't move. So they can still move their front legs,  which is, they kind of look like the walking zombie at that point.  And that's pretty much what they do. But they took the  Tennessee uh fainting goat and mixed it with  a Nigerian dwarf. And that's how they came up with the mini silky. 11:53 And the idea is that the  silky goats are to be looked like a miniature silky doll.  And  it took about 20 years, but  we're there.  Awesome. Okay. So  I was under the mistaken impression that when fainting goats faint, that it's a seizure, but it's not a seizure. It's just their muscles lock up. The muscles lock up. Yep. 12:21 In a seizure, they're not aware what's going on, but these goats still know exactly what's going on. The thing I find most interesting about this is that most animals, when they're startled,  they run. They flee. But no, the fainting goats just stop. They can't move. Yeah. Well, the other part of the story about the Tennessee fainters is that they free ranged them on the side of a mountain. 12:50 When a predator came, ah they would wipe out the whole herd because they get into a killing frenzy. But when you put one of these feinters  into a herd of goats, uh the rest of the herd can get away because it draws the attention of the predators  to that one that is freezing in place.  And since it only lasts about 10, 15 seconds, it does have a chance to get away. 13:20 after that, but ah it was sort of like the sacrificial lamb that they would put one of these into the herds of uh goats  that they free range that way they don't lose the whole herd. They might lose the one. Yeah,  but it is like it is a genetic defect that they did. So we perpetuate.  the fainting goats were heroes. Yes, basically. Yeah, nice.  I love that. That is so fun. uh 13:50 So do you keep them  as milkers? you keep them for me? They're just pets. They're just expensive pets.  And that's pretty much what I sell them for and I breed them for. I do go all over  the country and show them. oh my primary purpose is just they're just a fun little goat that's small  and very inquisitive  and smart  and happy-go-lucky and they make you happy. 14:19 So I keep them as pets and like to sell them to other people for pets or breeding. When occasionally they go to show homes. Awesome. So how big does an adult fainting goat get? 23 inches at the shoulders for the boys. And the girls have to be under 22 inches right now. They're lowering the size limits on these guys. 14:49 But so they're about knee-high or you know a little bit Depending on how tall you are. How much do they weigh? Anywhere from 40 to 70 pounds So they're they're about the same height as my Australian Shepherd dog because she's a small one But she's actually less she weighs less. She's 36 to 40 pounds on any given day. Yeah, she's there There's nice small goats 15:17 But they do have the hair that has to be maintained. Yeah. Yep. You have to brush them or she or share them. I brush them. Okay. If you're showing them, you have to brush them because 30 % of the scorecard is on their coat. How long it is, how even it is, how silky soft it is, the texture of it. So that's what they're grading them on. Okay. And what's the temperament on these guys? 15:47 They're extremely social, very  friendly.  A lot of them will come up and kind of nipple on the ends of your shirt if you're not paying attention to them.  What are the babies like? Well, you have some that will crawl up and sit in your lap,  and then you'll have others that will look at you and run the other direction.  So the same as any baby animal.  Yeah, pretty much. 16:17 Are they bouncy  like every other goat? the baby goats? two days they find their little springings in their legs and they just bounce all over and kick their heels and do somersaults and they're bouncy and happy and  love to jump up on the things and  investigate their world. Best videos on YouTube are baby goats bouncing around like crazy children. Yes, that's what  draws people to them. 16:47 But they don't stay that small for very long.  Yeah, I realized about two years ago after many years of thinking that I love goats.  I don't love goats. I love baby goats. I love them until they're about eight weeks old. And I'm like, yeah, you're a goat now. Go be a goat.  Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I've talked about goats a lot on this podcast and my  best friend in high school. Her parents raised goats. 17:16 the Nubians and La Manchas, I think.  And every spring, my friend would call me and she would say,  can your mom drive you over? The goats had babies last night because she knew I would want to hold them before they were 24 hours old. uh I would go over and I'd go in the barn. I would sit down on a hay bale and I would sit there and just hold the baby goat for as long as that baby goat would let me hold it.  Yeah, that's what I... 17:45 I opened the farm for snugg, we call them snuggle sessions. Yes. And people come in and uh sit for, I usually open it for two or three hours and they sit, some sit the whole three hours and some,  you know,  it's a half an hour and then they walk around and see all the other animals and then they leave.  Yeah. For me, it was like holding a baby deer because deer and goat are built kind of the same way. Yeah, they are. 18:13 And baby goats are so soft and they smell so good. Yeah, they do.  And that's how the moms determine whose baby is who to. Yes. I sent. And by the bleat that they do, the bad noise. Yep. Yep. It's amazing. I highly recommend anyone who is stressed out in the months of April and May find somebody who's raising goats and has a bread goats and. 18:41 make sure they call you when they have brand new baby goats because if you can sit with a baby goat for at least an hour,  your stress levels will come down. Yes, they do. 18:52 That used to be when I was working, that was the first thing I did if I had an exceptionally hard day.  When I go right to the field with the goats, spend 15 minutes and then my stress level was down so then I can go in and greet the family and have a good time for the rest of the evening.  Yes, I don't know what it is about these baby goats, but it works. And  I've held a baby sheep before and the magic is just not the same. ah 19:21 I don't know why, but something incredibly... just have such like really cute little sweet faces that you just want to just kiss. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to kiss their snoot. It's like, yeah, it's just calling you. You just got to give them a kiss. Yeah, there is just something incredibly magical about baby goats. And if you have never been around them, no, you won't understand it. You have to be around them to get it. 19:53 Yeah, I just, have a lifelong friend now because that was on her bucket list was to see a baby goat be born. And I had to have farm open for a snuggle session and she came to a snuggle session. And it just so happened that one of my goats ended up going into labor during it. So  I'm trying to monitor the mom having goats and also manage my crowd  of people  with. 20:22 snuggling goats on the other side of the  stall wall.  And she said, can I just watch? I said, sure. So I put her up to the stall door and just let her watch.  that was her thing. She said, now I can check that off my list.  And now about once a week, she comes over and just goes to the field and sits on the ground and just lets them. 20:51 I'm over to her, nudge her, sit on her lap, run around her.  She says it's the best therapy. It is. It is. I was just thinking the same thing.  I have to say this because I keep meaning to say it to people and I forget.  I commend you on letting people come to your place and see your animals.  And I'm going to tell you why.  Having trust in the general public with animals that you love is a big, big deal. Yeah, it is. 21:20 My husband and I went to our friend's place. have  cattle, have chickens, they have  sheep,  and they are the original breeders of my dog. ah She was from the very first litter that they ever bred. And she had a puppy day three, four years ago. And they actually had  great Pyrenees puppies as well. 21:48 Somebody had let them take their mama dog until she had the babies and  hang out with mom and the puppies until the puppies were ready to be adopted. So she had a foster dog basically when the mama was pregnant. so we went  and  we know them very well. They're great people. We went thinking there'd be maybe five other people there to see the puppies. 22:12 We walked into their shed where they had the pups and there were like 21 puppies between the Pyrenees puppies and  the Australian shepherd puppies.  There were at least 50 people there. Oh yeah. And she's totally fine with all these people holding  these little puppies. know, the great Pyrenees puppies were probably 10, 15 pounds, but the Australian shepherd puppies were under five pounds. 22:42 Oh yeah. They're little.  I was just like, I'm so glad we got Maggie spayed when we did, because letting people hold those puppies would have scared me to death. It does at times.  I recently had an open house back in March and it wasn't a real nice day out, but um I had a chef come  and  offer food and I had an ice cream truck. 23:11 come  as a center for people to come.  And uh we put out  a pen with the chickens and the bunnies for the people to look at  while they're waiting to come in. But I never expected the turnout that we had.  Oh my word. It was hundreds of people.  Yeah. I'm really glad that that's the case. 23:40 Because again, we need people to come and see what this is But that was a one time thing. Usually it's not that big, but it was like, oh my goodness, it was very well attended. Yeah, and we need that. Yes, we do. But the owner of those animals, I can't imagine your stress levels. Oh, it was high. When all those people go home, you're probably like, give me a goat right now. I need snuggles. 24:09 It was very stressful. Let me tell you. Yeah, I'm really shy. And what I didn't know is that our friends at that puppy snuggle party, I didn't know, but she came over to me and she was like, see that lady over there? And she very subtly directed my gaze to the person. And I said, yes. She said, she really wants to adopt the puppy that she has in her hands. And I said, uh-huh. She said, 24:38 She really wants to know what it's like raising one of these. And I said, uh-huh.  She said, would you, if I send her over to you, would you tell her about your experience with Maggie? And I'm, I'm so shy. Like I just have a really hard time talking to people in, in person.  And I was like,  yes,  yes, I can do that.  So this woman comes over and she's got this little red tri puppy in her hands and she's like, 25:06 Are you Maggie's mom?  And I was like, yes. And she said, how old is she now? And I was like, she's two, three, whatever she was. And she said, how was it? How old was she when you got her?  What was the experience like the first six months? When did you get her fixed? da da da da.  Asking me all these questions. The only thing that saved me, Connie, is that I love this dog more than life itself. And I have been with her pretty much every moment of her life. 25:36 and I can speak to what it's like to raise an Australian shepherd. That's the only thing that saved me, because otherwise I would have just been stuttering and saying dumb answers, because I don't know. And afterwards, she went over and talked to my friend, and puppies were too young to adopt yet. They had another two weeks to go. So my friend comes over to me and she says, thank you for talking with her. And I said, you're welcome. And I said, is she going to adopt it? And she's like, yep, she'll be back in exactly two weeks to get this puppy. 26:06 I said, what's she naming it? She said, red. This is a red tri. I said, all right. She said, I don't know why you think you're bad at peopling. She said, you were great. I kind of heard some of the conversation. She said, and you love Maggie so much it's written all over you. And it's like, oh yeah, I dread the day that she is no longer with us. Yeah. Well, that's the- 26:32 Downside to having any kind of animal or farm or anything like that. It's That is the downside. Yes with that with birthers also comes full circle with death Yep, you just love them and take care of them the best you can while they're here.  That was the hardest thing for me to to manage  Was was that the end of it?  Was the end of things? 27:00 Yeah, and you can't prepare for it no matter how much intellectually you know that a dog has a lifespan of anywhere from 8 to 20 years. 20 is way far out. That's probably an exaggeration. 8 to 15 years if you're lucky. If you're lucky.  Even if you intellectually know that, your heart does not accept it. That's true. And it's the same way with my goats.  Same way. 27:28 If they live to be 15, that's a long life for a goat. We had this really cool billy goat, which we call bucks. He had horns. we bought him when we knew very little about goats. He was our first silky fainting goat. And he was a real beautiful brown color. 27:57 Anyhow,  he liked to play soccer with the kids.  And when I had kids birthday parties, we would all play soccer with Viking. His name was Viking.  And he just loved the kids. just, his eyes would get real big and wide and he would get excited and he would headbutt the ball to the kids. So whichever one threw it to him, he could actually headbutt it back to that child. 28:25 And it was the coolest thing. And anyhow, he liked to do that all the way up to when he turned 15 and a half and we had to help him euthanize because that was the best thing for him. It was hard for us. It was a real hard decision, but it was the best for him. And that's another thing that most people who don't have animals don't know. 28:55 is that prolonging in their life because you don't want to lose them isn't the best course of action. Yeah. We love that boy. Like I said, he was one of a kind. I haven't been able to teach anybody else how to play soccer like that, but he did and he just loved it. So fun. Yeah. The last thing you want is an animal that you love to suffer. that's just it. there's like, there's a list of 10 things regarding dogs. 29:25 that  as they get older, you want to keep an eye on. And it's something about they don't like any, they go off their food or they go off their water or they don't like to sit in your lap like they used to  or they don't want to run  after their favorite toy or they go for a walk with you and they sit down after 20 feet, know, obvious things that are not right. 29:52 If they are not, if something is wrong on six of the 10 things on the list, it's probably time to consider letting them go. Yeah. That's a, that's a hard thing to let any animal go. It is. It's terrible. They're a part of your life and you know, it's part of your care routine and it's the way it is. Yep. And the thing, the thing that kicks my butt a little bit is we know this about our animals, you know, euthanasia for animals is fine. 30:22 But when our elderly folks are miserable and off their food and not mobile and not having any quality of life, we can't do that for them. And I'm not saying that in a bad way.  just it makes me crazy when older people, you know, who are  have no quality of life. They're in a nursing home. They don't get to do anything. Yeah. 30:49 They can't even read a book anymore, which is the joy of my life. I love reading.  I don't want to live like that. I want somebody to pull the plug on me.  But that's considered murder. And I'm like, why do we do it for our animals? But we won't do it for our loved humans.  Yep.  And that's a big swing. And people don't hate me for that. just...  Yes, it is a big swing. 31:17 My grandpa was in hospice care for a good 10 days. And my parents were with him  every waking moment of those 10 days, basically on death watch. And  he was not coming back. The minute he was in hospice, he was not coming back.  And listening to my father grieve those 10 days and then after was hell. 31:46 So yeah, I think that we need to think about that hard because it's not any better for our humans to suffer than it is for our animals to suffer. but I think we want one more day. One more day. Oh, every day, every time. Yes. And it's hard to say, well, today's the day. know, is God going to take him today? You know, why doesn't he take him? Yeah. You know, so it is. 32:15 It is a tough, but you're right there. Sometimes you would think that, you know, we should be given that, that  if that's what that person wants  and has it in writing,  we should be able to let them go. Yeah. The closest thing to that is the do not resuscitate order that you can have. Right. That's it. That's the closest you can get. 32:40 So sorry, I didn't mean to take such a down road, it just brought back memories. um So I try to keep these to half an hour. I  love what you're doing and you sound so happy with what you're doing. I do. I do thoroughly enjoy. I enjoy the people that come and I really enjoy doing the farm tours and with the grandparents and they have their grandkids and  letting the grandkids touch and feel and hold. 33:09 And I do it at their level. If they're not willing to, then we back up.  But they actually get to see and oh, whatever they like that I have here, which is kind of cool. You know, and I do the same for the kids birthday parties,  but they get to release a pigeon at the end of the party. So most places don't have that or do that. Fun. It is fun for them. I love what you're doing because so many kids don't have an opportunity. That's right. 33:39 to ever pet an animal beyond a guinea pig, a cat, cat or a dog. You're right. Yeah. So, yeah. So if they want to hold a chicken, they get to hold a chicken. If they want to hold a bunny, they get to hold a bunny. Yes. And you're planting seeds so that they know that they could maybe someday have these animals and raise them and love them and show them off to people too. Yeah. They sure can. All right, Connie, where can people find you? I'm in... 34:08 Oh, on Facebook. at Rustic Gates Farms.  On Facebook.  As always, people can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Connie, thank you so much for your time. it's been a pleasure. All right. Have a great day. you so much. Bye.  Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Ashley at H&H Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 I'm 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 Ashley at H &H Homestead in Texas. Good morning, Ashley. How are you? Good. How are you?  I'm good. I haven't actually recorded an episode for A Tiny Homestead  in over a week because people have been busy.  Oh, it is that time, especially down here. And we're planting everything. 00:28 We've had some stuff going for weeks, so I can imagine everybody's kind of  really getting into it right now. Yeah, it's that time of year and I go through the same thing in the fall when everybody's harvesting  and I go through the same thing at Christmas and New Year's because everybody's busy with family. Oh, for sure. So I'm very happy you had time to talk with me today. Yeah, absolutely. How is the weather in Texas this morning? 00:53 It is so sunny and nice. I went out and watered everything as early as I possibly could because I know we're supposed to get to 100 today. So I wanted to make sure, you know, I was out there before it got super hot. Oh, I was cringing at the fact that we're supposed to have like 84 for a high on Friday. 100 would kill me right now. See, you're in Minnesota, right? Yes. Yeah, I just I feel you just you just acclimate to where you are because I used to. 01:20 I mean, I've been to Minnesota several times. I used to live in Alaska and I am such a warm weather person now. I just, I really don't like being cold. So it's like, you just get used to where you're at and then,  you know, go to somewhere opposite and it really throws you. Uh-huh. I would rather,  this is going to sound really stupid because I do not enjoy deep winter, but I would rather deal with cold because I can throw on more layers of clothes.  If it's hot, I can't get any more naked than naked. 01:50 Just extra fans, extra fans. I have her, like not even just the cold. I have not had to shovel snow in years and I love that. Yep. One of the things I used to do when I was a kid, cause I grew up in Maine and Maine is very, very, very humid in July and August. And I would get, I would get headaches when it was hot. And so I would, I would literally come in the house,  go on the bathroom, strip down, get in a cold, cold, cold shower. Yeah. So that my hair was wet. 02:19 And then I would dry my hair just enough so that it wasn't dripping. And that cold hair on my neck would keep me cooler. Yeah. Yeah, that's smart. But I just, hate being hot. Hot is my least favorite state of being. Well, see, there has to be, you know, opposites in people. Otherwise we'd all be in Minnesota or we'd all be in Texas. So it's a good thing that there's a mix. It would be a very boring world if everybody was the same. Yes. And my podcast would put people to sleep. 02:49 So,  all right, so why is it H and H Homestead? Well, so our last name is Huff.  so  there's two of us, me my husband, but then our boys names are also both start with H. So either way you look at it, there's just H's all around. So we went with H and H. Oh, I love it. That's amazing. That's great. And like way to be original, mom.  Well, you know, I had to keep with the, you know, I don't know,  R being our last name. 03:18 Hough or, you know, Hank and Hogan Hough. And then they have the same middle initial as well. So everyone's got the same, you know, just that way everything stays the same. You don't get one thing personalized. Technically it goes for everybody, you know. Fabulous. That's really great.  So what do you do at H &H Homestead? A little bit of everything. So we're kind of new to this. So 03:40 And I blame my oldest son for getting us started in this because he brought home the chickens from his first grade class. And this is kind of what started the whole thing is, um, his first grade class hatched these chickens for, you know, studying the, life cycle of animals. Right. And they had these seven adorable little chickens and then summer rolled around and nobody necessarily wanted to take them. So of course I volunteered. So we started with chickens and then from there. 04:08 I was like, well, my chickens need some neighbors out there. They look a little, they look a little sad. then, then we got quail and then I did a greenhouse and now I have dozens of raised garden beds and now we have bunnies and we just got chukkers.  And so I'll probably like everyone else's. Um, you're just always adding something and always doing the next thing on your homestead.  Yeah. It's one of the best things about it. I don't know what a chukker is. They're a little, little game birds. They're called chukker partridge. They're a little bit bigger than a quail.  Um, 04:37 brown, they've got a little black ring around their neck.  My husband used to hunt them um growing up and now we're just going have an easier way to do that because we'll just walk out to the backyard.  Don't have to hunt, just have to acquire. Exactly.  So chicken math quickly led to homosteading math is what you're telling me. Yes it did. With of course a side of sourdough because that has to come with it too. Yeah  I wasn't going to talk about sourdough today but you brought it up. 05:06 I have sourdough  starter in my fridge. It's been in my fridge for a month  because I made it and it was doing great and I was like, I'm not  going to make bread right now. So I stocked the jar in my fridge and I really haven't looked at it since. And because you said it, now when I go downstairs, I'm going to have to take it out and make sure it's not dead. I have never put mine in the fridge. I know people do that. I've just never...  I've always been afraid that that's going to kill it. 05:36 So I probably, you know, I make as many discard recipes that I do actual bread, just because I'm like, I gotta do something to keep it going. Yeah. My husband, part of the reason I got stuck in the fridge is because my husband makes yeast breads and he's really good at it. Yeah. And therefore three or four weekends in a row, he had made four loaves of yeast bread every weekend. So we had bread that was already made in the freezer and I was like, eh. 06:03 I'm not even going to attempt to make the third loaf of my life of sourdough right now.  So I put it in the fridge and I guess as long as it doesn't have orange or pink mold on it, it's still viable. think so. I think it just gets that layer of stuff on top and you pour it off and then... Yep. And just add some more stuff to it.  So I got to check that today  and I honestly don't want to because that means that... I didn't mean to just add to your to-do list. 06:31 My to-do list today is basically the podcast recording with you, but  I really should check. really should. uh So do you have land or are you an urban homesteader? We have about an acre, just a little over an acre. And I mean, technically we're within city limits, here we're very, I mean, we could walk and we're outside of it. We're so close to the edge. So like we don't have a ton of space, but eh I feel like really maximize. 07:00 the area that we have. have everything kind of right next to each other, not super spread out. Definitely still have room for more animals. I've been telling my husband I want goats or I want pigs or I want something else. And so far he is not super on board yet. Doesn't seem to have a problem if I add any type of birds that I want. But as soon as it has four legs, then it's more of a discussion. Is it because he's afraid he'll get more invested in a four-legged critter because they don't have feathers? 07:28 Maybe I mean, he grew up with this kind of stuff, right? He, you know, showed pigs he had all this kind of stuff. So it's not as new to him as it is to me and the boys. So I think he's just, you know, maybe not as excited about doing it again, per se.  He did say that about the bunnies when we first got the bunnies, because we were given them as meat rabbits. em We have since kind of transitioned more into pet bunnies because they happen to be just so adorable. em But it's like, I get it. I mean, I think if we bought 07:57 a pig knowing that we're going to raise it for consumption, then it's different than if we buy a pet and then, you know, keep it as a pet.  Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.  So, um,  when you decided you wanted to get into this,  did you talk to your friends about it? 08:19 Well, not necessarily, maybe a little, but we don't necessarily have people who were super close with that are doing the exact same thing. We have friends who have had chickens or have had ducks who coincidentally no longer have chickens or ducks, but that didn't deter me. So I was determined to do it regardless. Okay. The reason I ask is because when my husband and I had the chance to start looking for a homestead, 08:46 like land as we lived on a 10th of an acre lot for over 20 years.  When we made the offer on the place that we've lived at for six years in August now,  we waited until we knew the offer was accepted to tell people.  the reaction on all the people that we told faces, this terrible grammar, sorry,  was the same.  It was shock.  It was denial. And then it was like, what the hell? 09:16 Why? What is it? I mean, maybe it's just not as common. Where you because I feel like even in  our little neighborhood, we're kind of a little afterthought. And I wouldn't even call it subdivision. em I mean, in the morning, I hear probably seven other roosters like everybody has something. There's sheep down the road that sometimes end up in our driveway. Like around here. I feel like it's just everybody has something.  I don't know the answer to your question. And I really don't know. 09:44 on a lot of levels because we had been growing a garden in our backyard for years. m a lot of produce came out of that little tiny backyard. And we had been growing peonies and flowers in the front garden.  We had gotten chickens when the bird flu went through that first time.  And  we didn't even know who were allowed to have chickens, but I was like, I don't want to be without eggs. getting chickens. We had four chickens. 10:13 We had always said to our friends that if we had the opportunity that we would find a place that had more land and we would move.  I don't think they believed us because  no one,  no one was un- Really?  Everyone was surprised. Interesting. And to this day, I think that they still think we're insane. 10:40 Well, they can think that until you give them eggs and produce and bread and all the things that are coming from your homestead. Yeah. And the other thing that I've said a lot on this podcast is that  I grew up with my parents growing a garden, with them heating their house with a wood stove, which meant that we as kids helped with the splitting and the hauling of the wood for the wood stove.  My mom canned, my mom froze extra produce in the 11:10 the freezer in the basement. I didn't know that homesteading was anything weird. I thought everybody did it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. So when I first started this, again, I said we're fairly new to this, but I made a point of asking people who who did classify themselves as a homestead, like when when do you consider yourself a homestead and when are you just, you know, I have a hobby or I have a backyard garden or I have some chickens. And a lot of people were saying it's more of a 11:39 Like homesteading is a state of mind. If you feel like you are doing this because you're wanting to, you know, better the quality of food that you are feeding to your family and that kind of thing. So it's interesting to think about when people consider it an actual homestead.  Yes. And for me, because of the way I was brought up,  I always equated homesteading and prepping and  not tinfoil hat prepping, but just being prepared. Yeah. Yep. 12:07 Cause if you grow up in Maine where I grew up and you know what winters are like in Maine,  sometimes you literally can't get out of your driveway for a week because it's too icy or the plows can't get to where you are and you're stuck. If you're out of toilet paper or out of milk or out of coffee, you're out. Yeah. Yeah. So  I didn't know that, that people actually only bought 12:36 things every day that they needed and  didn't prepare for the occasional emergency. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So it's just the whole thing is so  nuanced, I think. Yeah, yeah, and just in different, different where you are in different. I mean, I  take a homestead here in Texas versus somewhere. 13:02 We're doing probably different things, maybe the same basic, you we have animals, we have the garden, but the way, what we're planning for and what we're growing and saving and prepping is probably completely different, just geographically too. um I think to a point, yes. And I think part of that is that you are lucky enough to live in an area where you probably have persimmons that grow, persimmon trees. Oh, I don't know. I don't have any. We are... um 13:32 I have a love-hate relationship with trees and getting them to grow. And sometimes I'm convinced West Texas doesn't have  the ability to grow trees. I don't know.  I honestly have to look and see if we have any around here. I don't know. Well, I know in the South that there are fruits that grow that will not survive Minnesota. Oh, for sure. Like,  poppa trees, persimmon trees, anything kind of tropical-ish. Yeah. They won't. 13:59 make it here because they can't survive the cold freeze in the winter. Yeah. And for the longest time, I thought that peaches wouldn't grow here, but we have two peach trees and we got peaches two falls ago. So I don't want to jinx myself, but I might actually get peaches this year. So I planted trees a year and a half ago now, peach, pear, apple, and plum. And we got flowers on everything. I was so excited. And then, you know, good old West Texas windstorm comes through and 14:28 All of the flowers are gone on everything except for the peach trees. But we do actually have a couple that provided they stay on. um We should actually,  should be able to enjoy at least a peach this year.  I hope you get to because there is no better peach than the peach that you grow yourself. um I am really trying to. There's some things that I've, it's funny, uh my youngest, my six year old, he's more into everything in the garden because he  eats everything, which is great. 14:55 Like he'll go out and I mean, if there's two or three tomatoes that are ready, like they won't make it out of the garden. Like he just eats everything. But so he's, he has asked for, he would like an apple, he would like peaches and he would like some strawberries. And it's like the things that he has asked for are the ones that I struggle with the most. I don't know how many strawberry plants I have killed at this point. And it's like, I don't know why. I just, there's some things that just, they do not do well in my backyard.  Huh. 15:21 Yeah, strawberries are hard because birds love them. So you may think that you're bad at strawberries, but it may just be that the birds are getting them before you see them. I'm going to go with that, but I don't know if it's true.  It's like we have elderberry trees here and elderberry is a really, really good thing to have growing on your property. And there's two and they grow wild. 15:46 And every spring they bloom and they're beautiful. And I'm like, yes, elderberries. have not, I've not gotten to them yet. And part of the reason I haven't gotten to them yet is because birds adore elderberries. And I said to my husband this winter, said, is there any way we could put like bird netting over the And he said, if I had a really good fire truck with a really good ladder. Yep. 16:16 And I laughed and I said, well, how much would one of those cost us? he went, no, just rent one. sure.  Yeah. He said, he said, what? And I said, I'm kidding.  He said, you are so deadpan sometimes. I don't know if you're joking. uh Maybe we can get one of the firemen to drive down and help. And he was like, they're not going to do that.  said, yeah. 16:39 So I think that my chances of  getting elderberries for anything are probably slim to none, but it was really neat to find out we had elderberry trees on our property. Yes.  And the birds were here long before I was, so. So  I you gotta let them have them.  Yup. I mean,  I feel like we  as humans have stolen so many things from nature. 17:06 that if I have to sacrifice elderberries to the birds, I'm just giving back things that were stolen from them a long time ago. That's true. That's fair. And I'm not going to die if I don't get the elderberries. It's fine. However, my husband is going to go out and cut asparagus tonight because our asparagus patch is going  crazy.  That's one that I  would like to do too. I haven't done that one yet. The new ones we've added this year, just because I feel like... 17:33 I mean, tomatoes do great. We do so many herbs. Um, the main thing I like to do is alufas. I'll talk with those in a second, but, I really, really just wanted to grow a side dish, a nice side dish to go with a quail dinner. Right. And it's just like, I, I, I failed at a couple of different variations of green beans last year. Um, so this year I did Brussels sprouts, which are doing great. And then, um, and other new one was art to carts, which are actually, 18:00 Yes, that's one thing you probably can grow like crazy. We've tried. They do not do well here. See, I thought they were even considered as well, cool weather, maybe not cold weather, cool weather, because like we, I think I planted them too late last year, the Brussels sprouts and they never quite, they didn't get the actual Brussels sprout before it got too hot for them. And then the leaves just died. So I planted them much, much, much earlier this year. So hopefully we'll have a good harvest of those. Yeah. Brussels sprouts and artichokes, a no go. 18:29 We have tried. just never do anything. Well, I'm fingers crossed on those. But the other one that we that I love to do did them last year is luffa gourds. How long how long is the growing time for those from seed to ready? Well, it did. So we don't I didn't eat them like you can't eat them. I know you can. And that's like 90 days or something like that. But then if you just let them go about 120 plus days and let them 18:57 you know, dry on the vine and then, you know, get them as luffa sponges. That's what I did. So I let them all dry, which worked really, really well here. And because it's like, it's perfect. You literally plant this plant and your whole goal is to just let it die on the vine. So it's really hard to mess up. So it's great. um But then let them all dry and then peel them. And then I actually cut them apart and then I sewed them all onto,  I crocheted. 19:23 a little rectangle with 100 % cotton yarn and then sewed the loofah onto the other side. And then for Christmas last year, everybody got homemade loofah sponges. So it was the perfect little growing a gift.  is a great idea. I love that.  See, this is the other thing about homesteaders. We're all very creative  or we're curious enough to go find the people who are creative and copy their ideas. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I honestly didn't. think for the longest time I wasn't really, you know, a loofah, I think growing up having a loofah sponge, was one of those 19:53 nylon, know, puffy ball things. I wasn't thinking actual natural loofahs. And then I just, I think it was probably even TikTok or Instagram or something. I saw a lady talking about growing them and I was like, you know what, I'm going to give that a try. And they actually do really, really well. If we wanted to grow them here, we would have to get them planted in February. Yeah. Like in a container in the house to get them started and then transplant them. 20:20 Yeah, I have seen one. So there was a lady I watched. She was in, I think, Michigan, and she grew them into where about the time that they were starting to get a frost, things, they weren't quite dry yet, right? They weren't brown. So she picked them and she slowly dried them in her oven, like the lowest possible setting door open. She had a little convection fan thing  and just naturally or not actually, guess, dried them that way. So maybe that would have to be have to do it when it's cold. 20:49 Yeah, I don't know, because we've talked about it. But my husband for some reason just isn't into this whole loofah idea. And he's the gardener. And I meant I meant to just order some seeds back last fall so I could just hand them to him this spring. I completely forgot about it. Next time you decide I'll just I will send you some I'll put them in an envelope. I'll mail them to you because that's the thing is you get one loofah plant and then you get a bunch of loofahs from that one plant and each loofah 21:17 has between 50 to 100 seeds in it. So I mean, I have so many seeds. I have sent them to friends all over. I sent them to some to my parents in South Dakota, sent them to my sister, sent them to friends in Minnesota. They're going to try them this year. So I'll let you know how those go. I've sent them to Utah even, so all over. So we'll see what state has the best return. I will message you my email address and maybe send me. You could be my lupus seed dealer. 21:47 Absolutely. I'm on it. So the other fun thing that you do is you have the fluffy bunny rabbits. I do. have fluffy, well, have lop-eared and lion head. have both. And these are the ones where, you know, I've said they were some friends got them and they were given them as meat rabbits. And technically lop-eared, can be dual purpose, you know, pet meat rabbits. And it's just like, once you go out there and I play with them every single morning and I'm like, man, they're just, we're just going to be in the pet rabbit. 22:16 trade now because I don't know. They're just so darn cute.  Yeah, for the listener, if you guys want to see the cutest baby bunnies ever, you've got to go to H &H Homestead on Facebook  and scroll down a couple posts and there are the most beautiful fluffy bunny babies I've ever seen. Oh, thank you. Well, and they, it's it's funny. We have, we have about three different age, ages now, cause we've got the ones that just opened their eyes. And then from another mom, she had a litter, which they probably are about. 22:46 five, six months now, but they're like the middle fluffy stage. And then of course we have the parents, but um yes, they are definitely fluffy, adorable.  They require a little bit of maintenance. Like I probably brush the bunnies more often than I brush my dogs because they're not really the shedding type, but um I go out there with a little brush and I am, so the lion head are part Angora. So I am brushing them and I'm saving their fur and I have it in a little bag and then I will, 23:14 Um, wash it with the wool that I have from a friend's sheep. And then I'm going to spin some, spin some yarn this fall and see if I can't make something out of it. Are you lucky enough to have a spinning wheel or do you just have the little, um, don't know, a little thing, a little one. then, I mean, if I, if I really get in, if this becomes my next new big hobby, then maybe I'll consider, um, a big spinning wheel one, you know, with the foot pedals and stuff like that. Otherwise just a little tabletop battery powered ones. 23:43 Yep. Hang on one second, Ashley. Yeah. 23:49 I had a tickling back of my throat and I didn't want to cough in your ear, sorry. You're good. If you ever do look into getting an actual spinning wheel, I would recommend that you go and look for a used one because I looked years ago at how much a new one is. Oh, yeah. They were exorbitant then. I don't even know how much they cost now. Yeah. Yeah, that's for sure. I remember... 24:18 Years ago I watched, I think it was the first time I ever saw someone using one of the, I mean the  big giant ones,  know, on the, they probably sit three, four feet off the floor and she's working it with both of her foot pedals and I can imagine those ones are very, very expensive. Yes. And I am fascinated by them because the- So fun to watch.  Yeah. The, I don't know what the word is,  the mechanics of it.  like, how did somebody figure out how to make these things? Cause they've been around forever. Yeah. 24:47 Yeah, it's very fun. Yeah. See, I figured that's, you know, I'm just going to have to, I feel like I'm always adding a new craft or a new something until, know, last year was sewing of these leafy sponges. And now I feel like it needs to be crocheting of something, even though, I mean, I might crochet a hat or ear warmers or things that I don't really need in West Texas, but we do occasionally get one week of a little bit of cold weather. So I might use it then. People love scarves. That's true.  Even. 25:17 Even if it's Florida, people love scarves. That's true. My daughter lives in Florida. It got kind of chilly this winter for a little bit in Florida. Yeah. And she messaged me and she was like, wish I knew how to crochet. She said, you know how to crochet. And I said, do you need a scarf? And she was like, I don't really need one. She said, but I feel like it's, she said, having grown up part of my life in Minnesota, she said, I feel like I should be sitting with a cup of tea. 25:47 and crocheting because I watched you do it. And I was like, you know, it's pretty easy. And I showed you how. Mm hmm. Yeah. She said, I think I'm just romanticizing it. I said, you really don't want to do it. You just wanted to talk about it. I like it. No, I love to crochet. That's something where I like to sit, you know, sit in the evening when we're watching TV or something and I crochet something I can't. I can multitask and crochet without having to think about the stitches and just kind of, you know, repetition. 26:15 Knitting, have to actually read a pattern or focus. I crochet and I do Tunisian crochet and that's really fun to do.  That's what I did with the backs for the sponges was Tunisian crochet. Nice.  I despise knitting. I tried to learn when I was like 13.  My mom knitted and I was like, show me how.  She taught me the whole knit  one, purl two, whatever. 26:44 Yeah, and and I just  it was way too  personickety and I hated the sound of the needles clicking which is really weird. That's funny I do I find that relaxing and then I even I usually have like long fingernails or something and then like the sound of the fingernails with the knitting I don't know it's one of those I find that like a relaxing so it's so fun. Yeah, I don't know and I mean 27:06 I may be on the autism spectrum. I don't know. I've never been diagnosed, but there are just certain things that drive me insane.  Knitting needle clicking was one of the things that just, was like, God, I hate that noise. don't know why. So if you ever do take up knitting, you're going to do it while wearing earplugs or like loud music blaring.  I'm just not going to take up knitting. will crochet. Do you do any other other crafts too? um outside of crochet? ah 27:37 I love to cook. Oh, same. Yep. So I don't know if that's a craft, but I do. love to cook. I for me. I used to like to do, I don't know what it's called, not embroidery, cross stitch. Oh, cross stitch. Yeah. I don't do a cross stitch if it has like the image already printed on there. I don't know that I have the patience sometimes for counted cross stitch. Like I just want to look and match colors and do it that way. 28:05 Yes. And what's really weird is knitting is too persnickety for me, but counting cross stitch was really easy. Really? Oh my goodness. Okay. Yeah. Very weird. I haven't done cross stitch in a long time. I got into it when I was probably 32, 33. Yeah. And I'm, 56 now. And I, I made, I found out that my mother-in-law really loved butterflies. Yeah. 28:31 And so I found these two really gorgeous butterfly cross-stitch kits and I made them for her and I gave her one for her birthday and one for Christmas.  And then she passed away uh back  just the beginning of COVID and she didn't pass away from COVID, she passed away from something else.  And we were packing up the house and she had those cross-stitches hanging on her walls and I have them, I put them away because I put a lot of hours into those things. 29:01 Yeah. And I just, don't know, I think I'm, I'm past my cross stitching phase. Yeah.  I can see that. Okay. Well, the next thing, you know, just, mean, my other big one is, is sewing and quilting. I love all things sewing and quilting. Yeah. I never got into quilting. My mom, my mom loves to quilt. Yeah. Like,  loves it. And she's 79 years old. And I think the last quilt she made was two years ago. Oh, wow. Good. 29:31 You just, think once you start, you just never stop. I mean, I've been sewing since I was about six. My mom taught me and then picked up quilting later,  probably  after high school. And then, I mean, I've taught both sewing and quilting for probably 15 plus years now. I designed patterns,  published patterns. was on a quilt show. Me and my friend did a couple episodes or couple seasons of a quilt show. And then I sew anything and everything. And my first sewing book actually just came out. 30:01 last November. um So yeah, I love to do  all things related to fabric.  you have a website, Ashley? Not a personal one, just the Facebook page. um So where's your book available? uh So Amazon is the big one. So it's 500 Sewing  Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Hacks. um But a bunch of, know, it's a small little quilt shop.  have them. uh Barnes and Noble has them. But Amazon, think, is just the 30:31 easiest way for everything, for all shopping.  That's exciting. I didn't realize you had a book. Yeah, thank you. It was fun.  I've taught both sewing and quilting for years and done it either in person or em I probably have hundreds of hours of just short little clips or little tip videos or long form classes. And so it was  kind of fun to um do the written version of that. 30:59 Like I feel like it's very easy to, I think it's easy to teach someone like when you're physically sitting there next to them, right? And showing them how to do something and explaining something. But it was a very different process to actually put it into words of like trying to make it a cohesive, understandable book. But it was a lot of fun. Nice. You are very talented and you're very busy. And you give me hope because this homesteading thing is not a fad. 31:28 Yeah, yeah. is a way of life. And I agree. As the world gets scarier and crazier, I feel like the people that are practicing homesteading skills, skills, schools, uh-huh, skills are the ones who are basically going to save us. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like, we won't necessarily need the big box stores and things like that. We will be able to do and provide for ourselves. 31:57 So I'm trying to get everybody on board who wants to be on board because  we need the world to survive because honestly,  nature doesn't give one flying F about human.  No,  nature would go on just fine if all humans disappeared tomorrow.  Absolutely. And I don't want  to disappear. No, no, no, it does. But I think, you know, you're saying, some people don't want to fully embrace full on home setting per se. But it's like if if somebody just picks 32:26 one thing that they're into. Like maybe you only want chickens, you don't want to do anything else. Or maybe you only want to grow this one specific thing. But if everybody has just the one thing that they're doing, then everybody altogether, we're still going to have everything we need.  Exactly.  All right, Ashley, this was really fun and I appreciate your time.  People can find you at H &H Homestead on Facebook. Yes, absolutely. Are you on Instagram?  No, I probably should, but I'm not yet. Okay. 32:56 All right. As always, people can find me at thetinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Ashley, I hope you have a great day. Thank you. You too. Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Ruth at Rud Ridge LLC. You can also follow on Facebook. 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 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 Ruth at Rud Ridge  LLC in Wisconsin. Good morning, Ruth. How are you? Good morning. I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm good. Is the weather beautiful in Wisconsin today? Because it is gorgeous in Minnesota. 00:22 It's one of those Wisconsin days where you're not sure if 60 degrees is going to feel like 40 degrees or 60 degrees is going to feel like 80 degrees. So, uh, it's beautiful. I'll take it. Uh, but it's a little chilly out there for this time of year.  Yeah. May has turned out to be more like April and April was more like May here. So I don't know. Mother nature is just  a fickle.  Which  W I C H let's put it that way this year. 00:49 As long as my husband can get the corn in the ground today and the other crops planted, I will be very happy.  Yes, yes, because corn needs time. So it can be knee high by the 4th of July, as they say.  You've got it. They just planted  the field that surrounds our property  yesterday, day before yesterday,  and they're doing soybeans this year. It's been corn for three years in a row. I'm so thankful it's soybeans this year. 01:17 little bit of change. Yeah, we actually had some ice on the duck ponds this morning, which was not normal for me. So,  no,  our outside um water supply, I don't know what they're called. It's the it would in the old days, it would have been the well where you had to pump the water out.  And it's not you just lift the handle and it's like a spigot. Yeah, yeah, it's been frozen the last three mornings. And my husband's like, 01:45 I'm going to have to fill up a five gallon pail of water and take it out to chickens. I'm like, good luck with that because that's heavy.  So yeah, it's been weird, but I hear that this is the last cold week, supposedly  until fall. We will see. Weather, man. I don't know.  So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you guys do at Red Ridge LLC. So Red Ridge originally started with rabbits. em 02:13 Excuse me, specifically,  Rex, not many rabbits.  We started with rabbits because we lived in town on half an acre. ah children and I began with raising rabbits for meat and show.  And we relocated to another property outside of town and have expanded into crop farming and we will be adding beef hopefully later this year. So we are all around a family homestead. My husband is a seventh. 02:42 generation farmer here in Wisconsin.  So we are looking to continue that with the eighth generation that would be our children.  Nice. um I have a question about the Rex rabbit. Rex rabbits are the ones  that look like velvet, right? Yes, they are. They um are kind of generally considered a commercial  breed,  larger in scale. They have a versatility where their  their pelts are 03:11 utilized  in  a lot of garment making  and such. very, very soft. Once you feel Rex rabbit fur, nothing else feels quite like it in density and softness.  And they really are a joy to raise and watch  thrive in our homestead.  friend of mine had one and it was like 03:36 like a chocolatey, a light chocolate brown one, but she had black eyeliner around her eyes.  And I fell in love with that rabbit. She was friendly and she was the softest animal I have ever petted in my whole life. Yes, absolutely. And we specifically have always focused on temperament of our stock.  They are handled quite a bit from the day they are born. We do routine nest box checks. We're always hands on. 04:05 Um, you know, making sure that they're growing well,  um, everybody's alive in the nest that they are used to being handled, that moms are used to us handling them.  So it kind of really sets them up for, um, a thriving of their social personality in that aspect. But you know, you pointed out they can be really sweet and kind.  Yes. I mean, I think that rabbits make excellent pets as long as you, as long as they are socialized to being handled. Yes. Well, and you know, 04:35 Certainly historically in America, rabbits have been utilized for meat.  It's not quite as common  as it once was um in either the country or our region specifically to have rabbits as meat. But I think it's an important point for people or families who want to be  a little more self-sustainable, to be able to be involved in their own personal food chain, whether it be for themselves or for their pets. We do supply. 05:05 Some people rabbit meat for their pets, um dogs and cats,  sometimes snakes.  I think that  people can care for their livestock and rabbits can be a part of livestock while also being  kind of that cute and cuddly at the same time. It's an interesting dynamic to try to uh explain to people that are looking to begin on a homesteading journey. 05:34 Yes, you don't  just have to have meat chickens, you can have meat rabbits as well. Yes. Rabbit meat actually is considered one of the healthiest and easily digestible proteins  that's available to people to consume. um I know  that, again, people have to kind of get past the fact that it's their own um animal they would be harvesting,  and it's not  presented in a package  these days. 06:04 Every single animal that we consume  kind of looks the same on a grocery store shelf. They're all basically in the same size packages. They're in the same sort of presentation. But rabbit meat from a health standpoint personally can really give people a solid boost into their nutrition.  And I keep hearing that  if all you ate was was rabbit for your meat source. 06:32 that that doesn't go well because they don't have a lot of fat on them? So that is  more geared to wild game rabbit.  Okay.  Um,  while within the meat itself, there's not like a lot of marbling like you would see in, um, beef or in pork.  Um, you will find when you harvest domestic rabbits that they do have a certain amount of fat content within them. Okay. That being said, 07:01 There's no one  ever that's really  consuming solely rabbit in their diet, you know in this day and age if you understand where I'm coming  so it would be really really difficult to be so Exclusively relying upon rabbit meat that you would find yourself deficient, you know in  in nutrient Okay, so it's 07:26 I wanted  to bring it up because people keep telling me this and I'm like, I don't think anybody's just going to eat rabbit, number one. And number two,  we had rabbits for a while and when we butchered them, they had fat on them.  It's very much akin to um the old wives tale that if you touch a rabbit  or you  touch a nest from a rabbit that the mom will abandon that nest.  It's kind of the same  in the same vein that there may have been a 07:55 grain of truth  into, you know, exclusively utilizing rabbit being poor for your health. You obviously need a well-rounded diet  that somehow that translated into people believing that rabbit starvation is an issue when you're utilizing rabbit meat and that it's just not the case.  you. That's I was hoping you would clear that up for me.  Absolutely.  And you know far more about rabbits than I do. We did it. We did not. 08:25 do well at it and we don't raise rabbits anymore. I'm  sorry to hear that because we really define them to be a  positive impact in our life.  We had dumb bunnies. They did not know how to procreate and we had the right genders or sexes or whatever. They just didn't make babies.  I believe people have found that there is  the saying of, you know, breeding like rabbits  that particularly when you want them to, they may not. 08:54 uh It can be  a little bit of an art and a science. uh There  are  things such as the rabbit's over consumption of a pelleted feed that can lead them to be a little heavier in fat that would limit their ability to get pregnant.  There can be other environmental stressors or factors that can make it a little more difficult than it may seem on the surface to kind of really get an established rabbitry, even of a trio. 09:24 into a productive meat source for a family. But  if you can work through trial and error  and really talk to people that have an established  formula, you know,  sometimes it can, can really work out.  And I wish it had, but we were just, after a year, we were so frustrated with these rabbits and don't blame me  and feeding livestock that isn't, isn't doing the job. 09:50 is not a good plan.  we just were like, now we're just going to butcher the ones we have and stick them in the freezer. Now, having said that,  one of the females did get pregnant and she did have babies. And it was one of the most wonderful couple of months of my life because baby rabbits are freaking adorable. They really are. I always have to tell people when I show them pictures of new litters, like the day they're born, I promise they get cuter. ah It can be a little surprising for people when they see what a newborn 10:19 uh, rabbit looks like, uh naked mole rat. Yeah, we call them hippos.  Little, you know, blind hippos.  Um,  but you know, as they grow and it really can be a joy. My personal favorite age is three weeks old,  um, which we have some rabbits in the barn right now that are getting ready to be that age.  Um, but for the most part, it can be really a  joyous process. are so sweet and 10:47 The reason that I say it was one of the happiest couple of months of my life is because it was really hot when this mama had them. It was June.  It was way hotter than it should have been.  And there was no way to keep the hutch cool.  so  I demanded that we bring the mama and the babies in. So the mama and the babies hung out in a big old plastic bin with the nest box and hay, cleaned that thing out every day. 11:16 And I got to watch these babies grow from a day old until they went back outside with mom at about five or six weeks old. Six weeks old. It's amazing how quickly they grow, huh? You just kind of... Yes. It's hard to even believe sometimes. Yes. And because they were...  The bin was on my kitchen table.  I got to pick up baby bunnies whenever I wanted to and they were very socialized.  Yes, absolutely. 11:41 It was really fun. I don't want to do it again anytime soon, but it was really, really fun while it lasted. You're grateful for the experience. Oh, I  am. I would not change it for anything. And  I told my mom, she,  I live in Minnesota and she lives in Maine and I told her the whole story when we did it. And she was like, so you get up every morning and get your coffee, drink about half a cup of coffee and then just sit down and commune with baby rabbits. And I was like,  yes, I do. 12:11 Yes, and it's fantastic. Absolutely.  It really can be a joy. She said, I think I'm jealous. I said, get you some rabbits, Like,  no, I'm too old. Not doing that. I'm like, okay, that's fine.  So it was very fun. I don't want to do it again. But I commend anyone who is raising rabbits because it is an art and a science, I think. It is. I agree. Yes. So you said you said you're thinking about getting into getting cows. 12:40 So, yeah, so is that that's for meat or dairy or both? Meat. So my husband was raised on a dairy farm. He comes from a long line of dairy farmers. Unfortunately, in 2008, his family's dairy barn burned to the ground. Luckily, all the animals and all the people were safe. But since that time, 13:06 his family has pivoted to raising beef cows. ah They raise herford ah for the most part. And so we are looking to add our own  beef cows down here.  We're about 20 miles away  from my in-laws farm. ah We're looking to add beef cows to our pasture.  So  you don't have to tell me an exact number, but are we talking like 13:34 10 or are we talking like 100? uh So  we're on the smaller side of an operation, probably 25 or so.  Nice. And I'm going to ask a really stupid question because I  literally don't know the answer to this. Where does one acquire beef cattle in Wisconsin? Well, so  acquiring them directly from other farmers is an option. 14:04 option.  The auctions, equity livestock would be another  option. Certainly the last handful of years, three years or so, beef prices have soared quite a bit. Yes. We joke that it has not been a wonderful time to plan to get into beef cattle. uh So short of purchasing from our own family. uh 14:30 or going to the auction,  either way you slice it, it certainly costs more than it did probably five years ago.  So I think the farmer  is an ever optimist, right?  We have to be. em If you're pessimistic about it, you might as well not even start because Lord knows we don't control the weather, we don't control the commodity prices, we don't control whether or not our herd 14:57 remains healthy within our control or if something happens or you know government  forces at play or any of that. So I think we really at this point are just kind of looking to find  some sort of reasonable beginning and to try to flourish and expand  from within ourselves through breeding and other acquisitions that we really can do in order to leave something that our children 15:26 have been involved in starting and may want to continue in the future. I am thrilled to hear that you're looking into this and you want to do it and you're going to make it go because my other podcast called Grit and Grace in the Heartland, Women in Agriculture, my co-host is a cattle rancher in Nebraska and she and her family are going to have to sit down next week and figure out what animals they are keeping, what animals they are selling. 15:55 because Nebraska and South Dakota, basically the whole Midwest, other than Minnesota and Wisconsin, and we're upper Midwest, so it's different, is in the middle of a drought.  And there's been a lot of fires in Nebraska this spring. And so the grazing field, the grazing land is burned.  And uh a lot of people are going to be selling off their cattle this year.  And she told me that um a bunch of 16:24 people in her area are having issues with this, this strings calves being sick because of the weather conditions.  So if you think beef is expensive right now, it's only going to get more expensive. And I'm so sad about this.  I am as well, you know, and, us smaller scale farmers, you know, of course, small scale, think as far as upper Midwest versus small scale. 16:48 Yes. Kind of towards Nebraska and that are two different things, right? It's not necessarily the number of head we're talking about, it's kind of the operation in general. Yeah. But small scale farmers are really, you know, kind of disappearing a bit  and being absorbed absorbed into  larger operations. And  I would really love to see family farmers and ranchers be able to continue to push forward somehow. um For us,  that means 17:18 starting and scaling in increments that are manageable and small.  Not taking on operating loans or expenses, just trying to kind of chip it out  as we can and try to  teach our children to do the same and do the best with the circumstances we can control. And  if we can at least start with feeding ourselves,  feeding my family, feeding our, you know, the few families that are connected directly to us. 17:47 be good stewards of the animals and the land and just keep going away at it. It is our way of life and  what we would welcome and want people to try to continue to do. On the other hand, I realize it's difficult. Conditions can be brutal,  emotionally, physically, environmentally. And  I tip my hat to any  fellow farmer or rancher that is having to make these tough decisions because it's not fun. um 18:16 but I send our prayers and well wishes with them. Yes. And no one gets into raising livestock because it's all rainbows and sunshine and boxes of candy. No one does. Or for the money. I think that was especially in the rabbit world. We had expanded at one time to having our Red Ridge stock in 22 different states. 18:44 um kind of going through starting other people's barns for themselves, starting into show  territory. And there's an assumption that, well, you you're just in it for the  money or,  you know, exploiting these poor small woodland creatures.  But I can promise the profit  in farming is purely one of culture, lifestyle,  and that's really in the heart that certainly has nothing to do with uh 19:14 Monetary gain or loss as it were depending on the year  No, it's because you freaking love it Yes Yes,  and I want to I really want to pound on that because I feel like a lot of people just make assumptions about people who grow things or raise animals and  it's I don't know why it's weird to be in agriculture, but 19:40 A lot of Americans think that it's weird to be in agriculture. And I'm like, it's not weird. Why is it any weirder than being in selling boats for a living or selling cars  or selling crypto?  Do what you love. Yeah, I do think some of it, as far as the wider American public links back to our separation from our food and our specific food chain, you know,  we did see a swing back a little bit as far as American families keeping chickens, for example. 20:10 um after COVID or with the rise in egg prices. um But otherwise, I think people just see food  and agriculture as something that's like, well, somebody else is going to do it. What do you want to do it for? Somebody else will do it. um But for those of us that are in agriculture, um it's really a cornerstone of our lives. And it's interesting because I don't come from really an agriculture background. um I was not raised in the Midwest. 20:39 My husband 100 % was, this is his heritage. It's something I always felt drawn to even as a little girl. ah So the agriculture bug bit me somehow. um And I think it can really be something that anyone who feels the call can do. It might not be easy. It might not always be fun or Instagram worthy, but anybody can do it if they're willing to really  make 21:07 some sacrifices  and get into the community to learn from others as well. Yep. So are your kids into this? My kids are very into this.  Yes. I have one daughter and one son.  They are going into middle and high school. um They are involved in the FFA. They very much  are out there on the tractor and  you know, 21:35 working to acquire their own  beef herd as it were.  They have steak in the rabbits. So they are very much farm kids. That gives me so much hope. Yeah, me too. We need,  I'm going to use the term little people, but we need our little people and  our getting bigger people to embrace this because somebody's got to grow the food that America eats, you know? 22:05 Right, it's really that connection with  our food, with agriculture and with the real world that  is  required to operate within it to make sure it continues. We'll our best to give them that. I'm so glad and I'm so glad that your daughter is into it because again,  a lot of people assume that girls  don't farm and women are very into farming now. Very. Absolutely. Yes. 22:33 Yes. And she, you know, has a favorite brand of tractor. will not argue about colors of green on this podcast, but I promise my son and daughter have  differing opinions on it.  And they're very strong ones. Uh, they have their favorites for the field and what each of their own individual plans are, but raising a daughter that is interested in crops and in livestock.  Um, and then additionally in animal sciences, you know, really. 23:01 makes me proud to show other mothers and other daughters that we have a place here. Yes,  absolutely. And I don't care what color the tractor is as long as it gets the job done. You know, I feel that way. not quite... I don't understand what the whole  spiel is, but I am happy to let...  As long as they're going to drive it to do the chores, right? That's my  thing. Yeah. And as long as it starts and continues running, we're good. And as long as they can fix it. 23:30 We happen to run  older equipment. That too, yes. They can fix. oh Yes. And the other thing that I kind of want to touch on, because we're talking about tractors, which I never talk about because I don't really use ours, my husband does. um Tractors don't have to be brand  new, like came off the line yesterday, to work. 23:56 You can  pick up an old tractor and  re-habit whatever and it'll work just as good as a brand new tractor. You just won't have screens and computers that tell you  where you are in the field. Right.  Yes. That's how we personally operate. I understand why other operations may operate differently, but  for us, particularly since we only really started  within the last decade, it's important. 24:25 to us to operate something we can afford  at the jump. We can work on ourselves. um We may be able to still find spare parts for  versus waiting on a computer chip from somewhere that we don't know how long it's going to take to get here. Well,  the plants have got to get planted. Yes.  I am old enough to remember when cars did not have a computer system in them. Right. And I kind of hate that cars have computer systems in them now. 24:55 Yeah. One more thing to fix,  One more very expensive thing to fix. Yeah.  Yep. So, you know, our kids are an eye. I'm  I don't drive the tractors as often. It's  kind of my husband's thing. I am the one that is the gopher and the do and the, know, he needs me to go down to the implement store and bring him what have you. Because again, this was 25:22 What he was raised on, he's worked on these types of tractors his whole life. uh I can contribute in other areas, but,  you know, for the most part, it's been a positive way for us to kind of maintain things in our operation. Yes. So you're, you're in Southwestern Wisconsin?  Yes. We're just about halfway between Madison, Wisconsin and Dubuque, Iowa in the Southwestern corner of Wisconsin. Okay. So. 25:51 You've been to Minnesota, yes, no? Yes, I have. You know how Minnesota is weird because like the southern part of the state is pretty flat, but as you go further north, it's more hilly and forested?  Yes, we are the opposite.  So, so it's not flat where you are? No, it is not flat where we are. It's pretty, ah you know,  graded and hilly and it is not flat where we are. We're considered what's called the driftless region.  Oh, yes. um 26:20 So we are not necessarily in a really flat part of the state.  No, but you are in a really beautiful part of the state. I have been to the Driftless area. It's gorgeous. Yes, it's very unique and it  certainly has different landscapes for everyone. uh Your cattle are going to love it. Yes,  they will as long as the fences hold, right?  I think don't go through the, uh we have creeks that run through some of our property. 26:50 And they can be a little crafty about getting around the fences that go through the creek, but you know, it's a beautiful landscape and a beautiful area.  am so excited for you. What's the ETA or the possibility ETA on getting cattle?  Um,  we don't really have a firm  timeline. Um, we're kind of shooting for before summer. Nice. Um, but I think that has a lot to do with how the planting season starts and. 27:16 you know, lot of other things that are kind of intertwined with making sure we are set up with good fences and, you know, water and all that for the cattle. So hopefully  before fall.  am going to have to keep an eye on your Facebook page for when the first pictures show up of your cattle on your property. I'm sure there will be lots of them. So yes, please do. I love when I get to interview people and they have  new things coming down the road because 27:46 It'll pop up on my Facebook feed and I'm like, oh yeah, they finally got the thing, whatever it is. Yep. You know, the pivot away from rabbits has been, um, well, I shouldn't say away from rabbits, but away from rabbits being the main focal point has been a little bittersweet. know, um, rabbits built red ridge. Um, it did the purpose of beginning where we did with rabbits was because we lived in town. can't have cows in town. 28:16 My husband was still  active duty military at the time. And so it's how my children and I really started Rudd Ridge is kind of a segue into my husband's retirement. um now move forward into um cows is seeing  everything we dreamed of for 20 years kind of come to fruition. So  I feel like I'm departing from what built Rud Ridge and moving into, you know, the future that 28:45 I'm excited for, but it's also a  a little bittersweet. So I try to invite people to do their own part  for their family with their food source, still through rabbits, to kind of maintain that, connection. Yeah. It's so exciting, Ruth. I'm so thrilled for you.  All right. Where can people find you? I try to keep these to half an hour more, 28 minutes. Oh, okay. That went by fast, huh? Yeah. So people can find us at Rud 29:15 Ridge  LLC  on Facebook. That is most commonly um where I am able to update.  We do have a regular website, uh redridgewisconsin.com,  but that can be a little more clunky to update. So I'm trying to get there to get  a little more current, but we look forward to having people join us where they can find us. 29:41 As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Ruth, I love what you're doing and I appreciate the fact that you took time out of your busy day to chat with me. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you. Have a good day. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Jessica at Little Willow Homestead. You can also follow on Facebook. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful. If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. A tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Jessica at Little Willow Homestead in Idaho. Good afternoon, Jessica. How are you? Good. How are you? A little dumb today. I'm not going to lie. It's all right. 00:59 Maybe both of our brain cells together  will accomplish something.  Maybe. I think it's allergies. It's very sunny here in Minnesota and there's a light breeze  and I think all the things that are really starting to bloom are just ruining my brain. But my husband sent me photos of the apple  trees that are blooming today.  So I'm very excited. Our apple trees never do very well  in 01:29 end of April, 1st of May, because we get these big wind storms or we get thunderstorms and the blossoms get blown off. uh And I'm just, the weather's supposed to be good for the next five days. So  I'm praying  that the weather is good for the next five days. So we get apples on the trees on the far side of the property that we've never gotten apples from in the five years we've been here. Hey,  we can pray.  That's awesome. Yes.  So I think the allergies are kicking my butt. 01:59 And I got a really quick thing I want to share with you and listener. um I went out on my porch and looked out the window and one of our chickens was over by our useless garage. We don't use it for anything. It's ready to fall down.  And we have this one chicken who escapes the run every day. And I decided that her name is Hopper because she hops the fence. 02:24 I have a few of those and uh one of them,  she is ultra determined. She's a coffee agger and she loves to jump the fence and lay in this one particular spot.  But  I know it's going to be there every day, so I go and collect it every day.  Yeah, I don't think the chickens are actually laying outside of the coop, but this one just has to go explore after she lays her egg in the nesting box. 02:55 She's a little crazy. She's a little free spirit. She is and she looks so fat. I know if I went out there and picked her up, she probably only weighs about three and a half pounds. She's so feathered out that she just looks round. I love it. So I want to talk about the coffee agar thing, but first, would you tell me a little bit about yourself and about your homestead? Oh my goodness, where do I start? 03:24 So I really want to share with you the why why we moved out here to begin with. Yes. um So we  we kind of homesteaded a little bit before in our hometown, which is a little tiny town in Idaho.  And  I  don't know, I just  that was back in 2009. And I got chickens. I had a ton of chickens. I was doing meat birds, taught my kids how to process meat birds and all the things.  And my daughter 03:54 My youngest of, we call her the youngest of the  first batch. was the youngest of our five.  She was really struggling in school. And so we made the decision  because she was the only one  at home that we would um sell our house, move to a different town and get her into the best school in the area that worked well with children on an IEP.  And so we  sold our house, moved into a subdivision, stayed there for four years. 04:21 During that time we did foster care and then we  adopted our daughter. Well that daughter the daughter that we moved there for graduated from high school and a month later we put our house on the market  and and we had our daughter that we adopted from a foster kiddo  she had asked us to take her and and and raise her and so  we wanted to give her a life  away from the city teacher where her food came from and just 04:50 for me to be able to homeschool her and,  you know, just teach her all the things, you know, things maybe that I didn't learn and  just, I don't know, I just really wanted to raise her out in the country. I felt really strongly about it.  And I had this like idea that you move out into the country, far out into the country, because we do, we live 30 minutes away from anything,  a gas station, anything.  And so you have this like mindset, at least I did. 05:19 that you move out into the country and things are gonna be slow and peaceful and serene and all the things.  And that's not what it's been like for us being out here.  It's actually been really, really hard. When I first  got here, we got chickens right away, of course. And then I started to raise meat birds and  what have you. And then... 05:47 Shortly after that, um that daughter was 19 years old, was actually convinced to go into uh Washington state, get on a plane and fly into Washington state and she uh was trafficked while she was there, she was sold.  And so this whole time I'm thinking like, it was supposed to be easier being out here, but things seem to be getting harder.  And  I um struggled with um being diagnosed with lupus after that. 06:17 And then  really having a hard time with breeding my birds and trying to take care of my daughter,  struggling with lupus. But my husband was so amazingly, like, patient and loving. And  he saw this desire in me to do this. And so he would step in when I couldn't. so we just really learned to work together as a team. em you know,  we were doing really well. We were 06:47 building our business, creating the rainbow eggs and what have you. And while I was doing that, I came across that really deep dark brown color. And I was like, I know how I can make that, but what am I gonna call it? Because it needs to be something different. And so I looked and looked and I'm a coffee drinker. So I was like- 07:12 I love coffee and I have like coffee signs, have a coffee bar, like all the coffee things, right? And it just hit me one day, it was like coffee agar. And then I felt like God was like, go look it up  and make sure, know, dot all your I's and cross all your T's, make sure that it's not being used in commerce. And it wasn't, I couldn't find it anywhere.  It's just like, this is awesome, this is so cool. So I actually had the name for it before I ever even had the color, which I thought was funny. 07:42 pretty cool. And then I got the  color that like six months later, as soon as I figured out like how to do it, I got that color and hence that's where the coffee acres came from.  And so we were, we just started to breed like those colors and whatnot  and things were going well. We were selling to a local  like feed store, our birds and stuff. And  it was like literally in the height of like hatching season, you know, it was the end of April and I got a phone call. 08:11 at six o'clock in the morning on April 26th that my son had overdosed and died of a fentanyl overdose. And I was completely wrecked.  when was this? This was five years ago, April 26th, 2021.  And I told my husband, I couldn't catch my breath for one. And it felt like I was getting kicked in the gut daily. And I told him, said, I can't, I can't do this anymore. I can't, I can't breathe. 08:41 I'm going to cry. 08:45 said, want to sell everything. I don't want to do this. um And so I started to list things and he said, you're not selling the incubators and you're not selling your best. I'll let you sell, but I won't let you sell your best. I need you to keep back your best.  And he knew what I was trying to accomplish. And so I sold all but 10 birds  and I grieved hard, hard, hard for eight months. 09:14 And then I just felt like God's saying, go back into the brooder, like get back into this.  And I walked back, I just remember walking back out into the brooder and going, this is it. This is what is going to bring me healing. Like I just need to take all of that grief and pour it into genetics. So that's what I did. I just dumped it into genetics and  like that's all my brain really thought about, you know, and I was able to mass produce the coffee acres  and 09:44 I figured out how to do it and I figured out which ones were laying that egg without even having genetic testing done  just by the look of the bird. And so I posted a post one time. I mean, I didn't have very many followers. We weren't big or anything. And then I just said, these are our coffee agers. And it blew up after that.  And my husband was like, you're going to need to trademark that name.  And he said that from the beginning. 10:14 he saw interest in it. And so did my father-in-law. I said, no,  no, I'm okay with that.  And they just kept pushing me. And finally this last year, he was like, no, we're going to do this. And I said, okay, but you got to get all of  the duckies in a row because that's not my thing. I just want to breed the birds.  so he did. He found an attorney and we  filed our application and we had to prove. 10:42 When we started, like when we started using it, how long we had been using it, how long we were using it in commerce and stuff like that.  just this last, just uh in January it was finally approved and we, um it went, um it went live that it's now a registered, registered name under Little Will Homestead.  How did that feel? 11:08 Well,  with the hatred that I have had towards it,  it was actually like, God, you did this. 11:19 I never intended for  our business to get big. I never intended to even ship  out of the state.  really,  my whole goal when  I started to homestead was just like, I just want to feed people. Like I want to teach people how to butcher a bird and I want to teach people how to  raise chickens and,  you know, grow a garden and do the things, you know. I never had this like big plan of 11:48 this is what I'm gonna do.  And so  I was kinda,  I was kinda taken aback, you know, like, this is real. Like, this name now  is always gonna be tied back to little Willa Homestead, you know? And so  it was amazing. And you know, I don't think that  the biggest thing with coffee acres is  what it affords us to do. 12:16 with the funds that come into our business. We don't have a  5013C,  but we have a ministry where em we feed the homeless. We go every single week and  we meet at a  local burger place  and  we bring them in and  we don't feed them burgers every week.  We actually will bring food and supply all the stuff. We just have a place to do it.  And then we go out into uh our community, which em 12:46 is our homeless population  is bigger than Portland, per capita in this little tiny town in Ontario, Oregon.  It's about 30 minutes from us. And so if you could just imagine, you know, per capita, you've got this small town and a huge portion of this town is homeless people,  you know? And so we go out into what are called uh the flats or tent cities. 13:15 and we minister and we feed these people and we don't just feed them like food. We sit and we talk with them, they love on them, we pray over them. We're  just trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus  and do what God calls us to do. he, coffee acres afforded us the ability to financially support this.  How fabulous. It's  far bigger than that even, Mary. 13:44 Like I said, was telling you, I got on a plane and went over, I went to Bangladesh and it's a 91 % Muslim country and there are so many women and children are being trafficked over there. So we got to actually rescue a girl from trafficking while I was there. And if it weren't for my business, I would have never been able to afford to go to another country and do something like that. 14:14 just  do what  God is calling me to do. so every door that he opens, and I know it's of him, I just keep walking through it.  so, yeah.  So that's where we're at and they want us to come back.  So, yeah. Nice. Okay. So, uh are you mainly poultry focused on your homestead or do you grow gardens and have other kinds of animals? 14:42 I uh only have chickens, that's it, as far as animals are concerned. We did have a giant garden. The chickens now get that area  because we've grown so much.  We literally live on an acre.  We  can't  expand anymore. The people that own all of the property around us have it in a trust and they don't want it broke up. They don't want anything done to it, which I think is amazing. um 15:11 I think what they're doing is amazing and it keeps us being able to do what we do with somebody not coming out here and saying, you can't do that.  yeah, we only,  right now we're only doing our rainbow layers, our coffee acres and all of our other colors.  We  used to do meat birds and we used to sell them.  And uh I just had to mention, I saw that you had Joel Saliton on your, uh that's his name, right? Am I pronouncing his name? 15:40 And he uh was  my guy as far as being able to learn how to track your meat birds and do it efficiently and how  to process a bird even. I used to sit there and watch all those videos over and over until I could figure it out. He is the kindest man. Yep, I believe that. I do. If you ever have the chance to go... 16:06 Anywhere near Polyphase Farm, should set up a time to meet him and tell him thank you for teaching you.  Yes.  On video, nonetheless. Yes. Yes.  Absolutely. He is a darling soul. I like him very much. Yeah, I've really enjoyed watching his videos and learning. Are we still there? Yep. Okay.  I'm not sure why that popped up. It might, oh, it might've been my watch. I like, why is my camera popping? 16:36 Squirtle.  yeah, he, I used to watch countless hours  of his stuff and listen to him and very, very knowledgeable man. So.  all he wants to do is help people.  Just like you want to help people just in a different way. uh So uh how many chick, I've got two questions. 17:04 How many chickens do you have  and do you sell the eggs to people who want to eat them?  I have just over 200 birds. We just did our testing  and we never sell eating eggs. We only give eating eggs away. Okay. So if people want them for eating, we give them away. We do not sell them as eating eggs. We don't have very many eating eggs  because we 17:33 we sell our hatching eggs.  We ship them so people can enjoy  having the rainbow colored eggs and stuff.  And then the other question I have is do you actually ship chicks? We just started.  We just started shipping chicks. Yeah, I did my first shipment  almost two weeks ago and every chick made it.  Wow.  Every chick survived. So I was really, really excited. Yeah, we had. 18:03 We had  across the board  babies that went all over the United States and they all made it alive. And so, yeah, it was pretty awesome. It was very nerve-racking.  uh... Yeah, that doesn't happen very often.  No, it was... Well, I prayed over those babies like no other did, so... 18:22 I was like, Lord,  I feel like you're calling me to do this, so please let these babies survive, because  that would hurt my heart to send babies in the mill and see that they didn't make it.  Yeah. Yep. It's sad when that happens.  Mm-hmm. For sure.  Yeah. I've heard a lot of horror stories with  shipments and stuff, and so  that's why I was so reluctant to do it.  But I had so many people begging me to ship chicks. 18:51 and people that maybe didn't have good hatch rates with their coffee acres and they really, really, really wanted the coffee acres.  And so I opened up just a few slots for the end of spring and summer to ship some babies and  they actually already sold out. So  most of our stuff is sold, well,  I'm sold out of everything pretty much until fall. um 19:19 Or yeah, and even into the fall now.  Okay, since I'm not an expert on any of this, I'm going to ask you some some questions that might seem obvious, but they're not obvious to me. um When people buy the coffee egg or hatching eggs or the coffee egg or chicks, are they buying them because of the color of the egg because they want that color egg? Or are they buying them because the 19:48 because they want to sell the eggs as food?  What's the draw?  There are a lot of different reasons, actually.  I have had a lot of breeders that have  bought my birds, bought my eggs.  And then a lot of people, they do, they love to put the eggs in their mix that they sell, like maybe they have a farm stand. Yeah.  they... 20:15 they want to be able to, you know, offer that color inside of the mix of  their eating eggs.  so,  yeah, and they're pretty neat because when you crack them open, they're coffee on the outside, but they're blue on the inside. oh snazzy. I didn't know that.  There are some neat looking eggs. yeah. Okay. um Sorry, nose is trying to run. 20:43 It's allergies, I know it is. ah So  what do the chickens that, what do the coffee agar chickens look like? Are they a dark chicken? And the way I breed, there's a lot of different ways to get that chicken, right? There's a lot of different ways that you can go about getting that  specific color. The way I breed, my birds are blue and black. 21:11 and sometimes white, and that is a recessive white gene that they would have carried from one of the parents.  I don't get the whites that much anymore. I don't breed for it, but I didn't ever breed away from it just because I actually had people  would specifically come to me and say, I want all of your white birds because they thought it was neat that I had these white birds that would lay all these different colors. And so, um 21:40 But now, for the most part, they're mostly blue, which is gray in the chicken world.  Just so people know, because a lot of people don't know what a blue is, it's a gray chicken.  And then blacks. And then  some have muffs and beards, some don't. Some have pea combs, some don't.  Most of them have  feathered feet. em 22:07 Some of them have some really beautiful lacing in their feathering. It just varies. Not one of them looks exactly the same as another, which is kind of cool. You figured this out all on your own or you studied genetics to get to this?  I'll be honest with you. I'm not that smart.  I really truly believe it was God.  I would dream it. 22:34 I would dream genetics, would dream colors, I would dream how to put  two specific birds together to create a color. And  this is another thing that I have not seen in any other farm, and I'm not saying that it's never happened or people don't do it,  but  my entire rainbow of eggs was created with just two colors, and it's only been just two colors, and I do not buy in other birds. 23:03 to add to that, I started by making an olive agar chicken.  And everything else has been developed from that in the seven years I've been doing this. Wow. Wow. That is so freaking cool.  It's God. It really is.  It's amazing.  You can randomly stick some birds together and, you know,  if 23:31 they're colorful layers, you're gonna get some colorful layers out of them, you know what I mean? But what I've been able to do is literally  ban my birds. We're now even using  these like little uh vegetable bags, I guess, like uh netting.  And  I am putting very specific eggs into each one of them so that I can even  narrow things down even more. 23:57 so I can get speckles on specific ones. can get blooms on specific ones.  We now have been able to um create what we call  little willow lilacs,  which is like this just beautiful pink  egg with this really heavy bloom. And we're looking into um just some other names for colors.  I have another color. 24:26 I have a name and I haven't created the color yet.  we'll see how that goes. It's so far so good. It's always like panned out, which is pretty awesome.  um,  your story is so interesting. Like I have never, I've been doing this podcast for over two and a half years and have never heard a story like this before. uh Yeah. Well, you know, 24:55 That's God for you.  I just think that, you know,  he's had his hand in this the whole time. yeah,  it's just been neat to watch it unfold. It's been hard.  know, two years ago, I don't know how long you've seen my farm or followed it or whatever, two years ago,  we had a fire around our entire farm  and we were supposed to evacuate. I mean, we were... 25:24 We were told to get out of here and get out quick.  And uh the fire was burnt back on us four nights in a row. So it was coming at every angle.  And one night it  literally came within an acre and it was flying off  the trees. And you could just see the embers just flying through the air.  40 mile an hour winds were pushing it in our direction. And not one of those embers hit the other side of the road. I mean, that in and of itself is a miracle.  hours those trees were burning, for hours those 25:53 those winds were pushing those flames. And even the fire department guys that were sitting in our driveway said that was a miracle. I've never seen anything like that ever happen. but God, he's powerful. he was like, nope, far enough, far enough. And other people lost their homes, they lost their farms, they lost a lot, they lost cattle. 26:23 My birds didn't even get sick from the smoke, which was  pretty awesome. So  yeah, it's been crazy to see the things that have happened and to see God's hand in all of it. And I think that's why he gave me the name. I think that's why he called us to trademark it was because he wants his glory, you know, and he doesn't want other people taking it. he... 26:50 He deserves to get the glory for what he does in our lives, you know, and he's used my life  just to show people how good he actually is and that  though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don't have to fear any evil, that he's always with us, you know, and so, yeah, he's been faithful. 27:13 He's been faithful, you know, I talked about having lupus before. I don't even have it in my body anymore. It's undetectable and has been  for many years.  There's just so many things that he's done that it's like  only him, you know, so. Well, I am  so  glad that you have found something or God gave you something. Let's put it that way. 27:41 that brought you out of the depths of despair and gave you something so positive to focus on. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. And  I mean, chickens of all things, know, egg colors of all things, you know, but that's just how he works.  You know,  it could have been many horses. One acre.  It could have been that probably wouldn't have gone very well. 28:09 No, no, would not have because you would only be able to have maybe one and a half mini horses on an acre. Exactly. Yeah. yeah, it's it's and I even thought about it like when we moved out here, of the things because I used to do ministry a lot, you know, like I said, we did foster care and we would work in the church and stuff like that. And when we moved out here, I was like, God, how on earth are you going to use me out in the middle of nowhere where I didn't even get 28:38 phone service at the time when we first moved out here.  And it felt kind of depressing to be honest. I wanted my daughter to grow up out here, but I also still wanted to be able to serve  in many ways and felt like there's no way I'll ever be able to serve out here.  And God's like,  oh honey. Hold my beer.  Yep.  Yep. Yep. And so. 29:09 Yeah, it's just,  it's amazing. is. I love your story so much, Jessica. Thank you for sharing it. I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at 2838. So uh where can people find you?  At littlewillowhomestead.com.  And also we are on Facebook  at Little Willow Homestead. 29:34 And  I am also sometimes very little on Instagram. I try to stick to one platform,  but you can find me on Instagram as well.  Little Willow Homestead there as well. yeah, those are our places.  Fantastic. As always, people can find me at a tinypodcast.com.  A tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Again, brain and tongue not working today. 30:04 Um, this was great, Jessica. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, absolutely. This was really fun. And I learned stuff again. This podcast  has been the joy of my life because I learned something  new with every person who talks to me. That's so awesome. It really is. It's really fun.  All right. You have a great rest of your weekend. All right. You too. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. All right. Bye bye.  

Today I'm talking with Joe and Jessica at Natures Farmacy. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. A tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Jessica and Joe at Natures Farmacy in Alabama. Good morning, guys. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Alabama this morning? 00:55 It's a little overcast. It rained yesterday and a lot last night. So overcast, warm. Plants are happy. I bet. I bet they are. It is a beautiful sunny morning here in Minnesota and there's a very light breeze and everything has greened up beautifully. And tomorrow is May 1st. Yay. 01:22 Very excited because May 15th is the date that we plant our seedlings. So we only have to wait 15 and a half more days. Awesome. So tell me a little bit about yourselves and what you do.  OK, so uh we're Nature's Pharmacy. We are a  micro farm here in Summerdale. um We grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables. um We're basically on 1.7 acres and we're trying to pack in as much 01:52 ah produce and fruit as we can on this.  It's not tiny, but it's not big either on this piece of land. And ah we use organic growing practices.  We set up at the markets. ah We have five kids.  We homeschool them. So we're here all the time.  That is a lot of little people in your life. We have two that are big people now and we actually just became grandparents. 02:22 from one of them. So that's really cool. She's a month old now. Jessica, you look amazing to be a grandma. saw your videos on Facebook and I was like, wow, she can't be more than 25. guess. Oh, thank you. It's the veggies. Yeah, absolutely. Are the kids involved in the... They're involved in the berry picking and eating. Yeah, it's hard to keep fruit on the trees and... 02:51 on the vines, ah but I'm guilty of that too. I love to get out here and pick berries and eat fruit.  It's really awesome to be able to have that experience and for our kids to have that experience running up and down the rows picking, whether it's fresh carrots or blackberries, plums, peaches. I'm so glad that we get to do that for them. They do help though. They  are oldest,  not our oldest, but the oldest living here. He's 13. ah 03:20 He helps us with harvesting and packaging and getting stuff ready for the market. He helps us set up at the market. The girls help some too. They'll come out when we're planting and want to poke a few seeds in the ground. We don't force it. So if they  want to help, they do. Nice. You're growing budding entrepreneurs while you grow your gardens and your fruit trees. Actually, our 13 year old has his own mushroom operation. I mean, I'm sorry. 03:49 Worm casting. Worm casting operation. Which could lead to mushroom growing. Well, we do grow mushrooms.  So,  yeah, that's definitely something that, you know, if he wanted to get into that, he could. We grow Shiitake mushrooms and  we'll grow other mushrooms as well, like wine cap. But yeah, so he's he's  farming worms and collecting castings and he sets his little worm castings up at the market and he 04:17 He sells worm casting, so it's really cool. He's pretty much staying sold out too. And the girls are trying to get into crickets. They  did just recently order their first batch of crickets. They want to be able to grow those, whether it's for like people that have lizards  or feeding their chickens  or even bait. Yeah, fishing.  I love it. You guys have been an excellent example for your little people and your big people. Thank you. 04:47 I wish everybody could be that kind of example because we'd have a much better world in about 10 years. Well, I think more people  are waking up and  moving towards, you know, going back to  homesteading and  I say a simpler life, but sometimes it's not simpler. mean, there's a lot of work involved, but  I see more and more people all the time. Seems like they're waking up and trying to. 05:15 disconnect from the system and become more self-sufficient.  So.  Yeah, as I've said on this podcast a bunch of times, I didn't know that homesteading was anything weird or different. my parents lived on an acre  in Maine when they were raising me and my siblings and they grew a garden and they heated their house with wood and my dad split wood by hand with a splitting mall and an axe. 05:44 And we helped him haul wood over to the basement and chucked it downstairs and moved it from one corner of the other to stack it for the winter.  We didn't know that that was not what everybody did. And I can remember walking into a house for the first time where they didn't have a wood stove in their house. And I was like, don't you guys freeze in the wintertime?  I think  I was 10 and  the dad of the family was like, what are you talking about? We have electricity. 06:15 We kind of grew up the opposite. Okay, yeah. Yeah, like we grew up on the TV dinners and the plopped in front of the TV and you know, just we didn't know people lived like you lived. Yeah. Yeah, we grew up completely different. But later in life, we, you know, started to realize that that's not the way we wanted to live anymore. So 06:43 We wanted to start growing. We got a piece of property in Summerdale, started our first garden  about 13, 14 years ago and just fell in love with growing and with the idea of being able to provide people with food.  so from there we just expanded on that idea and have continued to grow our farm.  And,  you know, we still want to expand. uh It's a work in progress for sure. Building new beds all the time and 07:12 planting more crops. 07:16 Yeah,  do I explain this?  We have a hard sided greenhouse that is permanent, but we had a,  a, I want to call it a high tunnel, but it's not one of the big ones, but that style of greenhouse, we had one up and the plastic ripped over the winter.  That whole thing came down yesterday. Cause we're not going to use it this summer.  And I was like, I'm kind of, I'm going to miss that little bubble out there. My husband looked at me and he said, what? 07:45 And I said, the greenhouse you took down today. Yeah. It's been part of the landscape for two years. And I it's going to look weird having a hole in there, you know? Yeah, for sure. We love our greenhouse. That's actually where we're sitting right now. It's actually become like a second living space or actually maybe this is the main living space and the house is kind of secondary living space. yeah, we have Thanksgiving out here. if you know, the big kids come over and bring the family then. 08:15 We have dinner out here. It's really nice. That is so sweet. I love that. And is it warm in Alabama at Thanksgiving time?  Sometimes. Most of the time. Yeah, it's very warm. We usually have to have the sides up and  sometimes fan going.  Yeah, we couldn't do that here. It would be very cold to be eating Thanksgiving dinner in our greenhouse. Yeah.  Yeah, most of time it's warm, but like two years ago we had snow. So 08:45 That was kind of unexpected. Bet it was pretty. It was. We actually played in the snow. I don't even think I came inside for two days. I'm just out here walking around in the snow. It's something we don't get to see very often. Did you eat the snow? Cause I would have. No, I did not eat the snow, but I definitely played in it. We do still have a bag in the freezer though. Our daughter wanted to keep some snow. 09:13 One of the most fun things that I ever did with my grandpa when I lived in Maine  as a kid is he would go out and get  the fresh fallen snow that no one had walked on and no dogs had done anything to.  And he would bring it bring it in and put it in a bowl and put maple syrup over it. And we would eat maple syrup snow. So like a maple syrup snow cone. Yeah. And if it snows again this winter you should do that with your little ones because they might get a kick out of it. 09:42 Yeah, that's cool. Never thought about doing that, but yeah, that's that'd be cool. And I don't know if it'll snow again. That's something that's very rare down here. Yeah. If it does, do not use the crappy store bought fake syrup. Get some real maple syrup because it will not be the same without real maple syrup. Oh yeah. That's all we use.  Okay, good.  My husband picked up some of the  not real maple syrup when he was shopping and I was like, we will eat it because you bought it, but don't keep buying this.  Yeah. 10:13 It's bad for you. It may taste good, but it's bad for you.  So much stuff in the stores is terrible for you.  Yep, absolutely. If I knew somebody close by that I could get uh raw milk from, we wouldn't even buy milk from the store. We would buy it from somebody nearby, but there's no one within a half an hour of us that sells raw milk right now. Oh my goodness. 10:39 And with gas prices the way they are, a gallon of raw milk is about $20 at the cheapest around here. And I don't even want to know how much gas it would take to get over to where they sell it. that's, we're pushing $30 a gallon for raw Oh my goodness. Yeah, that is insane. It's so crazy. But it's worth it. I mean, if we were some, if we were nearby somebody that was selling it, we should, would certainly stop in and pay $20 for a gallon because 11:08 Those dairy farmers work really hard to provide a really good product. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it takes a lot of work. It's it is nonstop. Sometimes you got to get up in the middle of the middle of the night, you know, to handle business. So yeah. Yeah. Does Alabama allow raw milk sales?  No. No. Yeah. No. You have to put that it's for  pet consumption only, not for human consumption. 11:36 But if you want to drink it once you get at home, can, right? Sure. I mean, I'm sure if they thought they could bust in and bust you for it, they probably would. It's so dumb, isn't it? It is. Yup. mean, you're just trying to live their lives, man. And I don't know, people who want to dictate what you can and what you can't do. Yeah. Humans have been drinking raw cow milk for 12:02 Ever. Yeah. then the government went, no, it might make you sick. You can't do that. 12:10 Yep, it's insanity.  I can't say anymore because I'll get myself in trouble. I know, I know. That's why I'm just like, it's crazy.  It is. It's nuts. I do not understand why we regulate things that don't need to be regulated and we don't regulate things that do need to be regulated. I will never figure this out until I die. And even then I probably won't find out. It's just about control. Yeah, pretty much. 12:37 God love the government. And honestly, I'm going to say it again because I've said it a lot of times on this podcast. I think that we need government for for a few things, but I also feel like the government makes us trip over feet more often over our own feet more often than not. Yep, absolutely. Yep. Let's government. I mean, they definitely like you said, there are there are some things, but there's just countless things that they just need to. 13:07 you know, get out of our business. Yep.  I have, I have a  B in my bonnet this morning because I just found out that  our government decided that it's going to be okay to mine up in the boundary waters in Minnesota. Like it's, it's going to be legal. And I don't know if you've ever been to Minnesota, but the boundary waters area is one of the most beautiful places in the United States. And it is pristine because we have taken really good care of it. 13:36 Yeah. And now there's going to be mining pits there. Awesome.  Yeah, no, it's really not.  I'm quite pissed off about it. It's sarcastic. Yeah. I know. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah.  I'm,  I took a big deep breath when I heard it and went, okay, well, maybe in two and a half years, they'll stop doing that. Maybe.  We'll see. We'll see.  So yeah. 14:06 Go ahead. So yeah, it's it's not great.  And I feel like there are so many or so few  untouched places left. That's right. You really should not be screwing around with them.  every time we lose a place that hasn't been touched, we can't get it back. That's right. Yeah. And they just keep on going.  It's so funny how the double standard, you know, it's OK for them to destroy and I  don't know. 14:35 I mean, I'm not saying that I want to destroy anything, but you know, they they want to control everything and and they give themselves a license to destroy, you know, our our ecosystems and habitats. And it's just it's it's mind blowing. It is. I wasn't even going to talk about it, but I did. So. So do you guys have any animals? You know, I know you do produce, but do you have any animals? We do. We have chickens. We did have some sheep. 15:04 But  where we live and  the fencing situation that we had, we live right on the highway. So  the stress of them getting out and getting in the highway and causing an accident was, it was pretty intense. So we got rid of our sheep, but we do still have our chickens and some ducks. And we collect eggs. And we have cats and dogs. iguanas. Yeah. We have the normal stuff like cats and dogs. 15:32 Iguanas maybe not so normal. um To each their own. Yeah.  What kind of dogs do you have?  They're nuts, basically mixed. They're good dogs, though. Just rescues.  Good.  Yeah. A lady  was going to take them all to the pound, so we adopted two and they turned out to be some fantastic dogs. 15:58 Yeah, it's always the ones that are going to not have a home that turn out to be the best dogs. That's right. I have not told this story before and you guys just gave me a really good opening.  One of my sons, he and his wife saw on Facebook or next door or something that there were three huskies.  They were living in Arizona. My son and his wife were living in Arizona at the time and there were three huskies running around loose in the desert. 16:26 Nobody around somebody dumped these three beautiful dogs. And my, my son's wife looked at him and said, do you want to go get them? Do we want to go get them and give them a home? And without batting an eye, my son said, yep, get in the truck. Sweet. They rescued these dogs and they were over six months old. They're now  two or three years old. There's two males and a female, they're siblings and they're the golden huskies. 16:56 like golden and white? Yeah. They have turned out to be the best dogs ever other than my dog is my dog is the best dog on the planet.  I won't die on that hill, but they have turned out to be the best dogs. Yeah. Huskies are really good dogs. They're, pretty smart. We've had some and uh, yeah, they're very intelligent,  uh,  very loyal. Yeah. Can you imagine being a Husky in the Arizona desert? 17:24 not knowing why you're in the desert. Yeah, no doubt.  Oh, poor dogs. I'm so glad that that my son and his wife were like, yeah, we can add three dogs to our household. Why not?  For sure.  OK, so you guys sell your produce and sell your eggs? Yes, we do. We set up at  the market and we also  we have a CSA program that ah we are running also right now. So you can sign up and become a member. ah 17:54 purchase a share in the farm and we provide you with local all-natural produce.  I think we're one of the few  farms that are actually doing that right now, at least that I'm aware of in our area.  Awesome. Have you gotten into the  making soaps or  bombs or salves or any of that stuff? I'm actually, I have oil going with calendula flowers in it now for making soap. 18:23 and salves.  Nice. Have you done it before?  No, I haven't. How are you liking the process so far?  Well, I've only gotten to the growing the flowers  and soaking it in the oil at this point. So I'm just waiting on the oil to be ready and then I'm going to order everything I need to start trying soaps out. Are you going to do the cold process kind? Yeah,  the lye. 18:53 Okay,  my husband makes it I'm scared to death of the the lion water situation I  it scares me to death that I'm gonna do something wrong and then I'm burning myself with it  But he's been doing it for years and once you get the process down, you'll be able to do it in your sleep Yeah, I was watching videos and it looks  I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how simple 19:17 Like  it's really not that I mean you've got it, you know measurements and everything but I didn't realize it was that simple  Yeah, and back to Joe's statement earlier about people getting back to a simpler life that isn't it's not necessarily simple but it's got a lot of hard work  We all need to remember that Factories didn't make soap 250 years ago. That's right. They didn't make candles. They didn't make dish soap. They didn't make laundry detergent 19:47 people made those things. You're absolutely right. So clearly humans can make the things they need. We've been doing it for a long time. That's right.  I think it was done by design and  I'm not trying to get back into that whole control thing. But I think it was done by design to cripple us  and make us dependent on a system that, you know, obviously is just flooded with all kinds of toxins and everything is so poisonous.  I think it was done by design. 20:18 Think it was done by design. I don't think that I don't think that anyone meant to poison humankind. I Think that if it didn't actually kill us it was acceptable. Yeah, and number two Humans love convenience and they love making money That's true.  So when somebody figured out that they could mass produce soap  and It's not even really soap because if the thing that you're washing your body with doesn't have lie in it. It's not actually soap 20:48 Yeah.  When they figured out they could mass produce it and make a ton of money and people love convenience, that's when that all came together. Yeah. So, you know,  it's it's partly our fault as the consumer, but it's also the producers fault too, I guess.  And really proud of everyone who is trying to take back their power and their autonomy and provide for themselves.  Absolutely. 21:18 So you said you had you grow fruit what you said blackberries what else we have uh peaches plums  blackberries raspberries mulberries we actually grow pineapple  apples uh Occasionally  we'll have bananas, but not so often Let's see what else do we have that I'm not thinking about 21:44 Pear trees. haven't started producing yet. They're still young. Blueberry. Baby trees. Yeah, they're young. Grapes. Grapes. Wow, you guys could just go out and grab a whole fruit salad out of your own property. I know you know what  a food forest is and basically that's kind of the concept that we're  doing here is we're stacking in fruit trees, ah you know, real tight. 22:14 Everything is ah working together.  Like the shade provides a perfect space for lettuces and radishes and stuff here in the summer heat. And we're just trying to pack it in here. We have, our beds are, I know the standard is 30 inches by 50 for like market gardens, but our beds are two foot by 50 foot. And we have a one foot walk space in between. And we're just packing in as many beds as we can and fruit trees in the middle of all of that and our arbors. uh 22:42 on top of all of that and it works out beautifully.  I bet it does because that is an absolutely beautiful system. 22:52 Um, our peach tree is just, it's just getting buds on it. Oh yeah. Yeah. We have one big peach tree and one smaller peach tree. I don't know why they're not, they're not choking each other out or anything, but  one of them just has gotten really big and, uh, it's supposed to get into the twenties tonight.  Oh my goodness. So keep your fingers crossed for us that the, the peach blossoms do not open today because if they don't open today, we'll be fine. 23:22 Yeah.  That's kind of what happened to us this year. Yeah, it was, was, we had a really mild winter and all of our fruit trees, our plums and peaches, they bloomed early because we had a false spring and then  we had two cold snaps there right at the end and we lost a lot of fruit that we were expecting to have this year. I mean, we still, we still got some plums and we still got some peaches, but nothing like what we were anticipating. 23:52 Yeah, we were really hoping for peaches last year because we got like 12 the year before on the first year of growing. We got peaches  and it froze the blooms  last spring  and nothing.  And my husband said that the peach tree is loaded with buds and I was like, God, please don't let it bloom until tomorrow, please.  odds are they probably won't bloom today. 24:22 I don't know. It's supposed to be like in the  high fifties and it's supposed to be sunny all day. So I'm like, no, stay asleep for just one more day, guys.  I don't think anyone who doesn't grow produce understands the impact of the weather cycles. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're completely at its mercy. That's for sure. Yeah. It's really frustrating. We lost. 24:48 We lost  all the blooms off of two apple trees last year because there was a big wind  for two days in a row when they were blooming and  all the petals blew off the trees. So there were no apples on those trees.  Oh man. uh it's so hard.  apple tree is actually loaded this year. This is the first year that it's actually put on apples and held them. So  we are super excited about getting apples for the first time. 25:15 Do you know what variety of apple or is it just apples? They're eintchamir. I have no idea what that is. It was one that was developed in  an Israeli kibbutz. Okay. Yeah. So it's kind of, guess, like Middle Eastern  adapted and  I guess that's similar to our growing conditions.  Huh. I have never heard of that one. I'll have to look it up. What kind of 25:45 tree do you have? We have lots. We have like 20 or 22 apple trees. Wow. And we have. We're on 3.1 acres. Okay, awesome. We have a regent, we have a harrelson. We have four honey golds and the honey golds are the ones that have done the best and I don't even like them. My husband loves them. We have two honey crisp trees that were 26:13 really hoping to see apples from this year as we put them in three years ago.  And then we have a whole bunch of just like  mutt apples over on the other side of the property and we're not sure they're ever going to actually give us apples.  Yeah. 26:32 But we also have plum trees, we have peach trees, we have wild plums, we have... something else and I can't think of it right now. We have rhubarb, we have strawberries, we have asparagus, and then we have the usual suspects in the farm-to-market garden. I've never had rhubarb. Oh, honey. You've got to get some rhubarb. I don't think it grows here, or if it does, doesn't grow here well. 27:00 No, I'm sent you've never tasted it before. No.  Go to the grocery store. I know you don't want to, but go to the grocery store. Go to  the nearest one that has organic produce and get a couple stocks of rhubarb. I've never even seen it in the grocery store here. Really? Yeah. Like  I've never  even, I don't think I've ever even seen it in person at all.  That is crazy.  Huh. 27:29 I wish I knew that it would ship okay, because I would ship you some when ours is ready, but I don't think it would. I think it would get very squishy. might be why they don't have it here. If it doesn't grow well here, I know like pigs and things like that, you don't see them too often in the grocery store. That's something else that we have. Oh, crazy. didn't know that. Well, I've learned something new yet again from this podcast. I swear it's been an education for over two and a half years. That's awesome. 27:59 um So do you guys have any plans to do anything  new this year? Because we always plan for one little thing that's new every summer. um We're hoping to expand our mushroom production for sure.  just putting in new beds and  expanding um as far as any new type of produce or anything like that. um I don't know, we just kind of go through the seed catalogs and whenever we're looking 28:29 things if something pops out then we'll try it.  But trying things sometimes is just kind of frustrating because  you just don't know what you're gonna get.  I guess I kind of like to take the safe road and do things that we know are gonna do really well. As far as new journeys we're hoping to be able to put our farm stand out front and not catch any flak from the town.  Yeah. 28:55 I wish you all the luck in the world with that and if they let you do it, I wish you all the success in the world with it. Thank you. We have a farm stand and people love it. They buy eggs from us almost every day. How many chickens do you guys have? 14. Oh, wow.  So we usually have a dozen or two out there and we're looking at getting more chickens because people are  buying, they want eggs. 29:22 Like they pull in, if there aren't eggs, they pull right back out. And I'll get messages. Are you going to have eggs tomorrow? I hope so. Yeah, we added 32 new chickens this season because we had 24. We've lost a couple. And we get on average 17 eggs a day right now. But we eat about a dozen a day. Yeah, we don't eat as many eggs as we probably should. 29:52 But we also need to make sure the chickens get fed. So every time somebody buys a dozen eggs at $5, we're making sure that the chickens continue to produce. So we are trying a new thing this year. We are trying mini-me watermelons. They are personal sized watermelons. OK, awesome. Because big watermelons don't work here because our growing season isn't long enough for them. 30:22 That's right.  The mini me's are a 60 day um time frame from seed to producing watermelon, to picking watermelons.  Yeah, that's quick.  Yeah. Thank God. Cause we really like watermelon. We could probably fit in a second round of watermelons with those at the end of the season then. Cause we kind of get like a second spring. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of wish we had considered moving south when we bought this place five and a half years ago. 30:52 It's good and bad.  What, Jessica? It's good and bad. We get our storms and  the humidity is a lot sometimes.  Yeah, Minnesota has been  very humid the last four summers, like beyond what I've ever experienced in the over 30 years I've lived here. And I don't enjoy it. So you're probably right. Probably staying in Minnesota was probably the smartest thing we could have done. Yeah, I think our 31:20 like lowest humidity point that we hit here in Alabama is like 80 % humidity or something like that. It's like, we're very humid. You're walking through water in the summertime.  Yup.  All right, guys, I try to keep these to half an hour. Where can people find you?  We're on Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook is just Natures Farmacy. On Instagram, it's naturesfarmacy251. 31:51 Okay, cool.  is pharmacy with a F-A-R-M-A-C-Y like pharmacy. Yes, not P-H-A-R-M-A-C-Y like pharma.  Yes. No pharma on your place. That's right.  Absolutely not.  All right.  As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Jessica and Joe, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you. Yeah, we had a good time. Appreciate it. Have a great day. 32:20 You Thank you. Bye bye.  

Today I'm talking with Casey at Forsythia Farms.  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Casey at Forsythia Farms in New Jersey. Good morning, Casey. How are you? Good morning. I am well. How are you? I'm good. You said it's a beautiful day there in New Jersey? 00:55 It is. It's nice and sunny and it's going to be almost 70, I think, today. It rained all weekend, so we're due for some sunshine. Well, congratulations on having a great spring day because I am in Minnesota and I can hear the rain falling on our tin roof outside my bedroom window. Oh, my goodness. And it's supposed to rain all day and I think we're supposed to get thunderstorms too. So we are getting what my grandpa would have called 01:23 poor man's fertilizer for our garden.  Oh my goodness. You guys get some heavy storms out that way, don't you?  Um,  we get... I have never experienced nor seen a tornado in the over 30 years I've lived in Minnesota. Well, that's good. But we definitely get some high winds. We have had our power go out because of lightning strikes, stuff like that. 01:52 Minor things like  I'm scared to death of tornadoes like I don't ever want to Ever want to see one and I sure as heck don't want to have one come through my door yard. I would pass on that Yeah,  I understand  But no the weather has been unseasonably warm this spring our  Lilac bushes are leafed out our maple tree is leafed out  Everything is leafed out. I could do a list. It would take ten minutes, but it's very exciting 02:22 because we're ready, we're ready for this long, long winter to be over. It is, has been such a long winter. I know we started getting some good like sprouts and whatnot, but I know some farms around here are actually dealing with issues because it froze again. We were under a freeze warning last week. So I know there's some like fruit farmers that are concerned because it, you know, 02:50 usually doesn't typically freeze as bad at this point in April.  So they're seeing, some are seeing some detrimental like loss with some of their plants, which is really upsetting. We're supposed to have freezing temps tomorrow night, think, there's tomorrow night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, maybe. And I am so thankful that our apple trees are leafed out, but they're not budded out yet. They're not blooming. Okay. 03:19 because I really want apples and if it freezes there will be no apples this fall for us on our property.  yeah, yeah, we have an apple tree and a peach tree, they're,  I'm not expecting fruit from them for like another couple of years because we just planted them. So  anywhere from three to five years, depending on what the, uh, the variety is. Yeah. Honey crisp. I don't remember what peach variety it is, but we have honey crisps crisps. 03:47 crisps, there we  go, that we put in, I think, two or three falls ago. And we're hoping with everything we have that they actually bloom this year  and that we might get one or two, because they take a while and they were baby trees. So we'll see what happens.  So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Forsythia Farms. So  we are first generation homesteaders or farmers, whichever 04:15 term you prefer to use. We are more on the animal side. I will say I don't have much of a green thumb. um I can do like we have our fruit trees, we have some berry bushes. um But as far as like plants,  I'm really bad  with the gardening aspect. My husband is actually better with that. I am the animal person. So  we have a lot of chickens, we have some turkeys. 04:43 We have goats and a pony and horses, and obviously they have cats and dogs as well. I am a certified veterinary technician by trade, so to say. So I've always been around animals and always wanted to have animals. I think I've wanted chickens my entire life. So we moved to New Jersey in 2023, because we were actually originally from Pennsylvania. 05:12 And we moved to Southern New Jersey to have some more land so we could start on our little farm that we have always dreamed of. And it has grown. It definitely has grown. Chicken meth is real. It sure is. We started with four in 2022 and now we have over 100 turkeys. they're definitely the gateway to the rest of the animals. 05:41 Chicken math got you real good. It did. It did.  It went from chickens to  goats and then to turkeys and then to horses. And if we had enough land, we would probably have a cow, but  we don't.  I wish we had a cow. I wish we had enough land for a cow.  And we do not. We have three acres and  there's no grazing area for an animal that big. So we are just not going to do a cow. 06:10 It's not happening. Yeah, we have about three acres as well. my we have grazing areas on some parts of our land, but a lot of it is wooded and trails. um But our neighbors have. Big like yards and stuff in the my horse, Chai, she'll go over and mow their lawn is what they say, but. The many that I have can't have fresh grass,  so they're mostly on a dry lot, which is one of the reasons why. 06:39 brought them here as opposed to boarding them because he can't really have grass to begin with. So us not having a ton of grazing isn't a huge uh deal for the two of them, but definitely not enough for a cow.  Yeah. Yeah. They eat a lot. And  the other thing that I hadn't really considered until I was listening to you talk is even if we had a cow,  we would have to have her bread to have to give her a milk because we don't have 07:06 If you don't have a cap to get things started, it's not gonna, it's not gonna work. Right.  And, um, the other thing is, is that a full-size cow gives a lot of milk and  we don't have anywhere to keep that right now. Right. That's exactly it. We've run into that problem a couple of times.  Um, with the chickens, we just had like in the spring and summer, so many eggs.  So  many. 07:36 Eggs, yes, yes. I think at the highest number we had 36 or 40 chickens and we have a farm stand on our property and we would sell the eggs and we were still overrun with eggs with that many chickens. So  we're down to a very reasonable 14 chickens. There you  go. just, we free range um and unfortunately,  you know, the circle of life, there are predators here so we do lose a few. um 08:06 Especially during this time, we're mostly ground predators are our issue. Foxes to be exact. We do have some hawks, but foxes tend to be our big issue. So around this time, I don't love to let them free range.  I always, it's part of the reason why I like to have a lot because if we do lose some,  now we have established a clientele that like order eggs from us. And some people get upwards of like 10 dozen at a time. 08:36 So I like to keep a certain number just so we can keep up with demand now. But  in the winter, I at least have enough to fill that demand. Whereas my older ladies might stop laying, I always have younger ladies that are still going. Yes.  Thank God for the younger ladies and the older ladies. Yeah. And when I let them live out their days, however long, I still have a couple of my originals from 2022. 09:06 And I have, I do breed for like olive aggers. So I have some of those are my more, I have silkies  and bless their hearts. They are just not smart. love them, but they are just not the smartest and they can't see because of their little head puff. So they don't free range and I have them in a separate coop. Yes. The dumb as a stump chicken variety. Yeah. 09:33 Yes, and the Polish, I have those as well. It's just, you got to collect them all, they're like Pokemon. Or Lay's potato chips. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So what is the nearest city in New Jersey to where you live? The biggest, largest city would be Philadelphia. So yeah, and we moved from the suburbs of Philadelphia to New Jersey. 10:02 Because the biggest city  in Jersey closest to me would probably be like Trenton. But even still that's further than Philly is to us. We're about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic from Philly. So not too bad.  No. Yeah, we're in a good spot. We're not too far from family. Everyone's still over in Pennsylvania, but we're also in an area where it's like, I think when my family helped us move here, my uncle, 10:32 had made a comment like, feel like I'm in Alabama because it's just all farmland. This doesn't even feel like the Northeast. It feels like the South. And I was actually really surprised when you said New Jersey because I didn't think there was a whole lot of acreage available in New Jersey. maybe you lucked out. There is, there is. There's a lot of actually preserved farmland down here. um And it is the garden state, you know, for 11:00 for a reason, they do produce a lot  of um goods and it's amazing. There's a preserved farm, I'm not sure exactly how large it is, but I wanna say it's at least over 100 acres right around the corner from us. um And they switched from doing, I think, hay and corn. 11:24 But there is a lot of farmland down here. Now when you go further north, that's when you get to more like the city life, especially with Jersey City, because it's right near New York City. But it's like night and day from North Jersey to South Jersey.  I feel like I should do some research on New Jersey, mostly because I was born there. But when I was six months old, my parents moved to Maine with me. Oh, OK. So they never really talked about it because they weren't there very long. Yeah.  I've always wanted to... 11:53 visit Maine. I've never been. Go. Go while you can because it's really, really beautiful. That's what I hear. And we would be living there right now except that it would the cost of living is so expensive in the state of Maine that we just couldn't do it. Buying property and a house on that property would have been fine because it was it was fairly reasonable back in 2020 when we were looking. 12:22 But when I talked to my folks who still live there about the cost of actually living there, and they told me what they knew, I was like,  no, we're staying in Minnesota. Yeah,  New Jersey is very expensive.  We have very high  property taxes and, you know,  it is an expensive state, but I will say it was cheaper to move here. 12:48 and get the land that we wanted than it was to stay in Pennsylvania. Yeah.  And if we were to stay in Pennsylvania for what we wanted, we would probably be about 45 minutes to an hour away from family. Whereas where we're at now, we're very close.  you made it work for you in the way that worked best. And that's amazing.  The thing that we lucked out on is we started looking in, I think, end of May 1st of June back in 2020. 13:18 before everything jumped in price. So we were really glad that we did it then because if we'd waited even six months, there's no way we would be where we are now. Yeah.  And did you go to Minnesota for job opportunities or? ah No,  I moved to Minnesota over 30 years ago with my first husband, who is my first ex-husband. 13:45 And then I married again and got a second ex-husband  and the third one is the charm. we,  we decided that we wanted to move out of in town, little tiny town in Minnesota, like 6,000 people, I think.  We wanted to, we wanted to get away from town and we moved half an hour away from there  and we live in the middle of  corn and soybean fields and it's  glorious. There you go. That sounds amazing. It really is. And I'm. 14:15 I've talked about it ad nauseam on this podcast, so I'm quite sure that none of the listeners want to hear it again. But just  let's suffice it to say it was the best decision we've made in the whole time we've known each other.  Yeah, that sounds amazing. We  love it here. And it's definitely a different lifestyle. Like when our friends and family come to visit, they're like, oh yeah, it's definitely different because there's farmland. And  when we first moved, I think 14:44 Every week there was a new Facebook post about like somebody's animal got out. So there was an emu that was running around town  and then someone's bull got out. Bulls? Someone's horse. So it was like just the funny little things that you see in farm towns that like you obviously wouldn't expect when you were living in the suburbs of a major city. So we love it. It's so peaceful. We're on a very, very quiet street. 15:13 The only cars on this street are the people that live here.  I  am not on a quiet street. We are on a  two-lane highway that goes between  two towns.  And uh there's a lot of semis and tractors and stuff that go through because it's farm country. They're moving tractors, they're moving equipment for farming in the spring.  And in the fall, it's constant semis going through  loaded down with corn and soybeans. 15:41 Yeah, we have InTown,  which we're about 10, a uh 10 minute drive from InTown.  And um they have a lot of trucks that go through there, you know, delivering from South Jersey all the way through to Philly or where have you. So when we go in town, there's definitely a lot more traffic. um But when we come out of our little  neighborhood, we mostly get stuck behind the tractors  that are like... 16:11 doing the crop fields or moving the crop itself. And it's so funny because every time I drive by, always want to blast International Harvester on. And I just, I love it. It's just such a great little community that we're in. In the five years that we, well, a little over five years that we've been here, we've had friends come to visit. And I think three times in in that five years, somebody has said, 16:39 totally forgot we get stuck behind some kind of farm equipment. Sorry, we're late. I'm like, I knew you'd be late. It's totally fine. I don't care if you're late. You're here. Yay, I'm glad to see you.  So you sell your eggs  and you said that you have  goats still? We do. We have goats. um And we had tried to breed them because we had gotten a buck, but it did not go well. 17:07 So I would love to breed my does. have three of them.  They are called the Powerpuff goats. It's blossom, baubles and buttercup. Of course it is.  And they're adorable. They're  Nigerian dwarves. They're like dogs. My husband's favorite animal on the farm. I think that's the only animal I could come home with without asking that he would be totally fine with. um 17:31 Because I want to do their milk, so I would love to do like goat milk soaps and body washes, lotions. My dad has really severe allergies and his skin flares up a lot and I would love to be able to make something natural for him because he can't have or can't use a lot of the products that are on the shelves these days. uh So I would love to make something that he would be able to use to kind of soothe his skin when he's having a flare up. 18:02 Um, and I know it's really good for, oddly enough, we have a lot of people in the area that are asking for goat's milk for their dogs. Okay. So, and there's not many around here. It's not a lot of people that sell goat's milk. So that's definitely something I would love to do, but I have to, uh,  I have to run out of buck cause our boys are now weathered. So we'll see how that goes. I kind of want to breed them to a feigning goat. 18:31 That'd be fun. know, but I think I'll just do stick with the Nigerian dwarfs because their temperament is amazing. They're like little puppy dogs. They are. They are. And our first boy, Rocky, he was a bottle baby. So he was in the house until he was about 10 weeks old. And we got him when he was eight weeks old and we were still bottle feeding him. So he is a 19:00 legitimate dog. Like he just would prefer to be in the house, but I can't do that at this point.  Not without a diaper. And he won't keep it on or he'll eat it. He's not  love him to death, but he's also not the smartest either.  Well, he's a goat. He's not a human kid. So  we'll grant him a little bit of grace.  Why do people want goat's milk for dogs? I thought, I thought most dairy wasn't good for dogs. So goat's milk. 19:30 Actually, like some of the proteins in there can be beneficial. I wouldn't give it to my dog like every day.  But it can help with their coat, just like it can help like soothing our skin and things of that nature. Some  allergy  dogs can benefit from  goat's milk. ah There's specifically a woman here who breeds, ah and I should know the name, the actual name of these dogs because I'm a  tech. 20:00 but they're essentially like long haired greyhounds. They're not, but they're not whippets. can't think of their name. tall, right? Yes. I can't think of the name. I can see it in my head. can see the animal, but I can't think of the name either. But she uses it for her dogs. And some people also bathe their animals in it if they're having like a skin flare up. That's an expensive bath, but I bet it does the job. 20:27 Yeah, they might be Afghans. Yes,  that's what I was thinking too, but I couldn't think of the name. Yeah, they're not bores. I know that they might be Afghans. ah But she specifically asked me when she found out I had goats and I was like, no,  but if I do, I will definitely let you know.  For sure. ah So  do you love your life at  the farm? Are you are you happy that you did this? Yes. 20:55 Absolutely, I would do it 10 times over. It's just so amazing to just wake up in the morning and look out at my backyard and see just these chickens running around and you hear the goats. My children love it. They love being able to go out in the backyard and collect eggs. They love having their little pony chocolate that they can take care of. my youngest is... 21:22 huge animal. My oldest likes animals, but my youngest is our animal girl. she just, they're just like living the dream. And that's what my husband and I wanted for them. So it's  amazing.  nothing beats fresh eggs in the morning, in my opinion. Nothing beats fresh eggs at any hour of the day, as far as I'm concerned. That  is true. You are correct.  I make an egg bake once in a while in the wintertime. 21:51 We don't have it for breakfast. We have it for dinner. Hey, breakfast for dinner is was one of my favorite things growing up. Yeah, I make a great big casserole pan and here's all the hot dish. It's not a casserole. So here it would be a hot dish pan, glass pan. I make a big one and we freeze half of it. And that way we have some for breakfast if we want it. That sounds amazing. As it freezes great. Yeah, yeah, we. 22:20 I've always wanted to try either freezing or also doing the glass. Oh goodness, I can't think of the name of anything. 22:30 The eggs in the big glass jar with the water? With the lime, yeah.  Water glassing maybe is what it's called. I have never done it. It's a way of preserving eggs without having to pickle them, yes. Yeah, I will say because I'm not a big pickler.  So I know some people love it. I used to sell my silky eggs to a friend who would just pickle them because they're tiny.  I don't like pickled eggs.  I like hard boiled eggs for um... 23:00 for egg salad sandwiches, but I'm not a pickled egg girl. I think they're stinky. Yeah, I agree.  I can't do it. I love pickles. I love cucumbers as pickles, but pickled eggs are just not my jam. Yeah, I feel that.  I don't know what it is, but I just, if I smell them, I'm like, need to walk the other way because it's going to be a mess if I do not.  I agree. Eggs are great, but they can be very stinky in certain ways. 23:29 Yep,  not a fan. um So I saw on your Facebook page something about your turkey. Yes.  What can you tell the story without crying?  I think I can. So  I had a Tom, his name was Darryl. um And I  actually got his name, because everyone asked me, how did you come up with the name Darryl?  And  my daughters  are. 23:58 six and four and they were big bluey fans. I don't know if you're familiar with any kids TV shows. I've heard of it. I have not ever seen an episode. Okay. It's, it's an amazing kid show. I'll be honest. Like it's actually a kid show that was made for parents, but either way, um, they have funny names for their animals or their imaginary friends or whatever they're doing. And one of them, the one daughter was pretending to be someone and her name was Cheryl Landa. Okay. 24:26 So we got three turkeys  in the early  spring last year.  And at the time I didn't know what they were, male or female, but we went with Telemachus, Shubidua, and Sharolanda, all names from Bluey. Cute. Well, Sharolanda turned out to be a dude. So I was like Sharolanda, Darryl, Darrylanda. And then it kind of just stuck. So it was Darryl. It was Darryl, yes. 24:55 And he was a, I believe he was a bronze. I got kind of like a mixed group of breeds. And he was just, he was also like a dog. I had to harness train him because my youngest wanted me to bring him to school for her Bring Your Pet to School Day. Out of all the animals that we have, she chose him. So I harness trained this 30, 40 pound turkey. 25:25 Um, he went on car rides with us. We took him to, we don't have,  uh,  like local trash here. We have to go to a dump. So he would go to the dump with us and, and just ride around in the car. took him through Duncan and, um, he was a big part. Duncan give him a pup cup? They did. They did.  Um, he, so he got a pup cup and he was just, he was just a great, a great pet. 25:53 And he was a very good protector.  will say turkeys are very good protectors of our flock. They're very good at alerting and they're big. So not a ton of the predators in our area would, it wouldn't be worth it to them to try to come like to our flock. And unfortunately it is mating season and we had two of our neighbors children. 26:21 run onto our property. I'm assuming to see if our children were outside so they could play. Yeah. And the youngest is about 18 months. So she's little and they ran up to Darryl. I don't know in what manner because I didn't see it, but they ran up to him and he started. 26:46 like jumping on the youngest and I guess trying to mate. So he was doing the like stomping with his feet and he was scratching her up. And in the whole commotion to get Daryl off of the child, he was kicked not only by the child, but by an adult  to get him off of the baby. And that whole commotion, he broke his leg.  And he was very large. 27:15 poultry have very thin, tiny legs.  And  he was in a lot of pain. So I didn't want to put him through trying to fix it, because the prognosis of him getting fully healed was slim to none.  And it wouldn't be fair to him for me to put him through all of that pain and recovery  just because for selfish reasons, I didn't want to lose him, you know? 27:45 So we humanely called him and we did bury him next to his favorite tree. But it's just, it's quiet without him because he would always like talk to us. We would call his name and he would talk to us. And he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was  protecting his  flock. But it's definitely a good lesson  with  being cautious around animals and making sure, you know. 28:16 No one's unattended or anything like that. Our kids  knew  if they were going to be around Darryl,  they always had a stick and they would just wave it at him and he would run. He wasn't going to come after them. He's like, okay, these kids have a stick. I'm not going to mess with them.  And he grew up with them. So he was familiar with them. But yeah, that day was very stressful because we had also brought a Mustang home that day. 28:44 Oh, so double whammy. Yeah, and he  broke through our fence a couple times. ah So we were actually dealing with the Mustang when the incident happened. It was just very crazy.  sounds like it. It is. And you learn some hard lessons in life. um There's,  you know, you go back and think of everything you could have done differently at that time. But in that moment,  main goal was to 29:14 make sure the child was okay, you know? And I love my animals.  I love them to death, but I will always put a human child's  wellbeing above my animals.  Yep. And I feel like this is a good place to jump in and say,  if you are a neighbor of someone who has animals on their property, and I don't care whether it's turkeys or goats or a freaking elephant, and you have kids, tell your kids, 29:44 that they need to be aware and they need to be careful.  And if they're too little to understand that, then you should probably be with them if  they're going to the neighbor's house. Yeah. And  I  don't want to direct other people's traffic, but it's a shame that you had to lose your turkey because of the situation. It is.  And  my husband and I were, you know, we went through the motions of the stages of grief and 30:12 We were angry for a while and it's not that we were angry  at them.  We were just angry at the situation because we know it was just an unfortunate incident, but it's like we lost a member of our family. 30:31 It was just really, really unfortunate.  it's really hard. One of the things about farming or homesteading is that there are days that just suck lemons and you're going to have one.  It is. And  I think the hardest thing about having a farm and having livestock is that there's a saying for a reason. If you have livestock, you have dead stock because a lot of the times 31:01 At least in my experience with chickens, sometimes they just keel over and you have no idea why. And if you're like me and you get attached to them,  everyone takes a small little piece of your heart. And it's like, ugh, I wish I could have done something different. But it's just the hard reality of  having animals. I may be the most unattached to my chickens person you will ever meet. 31:29 I don't love them. I love what they do for us. I don't love chickens.  However, I keep trying to not get attached to the barn cats and that's a trick. Yeah, we have one barn cat. just got him recently. ah He showed up at my in-laws house actually and he was super sweet and we're like, you know what? 31:52 We need a barn cat because we do have a of mice because we are in the woods. Yes. Like we're in farmland, but where we are specifically is a lot of woods and trails. And he is just the sweetest thing. He  loves to just be pet and love Dawn.  And I would be devastated if something happened to him.  I was devastated when the first barn cat got hit by a car on that busy road in front of our house. 32:20 Like I swore a blue streak, I cried, I slammed cabinet doors, I was upset.  My husband said to me, said, honey, said,  if this is how it's going to affect you if we lose an animal, he said, we can't stay here. He said, this is awful. And the next one that got hit, like four months later, I swore less, I did not cry,  and I think I slammed a cabinet door when I realized that it had gotten hit. 32:50 He said, that's growth. I'm like, yes, I will eventually be able to handle this, but that's two in four months time. Yeah, that's a lot. It's a lot. And it's, it's different when you have like outdoor animals as opposed to indoor animals. Like you try not to get attached, but you do. But then you also know that they're here for a job  and sometimes bad things do happen.  mean, that can be said about any part of life. And I'm not. 33:20 unfamiliar with death and animals because I have dealt with my fair share of euthanasias and really unfortunate, sad situations just working in the veterinary field. it's always different when it is something that you have personally cared for. And the advice that I try to give people, even whether it be a cat or a dog or a horse or what have you, is the 33:48 best thing that we can do for them is to end their suffering, is to not let them suffer. So if something is happening  and  you have the choice to take away their pain, then that is the kindest thing that we can do for them. And that is why I didn't rehab Darryl. it just wouldn't have been  kind for me to do that. And I don't think if he could talk that he would want me to do that. 34:17 Probably not and  that's why it's called stewardship, you know, whether it's land or animal it's stewardship Yeah  All right.  Um, Casey, this was a joy. I try to these to half an hour.  Where can people find you? You can find me on Tiktok Facebook and Instagram um For Scythia Farms is our Facebook 34:43 profile, but Casey at for Scythia Farms is my Instagram and TikTok handle.  Um, so can find me there and I just, you know, have my daily antics of farm life on there.  It's very fun to watch you do your thing. It's, it's a huge part of my life now. I don't think my day is complete until I've done my like morning chores and you know, sang my songs to my animals. Cause I do that a lot. 35:12 Yep. Well, keep doing the good work because  every video you put out shows people what this is like, that it can be hard, that it can be absolutely joy-filled days, because that happens too.  But we need more people to get into this because we need local food sources. Yes, we do. It's incredibly important.  All right. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Casey, I hope you have a wonderful day. 35:40 Thank you so much. This was so much fun. hope you have a wonderful day as well.  

Today I'm talking with Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom .  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care, you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company.  Today I'm talking with Leah Peterson from Clear Creek Ranch Mom in Nebraska. And she also happens to be my fabulous co-host  on Grit and Grace in the Heartland Women in Agriculture. Good,  um, well afternoon. It's noon now. 00:58 It's high noon. It is high noon.  What's for lunch besides I have a birthday cake in my kitchen, but not much else going on yet.  I don't know. I might  nuke a couple waffles and put some real maple syrup on them. That sounds delightful. It kind of does.  So  Leah's been on the show, like,  I think it's been five times now. And then she became my co-host on the other  podcast. 01:26 Leah posted a photo on her Facebook page of a cowhide from a calf  and  was talking about why they have that. And I thought that it would be interesting for my listeners  to know what was going on with that. So Leah, do you want to tell me about that? I can.  I always say that  raising livestock teaches little people so many life lessons that are applicable. 01:55 you know, in all parts of your life and will be for all time.  And so as a child, um my first  memories, some of the harder memories from calving season was honestly learning about the miracle of adoption  right through my own  eyes,  watching it in the cowherd. 02:18 It's a practice as old as time. It's evolved and changed over time and many people are still advocates for this method of helping a cow adopt a new baby and other people have moved on to try different things.  But we're still  kind of old school here and we subscribed to what we call the no fail method. It is hard. It's kind of yucky. um But it works.  And so when we have a cow, 02:46 who has lost her calf for whatever reason and she's in milk. We can take another calf, say a twin for instance, or a calf whose mama doesn't have enough milk, and we call it grafting, grafting a calf onto the mama.  And it's very interesting when you look at different breeding programs, different breeds, there are different traits that rise to the surface as being most  usual for that particular breed. When I was with 03:16 Derek Josie out at TDF Honest, he raises pure red Jersey cows for milk.  And those ones do not have the maternal trait of desiring to have a baby. They have their baby and happily will let you take it and he won't even ball for it. There's nothing wrong with that. That's how the Jersey cows live.  Our beef cattle want to raise a baby. 03:40 I want to be careful in describing that though, because it's not, I don't want you to think, I don't want listeners to think that it's some emotional bond. It is a physiological response. It's biologically the way they are bred and how they live. And that is that those hormones that kick in when they have given birth and they start producing milk, they desire to have a baby. And so when we have a baby in need, 04:10 What we will do is we will skin the hide off of the deceased baby. So she's lost her baby, it was stillborn, it died, whatever the reasons might be. We will skin that hide off of her baby and we'll make what we call a calf coat  and we will adhere that calf coat on to her presumptively to be adopted baby. Do you tie it on to them? 04:38 Yeah, so you can use a variety of methods. We use  sometimes some glue to help hold it on and then we use baling twine  and  tie it  so that it kind of starts at the back of the neck and goes down their back, truly like a superhero cape, I guess you could call it,  and tied it on.  And then you  can do some other things. You can apply some scents to mask the smell because again, 05:06 The emotional connection  between a mama and a calf is not what you think it is.  They identify their calves by sound, which is truly amazing. They can find their baby in a group of 500 by their sound.  I think there is probably a measure of recognition.  Hard to say how complicated that is because I'm like, all little black baby calves, for instance, look the same to me. um And I can't remember if cows see in color or not,  but it's definitely by scent. 05:35 And so if you can mask their original smell and make it smell like their baby, they are  way more likely to uh accept it straight away. Now, depending on the cow, depending on the breed, I have seen it go like snap of a finger, this is my baby now, and I have seen times where it'll take 48 hours, but I've never seen it not work. 06:00 You  love what you do because you just told a very hard story  and your voice sounded so satisfied telling it.  It is. It's something  I'm passionate about because it helps elevate  more understanding about ranchers and not just ranchers because I know this method can be used with uh other animals. 06:29 and trying to help them adopt babies that aren't theirs. SAKE, it happened all on its own or with a little help from humans. It happens a lot.  I'm passionate about it. And it's so satisfying because while you see videos and photos of little girls and boys feeding bottles to baby calves, yes, it can be done. Yes, it's a good chore. Yes, it's  rewarding. 06:54 but there is  nobody that feeds a baby calf like the cow herself.  It's just the way nature intended it to be. In beef cattle, not talking about veal calves and those in dairies and whatnot, but for beef cattle, it  is the best outcome. And it's so satisfying when after a day together, being  confined together that you can turn them out. And we call it traveling pairs. You see them travel together as one. 07:23 back into the wild, so to speak, and feel so relieved and satisfied that you have helped them mother up  and that baby is going to be cared for until it's weaned.  I love it.  See, this is why I wanted you to tell the story because I knew you'd tell it in a way that everybody would get it. um So what happens to that calf hide once the calf is grafted? Well, usually it's sort of, it's 07:48 just like any piece of leather, right? It withers eventually and  they'll shed it. Sometimes we'll cut it off. It's very smelly, you can imagine,  a couple days and uh it'll wither away and eventually then the scavengers will pick it up and disappear with it. Okay, cool.  Thank you for telling the story.  I  always feel weird asking you this stuff because I am a novice. Like I am,  I know nothing. 08:16 about any of this. And I'm so curious and I'm like,  Lea knows the answer. I'm going to ask her. And it's so fascinating because again, it depends on the maternal traits in different cattle breeds  and what your breeding programs are. But I'm out watching our first calf heifers, right? These are their first babies.  And in their first year being mothers, these heifers are like, I don't know, they're energetic teenagers and they're all about everyone's baby. They'll let anybody's baby. 08:43 nurse and so we call them the little robbers. These babies are out there bebopping around. They don't care who's utter they're going to. It's that second year when she has her second calf that she generally, again, depending on the breed, is more interested in just having her baby nurse and kick  away at somebody else trying to rob.  But then we have some cows. em Some of them usually are those with a little more dairy influence, so they're short horns. They will let more than one calf nurse. 09:13 they  produce milk for more than  one often, but most of our true beef cattle who are bred towards putting all their work and energy into growing one healthy calf, they don't have enough milk for more than one. So it is not common to have a beef cow  raise more than one calf if it's her calf or if it's one that's been grafted onto her. I will say we  still have one set of twins on there. 09:39 mama and she is up in the corral getting extra groceries as we call it. She's doing phenomenal at raising  both of her calves and has not rejected anybody. um We will not kick her out to summer pasture like that because it's too much  to babysit that, especially if grass is kind of short and her energy needs are not going to be enough to feed two babies properly. But uh we're gratified that all of our 10:06 transplant, we call it also transplanting a calf.  Situations have been successful. We've had some kind of yucky stuff happen in the last 10 days with the volatile weather and we've had some loss. um But so far we're cruising through, we're now on the over the hump and calving season and thankful  for the wins, the victories, are when  mamas will take a new baby without too much work. 10:34 Definitely.  So how has calving season been for you? I  suspect it's been a lot considering everything else you've had going on. Yeah, isn't it something, you you try and just to get your work done and at this time, critical time, it's like, need to get  my work done and not start a fire  because conditions are so difficult in the pastures. It's branding season. Lots of folks are branding their calves. The challenge is there's nowhere to go with them at this time. 11:04 um Pastures need to be able to rest longer. Typically, here in Nebraska, we're trying to start kicking animals out to early grass, what we call cool season grasses, around the first of May, and it's not happening. um That's next week. We're really in a critical time.  We really would need, if we could get a half inch of rain, that could buy us some time. We'd really like one to two inches of 11:33 calm, quiet rain to soak in and recharge and get our cool season grasses to go so we have some early grazing possibilities that buys you time to get hopefully a first cutting of hay and things put up so that if we look to late summer and a resurgence of drought that we dry lot cattle and if we have to feed them ourselves.  That's where we're at. um 12:03 People are just having to make some very difficult decisions right now. I'm trying to sell Daisy, um Daisy and her calf.  She's our black Angus Jersey cross mama.  to relieve us  of one mouth to feed because we hadn't planned for her to stay. um We're making some decisions already on some older cows who maybe are not um feeding their calves the best. 12:32 or potentially are open and not having a calf, they're not gonna go to pasture and get another chance, they gotta go town.  And  meanwhile, you reconcile that with none of us are wishing to contribute to a further shrink in the cow herd size, but that's where we're at.  you know, literally, if you don't have anything to feed them, that's the choice that you have to make.  And you're not alone in that, which is even scarier. Correct, correct. It's... 13:00 It's so widespread. Now, there was a tornado watch in eastern Nebraska yesterday, and I know some rain did fall there. Even if it was hail, at least it was precipitation, a very small piece. uh But desperation really across  all of Nebraska, moving west and north  into multi-states,  you start to consider  the widespread effects, and they're pretty big. 13:29 Yeah, and that doesn't even count the effects of like your household. I mean, are people's wells going dry because it's so,  you're so lacking in water? Yeah, we're okay here.  Our work, to be respectful of our aquifer, is in full play. Conservation methods are,  but certainly like in Colorado, um there's pretty significant discussion  because of no snowpack to melt, that there will be early water restrictions in place. And that includes 13:59 golf courses,  know, water parks and things like that. I don't think  we Americans are very good at thinking beyond the end of our own nose too often. If you think, it's okay, I have access to water, well, and you let your sprinklers run and run down the street that you just, you're not thinking like, how does that affect the person that's downhill from me?  And I hate that we have to have rules and regs to make people be disciplined. 14:26 about their water use, but it's a finite resource  and nobody wants to turn their tap on and have nothing come from it.  So I encourage  everybody to just be aware of good personal accountability when it comes to water use. It's so important.  It is, and honestly, if we could just realize that it's not all about  us, it's about everybody. 14:56 You know, it's not just about me. It's not just about you. It's about everybody.  It's true.  We're all in this together.  All in this together when I,  um,  friends, you know, across the Great Plains and moving west that have had this abnormally period of dry years. And again, I'm grateful that I was raised in a home to practice  stewardship, picking up your trash. 15:26 um minimizing waste,  food waste especially,  not letting the water run freely while you're brushing your teeth.  Aim small, miss small is something  I say often.  Every single person has the ability to make positive difference  and they're not hard. It's an act of thoughtfulness and self-discipline. 15:52 Yes, for sure. um So  I had a question and then I forgot it because I was listening closely to what you were saying because that's what I do all the time.  Yes, you do. So the fire that uh blew up or showed up or whatever word you want to use  when you were in town the other day,  I'm assuming they got that at least  handled. Yeah, the National Guard. 16:22 was deployed here to help. were air dropping water in some very hard to reach canyons  where there's hot spots. They're using thermal imaging.  I don't know that people realize that cedar trees,  which are the bane of our existence in Nebraska now, can hold heat for so long and have flare-ups literally for weeks or months after a fire. So they're working really hard on that and setting backfires to stop any forward advance. We have loss. 16:51 structure loss and one home burned to the ground. And I actually know the woman who lost her home and she recently lost her husband. And bless her heart. She's handling it as well as could be expected. I'm very grateful for emergency responders who were able to advance enough to give proper evacuation notices and help people gather essentials and get them. 17:21 So people, for instance, could move their camper or their boat or their horses, gather up your purses and wallets and clothes and had some time. So she was able to do that, but obviously left 95 % of her life at home and it's gone. And for the rallying of community and churches to help her and other people who were displaced, you know, there's not enough time in the day to share stories of the goodness of 17:50 people. um You kind of, it's kind of fatigued, right, of having to  deploy so much goodness over and over and over again. But it's  what we're supposed to do for each other,  why these community organizations and efforts matter to help coordinate and organize, because it's not easy to figure out how to feed 200 firefighters by yourself. certainly is not. And the community has rallied and done so and given people given of their money when they can't. 18:18 serve physically and given up their time, given their prayers and kindness. And so we'll be all right. um But again, it definitely illuminates why we have to have fire departments, why we need emergency responders and EMTs and why we need community organizers because, you know, the whole place would have burned up if we hadn't had it because there was nothing that was going to stop that monster in the winds that were blowing. 18:45 It was the selfless giving of hundreds of people that stopped the advance of the fire, putting their own lives in jeopardy. um It's truly an amazing thing when you think about them all being volunteers.  Yeah, absolutely. um So fire season. um I feel like you have been talking to me about fire season  since we first talked a little over two years ago. Has it just been fire season for two years? 19:13 You know, my friend James, the meteorologist says we just have to face the facts with climate changes.  You can call it what you want, that we are a wildfire state. And part of it is because we're actually so good at stewardship that we have a fuel load, which is your standing grasses and things. Part of it is because of letting some invasives get away, like the cedar trees and my messages. 19:38 that Eastern red cedars are not your friend in Nebraska. First of all, they hog a lot of water. Oh, do they drink water? And second of all, they cause these tinderboxes to get worse  because they burn so hot  and the trees were exploding. They were exploding and then sending the embers straight into the air. And in the 40 mile an hour winds, the embers were then traveling a mile and then reigniting. 20:01 So we're in wildfire season. We have been for a long time in this cycle of wildfire. We had a lot of fire in 2012 during a flash drought, but the fire risk didn't start till July. That's when things really dried up.  I think it's paramount that people recognize that in building a new home,  in renovating a home, in thinking about what kind of yard you want to have, that you need wildfire preparedness as part of what you're doing. That is our reality now because 20:29 there are not enough volunteers to cover every need.  And you're gonna have to be able to try to defend your home a little bit yourself. That's just the reality. That is just how it is.  And it would serve everyone well to be aware of those things.  Well, I don't wanna give you more to do, ma'am, cause you are swamped. But maybe once graduation is over  and 20:58 calving season is over.  I, if it were me, I would take some time and email a couple of realtors and mention that. Yeah.  Because I'm not sure realtors even really think about that. I agree. I agree and young homeowners and maybe if you've, and I hate to say it Mary, but the palisades  in California should have shown every American the fire can come into your town too. You're not safe just because you're in town. No. 21:27 So you've got to think about it no matter where you live. This is not just for acreages and ranches and farms. This is for everybody. Everybody.  Yes. Part of the reason that I was so hot to trot, which is a really bad way to say that right now,  to get out of where we lived before we moved here is because our neighbor's house was literally three feet  from our house. Their outside wall was three feet  from our outside wall. 21:54 And I had  nightmares about their house catching on fire and catching our house on fire or our house catching on fire and catching their house on fire. Because if one went up, the other one was going up. And I just, couldn't, I was like,  the next place we buy has to have room between homes.  And now it's like a quarter mile of room between homes. So I'm very happy about this. 22:20 And it's a hard conversation because with this wildfire risk is also the wind. And the wind is our nemesis and it blows and blows and blows and that's why people want trees and shelter belts. But you're going to have to really be smart about how you put them together and how close you put it to your house.  absolutely.  So  you have a book  that you wrote for your daughter whose birthday is today. Happy 18th birthday, Maggie. Thank you. And it's called An Apple for Dapple. 22:50 Yes.  So we had a pony. My folks purchased a pony for the ranch for the grandkids. And his name was Dapple, a little Dapple Grey pony. And when Maggie was a toddler,  before we moved home to the ranch, we were enjoying the fruits of our labors of my childhood with the planted apple orchard. And we pick apples. And then my mom said, you know, they say horses love apples. Do they really love apples? I never really fed my horses apples as a kid, but we 23:20 When we're done picking all the apples we wanted, my mom went and got Dapple and tied him to the apple trees. And that pony went to town eating the apples that fell. Oh, he'd eat them till they'd think he'd be sick.  But he was the best cleanup in the late fall when the apples fell. He'd just eat them like it was going out of style. And Maggie, as a toddler, would love, I mean, she'd just giggle. I wish I had recorded it on video. She would pick up the apples and feed them to him and he'd snatch them. 23:49 right out of her hands. So I had this idea that I wanted to write a book, a children's book, I still want to write,  and I came up with An Apple for Doppel.  And I wrote it. And when I wrote it, I wrote it as if Maggie was like Lucy's age, nine or 10.  And made the story work that way because I thought that the book would be for young readers  at school. I self-published it.  That was it. 24:17 a learning experience. had to find an illustrator because I can't draw  and launched it  with a goal of Ag advocacy, sharing my love of reading with children, educating them. I got to read at a ton of schools. I love that. Kids always wished I brought DAPL with me.  bet.  And ultimately, 24:42 Something that spoke to my heart at the time was the beginning of,  in our community,  a campaign called Little Feet Big Dreams, which was to start putting money away towards new school facilities  that were focused on the arts. And I believe writing is one of the arts. so I came up with this thought that if DAPL sold copies when I was able to cover my costs, that I could  use the proceeds. 25:08 of any books to buy more books for other children who don't have access to books or to donate to different causes.  I don't talk about it a lot because I'm  an anonymous giver uh most of the time. And  it's just something I feel strongly about because I  didn't  ever want the attention to be on me, um but just on trying to do little pockets of good where I could. 25:37 um So I just decided on a whim because I did the shirt campaign and we sent money to a bigger wildfire relief fund. But when I saw some of the first bills coming in the other night,  just in fuel costs alone for the trucks, I thought, you know, maybe we could  auction off a copy  and get enough interest I could write a check and pay for  some. 26:06 tanks of fuel and I was overwhelmed. The woman who won the her final bid was $222, which I thought, a random, funny, crazy, wild number. And I want to talk just for a second about Liz, Liz from Ohio. She's a retired teacher and her classroom number was 222. 26:36 So that was a number that was special to her.  And  she doesn't know me, and she doesn't know Nebraska. She loves red cattle. She raises a few Herefords now that she's retired. She lost her mother in December,  and she's just trying to put her own pockets of good out into the world.  it. So I was able to match her donation and take a nice check today, and it just,  well, was special because it's Maggie's birthday. Yeah, that too. 27:06 And I couldn't have done that without the overwhelming support of people buying copies of my book from me for the last,  gosh, it's been 14 years.  I'm able to save those funds and then do these pockets of  good throughout the year. it just makes my heart happy when I can help.  yet it felt like, it felt  hard because it took $500 in there with me today. And like, that's not even enough to fill a semi. 27:35 truck with one tank of  diesel. But I said, like the starfish story, it's money they didn't have before I came in here.  my mom says, every little bit helps.  So proud of you for doing that. Thank you.  You are a fabulous person. You know this, right?  I have  moments  of thinking, am I doing enough? 28:04 em using my voice  the way I should.  And  also emotional just because I hate that we have so much need right now. Like I said to the girls when I took the money in, like we just have a few normal days where there's no national crisis happening.  That would be a novel concept, wouldn't it?  Yeah. em 28:32 It would just be lovely because everyone's just so fatigued and stuff right now. So.  Yes, everyone, even our little people are tired because we're tired and it's rubbing off on them.  Can I just share another story from this week  to speak to someone that I just deeply admire and respect with my daughter's softball coach. He is such a humble man. He's fighting cancer, which is known by everyone, but he's managing it. He's persevering. 29:01 And he's pushing through his chemo to coach these little girls in softball and his own, like they had to evacuate too, right? To get out of the way, like  his wife and he kept telling their little girl at softball practice during the fire, here's the smoke billowing in the background. em It's not because our house is going to burn down, it's we're just out of the way. So the emergency workers don't need to worry about us. They can just focus on the fire and little girl. 29:27 struggling with the emotions and fear. And I mean, they're all just caught up looking at the smoke and stuff. And also like recognizing for our little people, they don't miss a thing, but also knew that keeping them busy and focused on playing softball was a really appropriate distraction from the scary stuff. So I'm just so grateful for him and his family and their home is okay. um For people to remember that. 29:54 are little people that are always watching and listening and they're not stupid. It's this fine balance of helping them be aware  enough that's age appropriate, but also protecting them in their innocence as much as possible.  Yes.  And  it's a fine line. Yeah, it is not easy at all. And mine had a 30:22 field trip today and they were going to the tree nursery and talk about Arbor Day and all of that. And I thought that was a great needed also busy distraction, something different to do, get them out of town for a little bit. Yeah, I was going to ask you, it's probably weird for what this podcast is, but I was going to ask anyway, how has Lucy been dealing with her sister doing all these 30:49 fabulous things and getting ready to go to college and stuff because that's got to be kind of weird for her. It is and she's at that tender  age where again her awareness is really  waking up  and  there have been plenty of tough moments of late and because I can see the wheels turning  and we have tried very hard in our home  to 31:19 say that no topic is off-limit. We don't dismiss or diminish someone's feelings. say feelings aren't facts. However, they are your feelings and you are entitled to them, even if they're not correct, and then we'll deal with it. Do  not get some idea that I get it right all the time because I don't. So I'm trying very hard to pay attention. Lucy is a feeler. She feels everything. I'm trying to pay attention,  and we did that, but we had a particularly hard moment  at Easter. 31:49 where the awake, and I was a first born, so I was the first one to leave. I never ever thought about how my little siblings were feeling about anything, where she had this conscientious. 32:05 She said out loud, oh oh, Maggie's going to college and holidays happen while she's at college.  Lucy's so big in family gatherings, like being together at the table and stuff. And she said,  does  that mean that Maggie gets to decide if she spends her holidays with us? Maggie wasn't present for this. um 32:33 And I was trying not to have an emotional response to that because I didn't want her to feel afraid that her sister wouldn't choose. And I had to be practical and say, yes, it's true, holidays happen while she's at college. And we have created a home that is always warm and welcoming so that Maggie, of course, would want to spend her holidays here because her mama makes the best whatever I said. 33:01 it will be her decision and we will always just be so happy when she can spend her holidays with us. it  was still, but like then it was, but what if she doesn't?  And I said, well, then we'll go to her and hunt her down.  But not- We'll make her do all the cooking. Yes. um So yes, this awareness of what kind of change is coming is there. And I do not want to diminish or dismiss it. 33:33 though I can't relate very well because I didn't go through it.  Mm-hmm.  No, I was just thinking about Lucy yesterday because I know  you and I talk a lot because we talk on the other podcast and you're my friend  and I've been listening to you talk about Maggie's things a lot  and  you're supposed to and that's totally fine but I was like I wonder how little sis is doing with all this. Yeah, little sis will have  so much fun this summer. We're gonna be able to focus on 34:03 her activities and big sister being present for them for some new things. She's trying like playing softball.  yet I know it's going to be rough  because there's such an age difference that Maggie is Lucy's second mother. I mean, she just is and yet they share everything. em And so, yes. 34:33 It's the whole thing. And my husband also is an oldest, so he doesn't really have experience. I was close in age with my younger siblings. I mean, they flew the coop not long after me. And I think the second big piece that's coming for me is finding my newer adjusted identity also after the roles. 35:00 I've played change again.  Yep. And I guess it isn't weird to ask about this because everybody has similarities and  anyone who's a mother is going to go through this.  know, being a mother is  something I always wanted to do. Yeah. And being an involved mom who had my kids 35:29 in service organizations and participate in lots of things  was important to me. I thought it was important to trying to be a well-rounded person. I am not a helicopter mom. I'm not their problem solver. I oh am an assistant when needed. um She's kept me very busy because she has been a very involved student by choice. And so yeah, there is going to be a period of adjustment where I 35:59 I  get to shift the time I gave to that thing  to something else. Yes, some of it will be because I'm going to do a lot of the same things with Lucy in her own unique flair, but some of it isn't, we're not there yet because Lucy's so much younger.  That it will be a period of adjustment for me in particular, not the husband quite so much though he'll have some. um 36:27 do know there are lot of women who have struggled in this season of life.  Why did it always hit two during like paramenopause or menopause, which probably compounds it,  but for every woman out there who has been a mom, there is a shift and change in your roles. And if you deny it or you don't  maybe get help through it, if you're not coping very well, I can see why marriages struggle, friendships struggle, work struggles, your health. 36:58 Um, it's a huge deal and we don't, I don't know that we talk enough about it and I have more compassion for my mother, the older I get about how her rules adjusted. Cause she was very much the same serving, giving, volunteering, helping, you know, going to the field trips and  making the cookies and different things. And that like, who am I if I'm not mom, who am I? Because. 37:28 when you're in the trenches of motherhood, it does feel like your identity and whether that's right or wrong we can debate, but a lot of moms found themselves in places where there wasn't much left over time for them.  And then suddenly they had this time and they're like, but I don't know who I am. I don't know what I even like to do. What do I like to do that's just for me? And is that selfish to take that time?  And that's why I have two podcasts, Leo. 37:57 You've channeled it for the good,  which is what I hope to do.  Yes.  And you dipped your feet in the public speaking world this year, so maybe you'll keep doing that too. Yeah. I hope so. And I hope and I believe my daughter knows that I'm always a phone caller text away and that I will be moming her in the appropriate sense from 38:26 250 miles away. I think she'll come home when she can because she loves her little sister and wants to watch her from the bleachers like her little sister has always done for her.  So I hope so. I'm very close to my nephews as well who are both flying the coop and so it'll be a big period of change for my sister as well. It'll be an empty nester. So I look forward to getting to 38:56 having some time, I've just 38:59 I've just been in this role for 18 years today.  Darling,  I know. 39:08 Believe me, I know.  And  I wasn't gonna cry either, but here we go. The thing is you  get adjusted to it. I'm not kidding. um Talked to my daughter the other day  and she just called because we hadn't talked in a week or two. And I thought that was really sweet. And then she sent me a tech, a instant message or whatever they're called on Facebook.  And she was like, I wrote this thing. I'm thinking about posting online. Can you? 39:37 read it and let me know what you think. And my heart just went, yes. Oh, she loves her mama. And then she deleted it because we decided she hated it because I didn't get the time. Oh, sweetheart. I was like, well, crap, I really would have liked to have seen what you wrote, but that's fine. Oh, she's decided she's going to do an art piece to represent what she wanted to say instead. 40:07 And the other thing is my mom is 79 years old and she still is moming me in the appropriate ways. So it never ends.  And it's just, I think it's the emotion today,  is it just went so fast.  Yep. It just went so fast.  The good news is it's not over. It's not.  It's just different.  It's just different. 40:37 And you  may be lucky enough to have grandbabies someday.  I'm not going to have biological grandbabies. My  kids do not want babies.  And I think it's because of their youngest brother. I think because they were all  old enough to remember the sleepless nights, they don't want to do it. 41:04 So,  gosh, that's  a whole thing thinking of that. My mother transitioned into being a fantastic grandma, it was easy, like she was made for that and she's such a fantastic grandma. And I'm  so grateful. um I know, like women just, it's just hard for us to get out of our own way sometimes and let things be. 41:34 knowing there's just, there is enough goodness to go around. There is enough need and want to go around and hobbies and interests and work, careers, whatever you want it to be. There is enough, you don't need to  worry about that, but you do need to be open, you have to open your heart and your mind, which is very hard to do when you're fragile, like I am today. Cause you can't imagine that change. 42:01 Yep, but you've got people rooting for you and I'm one of them.  Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. um So  we got a little bit off topic, but I feel like a lot of people, women especially, are going through this right now. So why not put it out there? Yes.  People can find you at Clear Creek Ranch Mom on Facebook and Clear Creek Ranch Mom on Instagram.  And they can find you and I at 42:29 Britain Grace and the Heartland Women in Agriculture podcast.  And people can find me at a Tiny Homestead podcast.  And that's all I got. Thank you for taking the time to visit with me. Yes, and keep up the good work. Amazing, important work.  And it has just been the joy of my year to join you in helping elevate these stories of amazing women from across  this great country. So many stories to be shared will never run out of stories to share. 42:58 I'm so grateful that you asked me.  I'm so grateful to have made a new friend in you.  Like this. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I hope Maggie's birthday party is amazing. Oh, we're having Shirley temples in Lasagna. You just can't beat that.  Oh,  man, if I could teleport, I'd be there. Anytime. There's always an extra  space for you. And it rained when we had her for three days. And so she even said, I'd be just fine with getting. 43:27 lots of rain,  if we could be blessed with some rain, that would be amazing. She'd love to have a campfire. Most of my girls love roasting marshmallows and I'm like, if we get three days of rain, we can.  I appreciate my kids are em able to show gratitude for like just the  the smallest trivial things. They're very sentimental like that. so yeah, our special memories are  a lot of times at the campfire. So we'd love some rain so we could have a campfire. 43:56 I'd love some rain for you for many, many reasons, the least of which is a campfire.  you. But anyway, please just soak it all up and enjoy it. And  don't cry in front of Maggie if you can help it. Cry with Matt. Yes. Thank you. Good advice. I appreciate that very much. Because otherwise she's going to think that you're miserable and you're not miserable. You are just stretching. I'm just stretching. Yes. And stretching is painful sometimes. 44:26 Damn right.  All right. Thank you so much for your time, Leah. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mary.  

Today I'm talking with Ryan at The Tiny Life. Ryan's newest book - Living Off Grid: 50 Steps to Unplug, Become Self-Sufficient, and Build the Homestead of Your Dreams A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. A tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Ryan Mitchell at the Tiny Life in the Carolinas. Good afternoon, Ryan. How are you?  Good. Thanks for having me.  Oh, you're welcome. I'm  so thrilled to get a chance to talk to you because I had 00:58 Sent an email to you, I think a year and a half ago, and I didn't hear anything back. And then your person, because you have people, I don't have people. Yeah, there's a few of us. Your person emailed me and reached out and I was like, yes, finally I get to talk to you. Yeah. All right. So how is the weather where you are? It's good. Yeah. So I'm located in the, I say the Carolinas. So we are, my tiny house is in 01:27 North Carolina and we moved on to a homestead about a little less than a year ago. ah And then I live with my girlfriend in South Carolina. And so we're kind of gearing up the homestead to make the transition over to that. So that's why I kind of say, you know, I have one foot in both places right now as we make that transition. How far is it from where your girlfriend is to the tiny home?  About 30 minutes. 01:55 Oh, so close. You're real. Yeah. Yeah. And I was living, you know, obviously full time  in the tiny house when I met her. And then, you know, when we decided that uh we were going to, you know, continue the relationship and it kind of went to the next level and everything  that I was probably moving in with her because she had  her  two dogs, a Liz, two lizards, a spider and a 02:22 a snake, that was not going to fit into the tiny house at all. has a full house of critters.  It sure does. Well, I'm in Minnesota and I'm going to tell you right now, it's hotter than I would like it to be for April 22nd. Yes, yes. It is, I think it's 77 outside right now. And thank God there's a breeze because if there wasn't, it would be disgusting already because  Minnesota is really weird. You would think that 77 would just feel good. 02:52 It doesn't, it feels hot in April. 02:57 So, but at least it's not snowing. Yeah. Cause it could be doing that too. And I'd rather have this than snow cause I'm over it. It was a very,  it was a very moderate winter, but it seemed like a very long winter.  I'm  good on snow for the season.  Um, so I have a quick question about  where your, um, your tiny house is located. Is, is stuff has, has stuff been greened up for you? 03:26 for weeks now because you're so far south. 03:30 Sorry, ask that question one more time. Has stuff been green up? how are the trees leaving out? Yeah, like in the last two weeks, things have really kind of taken off. You know, we've had some warmer days, some really nice days, like low humidity, which is  not typical for us.  So yeah, things are starting to green up.  We just had our last frost date a couple days ago. So, you know, we're busy in the garden and things like that. m Get ready for spring and summer. 04:00 We have another month before our last frost date. But that doesn't stop the greenhouse from getting planted. That's true. Yeah, we have  that benefit of  long growing seasons. if you're really on  the spot, can sometimes cram two  rounds of crops.  And if  you're choosing shorter varieties that 04:28 you know, take a little bit less time to come to maturity. then, you know, during the winter, you have quite a few options if you have a greenhouse or you're going to do, you know, low tunnels or something like that. Mm hmm. Yep. We're starting a brand new to us variety of watermelon this year. We've never done it before. It's called a mini me and personal size watermelon. It's got a 60 day maturity. 04:58 Wow. Time frame. And my husband planted them,  I want to say two weekends ago.  And we have sprouts already and I'm so excited to see how these do because growing the big watermelons in Minnesota does not work very well because our growing season is so short. Yeah. Yeah. So hoping to have watermelons in  end of June, first part of July. 05:26 Excited so excited because I love love love watermelon and if they do well I want to grow a bunch of them again next year so we can sell them at the first farmers market in June. We'll plan.  I've never had much luck with any melons because the squirrels always get at them before they're ready and it always seems like I'm like, okay, I'm gonna pick it  one more day and we one more day on the vine and then I'll pick it and then that night something gets every time. 05:53 Huh, we,  it's weird, we don't have a lot of squirrels on our property. I don't know why, I think I've seen two in five years. Oh wow. So they just,  don't think they have a food source that is a natural food source for them, so they just don't live here. And we're surrounded by corn fields and soybean fields and alfalfa fields, and I don't think that squirrels are very happy with that,  so. 06:22 All right, so tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, Ryan. Sure.  So my name is Ryan Mitchell.  I run the tiny life dot com and we focus on a simple living in kind of three different lenses.  The first one is tiny houses.  So, you know, small homes. uh Typically for one person, you're looking at two to three hundred square feet. 06:47 You know for a family, a small family, you might be looking at thousand, fifteen hundred, just depending on your needs, things like that. Then minimalism, which is basically, you know, thinking intentionally about the way that you live and your interaction with consumerism, what you buy, and just, you know, making sure that the things you own don't start to own you and just being, you know, kind of crafting that intentional life around what's important to you. 07:16 And the last one is home setting home setting, obviously, you know, very familiar to you. Uh, and that's a, a newer  kind of park tour or website we've been doing for about two years now.  Uh, but it's not new to me. I've been, you know, growing food, chickens, quails, bees, you, you name it,  um,  for  at  least a decade, um, if not more. Uh, so. 07:42 Yeah, we kind of focus on those three topics at the website. um, you know, why I'm speaking to you today is because we have a new book coming out. It's called living off the grid, 50 steps to unplug, become self-sufficient and build the home set of your dreams. And that basically was the book that I wish I had when I was kind of, uh, you know, going through my own journey, uh, with a lot of like practical steps, uh, of how to think about how to develop a plan. 08:12 how to make a homestead that's right for you,  and not just kind of adopting someone else's pre-packaged plan of or definition of what it means to be a homesteader. So yeah, that's kind of a little bit about me and our background.  Awesome. So I have to ask you, how do you define homesteading? And I will tell you how I define it first, and then you can tell me if you think it's accurate.  I think that homesteading is a  lifestyle choice 08:41 It is not owning 100 cows and 100 acres of land. How do you define homesteading? Yeah,  I think for me,  I do this also with a tiny house. I don't get too dogmatic about the number of square feet. You some people get very firm about like, it has to be under a certain square footage.  And I think with homesteading, um what's important is  coming up with your own definition. 09:08 definition and you know kind of defining that path for yourself.  So for me,  what my kind of personal definition is, is just thinking about ways that you  rely on external systems that could be the grid, that could be food systems,  that could be the store,  you know, different things like that, entertainment, all that kind of stuff.  And,  you know, thinking about those kind of points of weakness  or 09:37 Kind critical areas that  you maybe rely a little too heavily on and then trying to shore those up trying to replace some of those or bring those a little bit closer to you and that could be as much as like bringing, you know, getting off the grid,  bring solar to your home set and doing all that kind of stuff. It could be  growing your own food. It could be, you know, having a cow or two. It could be a whole, you know, herd of cattle or it could just be working with uh 10:05 the rancher down the street to buy,  you know, half a cow  and put that away in your freezer. So,  um,  yeah, in the book, I kind of walked through some thought exercises about like how people can think about this. And, and the thing that I've just seen over the years,  time and time again, is that people tend to say like, okay, in my head, home setting is this,  and it's usually someone else's definition.  And they adopt it  as almost like, 10:36 The rule and there there is no rules right like you can make this lifestyle whatever you want it to be and then they they tend to back themselves into a corner and figure out that oh don't really want this they'll get you know 10 20 30 50 100 cattle and then realize like oh I can never leave this house because I always have to be watching the cattle or milking the cows or. 11:02 or whatever the daily chores are constantly and I can never go on a vacation.  So yeah, that's why I've always kind of said like, it's important to sit down and define your own definition. Yep,  absolutely. I just, it's so funny because I was just interviewed by Cody Hanner at the Homestead Education Podcast  and I just heard it today. I was interviewed by her three weeks ago, I think it was, and  she was asking, 11:32 me about how we got started. And I was like, the honest answer is I just needed quiet. I just needed to not live in town anymore.  Yeah. And we started at 50 and my husband and I are 56 now. We bought our homestead when we were 50.  And she said, I love that the first thing you answered with is that you started, you bought your homestead when you were 50  because you, 11:58 doesn't matter how old you are, if you are sound of body and mind,  you can make it go. And I was like, yes, you can. I said, just realize that  sound of body may be a little less  definitive than it used to be. And she laughed. So yeah. And as for the tiny house thing, I used to refer to the old house as a tiny house.  was a three bedroom, one bathroom home on a 10th of an acre in town.  And the realtor 12:27 listing said that it was 850 square feet. And I believe it because I raised four kids in that house with my husband. That's tiny house for a family of six. Yes, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And my husband was very taken with the idea of actual tiny houses. When we got old and our kids were out of our small house and I was just like, no freaking way. Yeah. No. 12:55 You value your quiet, I value my quiet and us being literally in the same space all the time will have us divorced in a year.  So instead of doing that, we bought a three acre place with a 1400 square foot house on it. big.  So it's all how you look at it. It's all what you need to be happy.  Agreed. 13:23 So having said all that, I have a question about your tiny house. house. How big is it? So my tiny house is 149 square feet and then a sleeping loft. Okay. And is it on an acre? Is it on a couple of acres? So it's on a friend's property and that's 20 acres. 13:51 Okay.  It's gorgeous woods  and I got extremely lucky because it's in a this, this acreage is in the middle  of the city. like I would, you know, be, you know, doing just life and work and all that kind of stuff in the city. And then I would come home ah to my tiny house  and it was just on this acreage  that has this pond on it that 14:19 like is a spitting image of Walden Pond. And so it was like this little oasis in the city. And it was wonderful to live in. does it feel like camping when you're there? Or does it feel like home? I mean, I think initially it did kind of feel like camping. And also it was a long journey for me to get there. You know, I started back in 2009. 14:48 Uh, in the, when kind of the downturn happened and I  had made a decision like, I tell me that you change because I was just starting my career back then  and  the company that I was  working for closed and I was only six months into my career and I was already getting laid off with the whole, you everyone else in the company. was like, um,  maybe this wasn't the bill of goods that I was sold  when I was signed up for  college and all that kind of stuff. So. 15:18 I did some thinking about it and I worked a long time and in 2012 I moved into it. And so yeah, I did feel a little bit like camping in beginning. But then I kind of settled in and what I realized was it was probably one of the more comfortable homes that I've ever lived in because it was designed for me. Traditional homes are designed to maximize for resale value, not for 15:46 people or not for families. They're  a asset. They're not a home, which is a really sad state of affairs. But I also understand why, you know, like these homes are expensive. They're usually people's largest asset that they own.  So they have to be able to cash out at some point in the future  for, you know, their needs, their retirement, things like that. uh But  yeah, once I kind of settled in  and got comfortable in it, 16:15 It definitely  felt like a regular house. uh I was also younger  and  was out and active and doing things.  At that time I owned a business, so I was going to that physical location  most days of the week  while building up that business. uh It was just a nice little respite away from the big city. 16:43 Yeah, that's how I felt  when we moved because I had just had it with all the noise and the church bells and the train that went through town daily. All the noise was driving me insane. And when we moved here, we live on a pretty busy road because it goes from one town to another and the semis go by a lot because, you know, spring season they're hauling tractors and in the fall season they're hauling corn. 17:12 But you get used to that. That's part of it. But I'm not,  I'm not hearing the Catholic Church's bells toll three, four times a day. I'm not hearing cars go speeding up my road. I'm not hearing  all the things that drove me crazy.  it,  we basically bought the place that we wanted, that we really, really wanted.  And 17:39 It feels like we don't ever want to go on vacation because living here feels like vacation, even though we have chickens and cats and a dog and a big garden. So whatever makes you happy is what you need to do. And as I've said quite a few times on my podcast, not everybody is cut out to live in the middle of the cornfields and alfalfa fields and soybean fields. 18:08 There are a lot of people who really love living in the city. And if that's what floats your boat,  do that. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You  know, we are our South Carolina home is right next to the  the big city that we live nearby.  And  we love both places. We have family here.  So, you know, this is a convenient place close to all of our family. And then we also really love the mountain. 18:38 um And  that's this nice little quiet  place that  is away from everything. um And so that... 18:50 that dichotomy or that juxtaposition, I guess you could say  of the big city, kind of the city house and the mountain house has been really nice.  um,  and you can do  home setting and  all those kinds of things going off grid, even in, you know, more urban locations or suburban, because, uh, getting back to  the earlier point of like make, define a home setting for the way that you want it to be. If 19:20 If you do want to be very social and  have things nearby, like lots of restaurants and concerts or whatever your thing is,  you can  have your cake and eat it too. You can live in  a place that's a little bit closer to town. You may have some smaller acreage. You may uh be just working on a patio out of like container gardening. 19:47 But you may be to do other things. So everything's a give and take and you kind of think about it that way. Yep, absolutely. When we lived in town, we had four chickens in a garden shed. We made it into a chicken coop.  And we had, I don't know,  I would say 50 by 20 square feet of garden in the backyard. That was it. Yeah. And we had more than most people in our neighborhood. So that was great. And we grew lots and lots of really good produce. 20:16 and shared it with the neighbors. And it was wonderful, but I just didn't want to be in town anymore. we decided to jump in 2020 and we're not sorry that we did it. So you said you're getting into homesteading. So what are you doing? What have you started doing for homesteading? Yeah. So I'm kind of bringing it more as like we're getting back to homesteading. 20:45 Um, when I  lived before the  tiny house,  you say I had a big garden. had like a third of an acre garden in ground  and  bees and chickens and quail,  um,  and  doing a few other things like that, canning, all that kind of stuff. And at that time, uh, I was at least part of it. I was in an apartment, so I was able to do all that at a community garden. 21:15 And, uh you know,  so I didn't even have to have the land and the cost was like 150 bucks a year to me  to just kind of get access to that. And then you had community alongside of it and, you know, fun activities to do and people to talk to and whatever. uh But then  now  we're kind of thinking about,  OK, you know, what are the things that  we want to do right now  while we are? 21:42 kind of in two places, you know, there's certain practicalities like we're likely not going to be able to have livestock if we have to be away for a couple weeks at a time, let's just say. um But we could, you know, have a garden, especially raised beds where we kind of do heavy mulching and things like that.  We could have bees, we can do solar, you know, there's certain things that  are practical there. um So 22:11 I think right now we kind of have developed a loose plan. We've gone on the land,  we've got the  house kind set up. One of the first things I did was build out a workshop to kind of be the jumping off point to  do all the other things. you know, having a place to build stuff, the materials on hand, the tools on hand.  in the book I talk about kind of orders of operation  when it comes to home setting and 22:40 Workshop is kind of a key step after you've got your basic necessities nailed down like your shelter your water your sewage things electricity things like that So now that we have the workshop now, we're kind of We've been taking a little bit of time to kind of learn the land through the different seasons and That's been nice to one just enjoy the land. But then to we've learned a lot about okay, you know, it's 23:09 When it rains heavy, it pulls here.  When it gets a little cold, you have these cold wells and these little spots.  The animals um that are around kind of come from this direction. So maybe we're not going to clear that way so we can leave their habitat. Things like that. The sun  angles and the shadows and all that kind of stuff that you learn throughout the year. 23:35 So we're kind of coming to an end of just like learning the land a little bit. And now we're setting plans for the next things, mainly as the garden. We had to do some infrastructure work and we're still working on that. Just getting water where we want it to, power where we want it to be on the house. We took down an old barn just a couple of weeks ago so that we could put our kind of large garden. 24:05 Uh, area we're going to do all raised beds  and  put our, our trees and our,  uh, beehives in it and then kind of fence the whole thing. with some,  uh, electric fence, because we have  several bears on property.  you know,  they love to munch on those,  uh, you know, you have to watch out for bears knocking over your hives to get the honey and things like that. So yeah, that's been kind of  the workflow so far is getting on the land. 24:35 getting a few key things established, learning it, and then setting plans for what's next. That is so exciting. I'm listening to you and you have just got to be chomping at the bit to see how this goes.  Yeah, yeah. There's a long list. Well, I sat down  like a year ago and just like made a list of like, okay, these are all the things that I want to get done. And they were kind of the smaller steps in between. 25:03 And then I ordered them and then I assigned dollar values because, you know, certain things cost, you know, for materials or whatever. And  I was like, oh, okay, I'm definitely not going to be doing this and all in the next year.  So how do I want to go about this? And so just kind of thinking through all the steps um was really exciting. And  also, you know, it allowed me to kind of prioritize things um and kind of paint that vision too. 25:33 Yeah, I've said a lot of times on the podcast, start small, dream big.  And I stand by it because unless you are a millionaire, you can't do all the things all at once.  It's not affordable. Well, and even if you are a millionaire, like it takes time. It's all going to take time. Like there's a lot of work. There's a lot of moving pieces.  you know, ah 25:59 I'm not going say having money is a bad thing, but like it also isn't the panacea for um kind of standing up a homestead that it could be. There's still a lot of work, time, effort and planning.  And I think frankly, you know, being a little bit more budget conscious, thinking about your dollars and things like that,  it slows you down just enough to make sure that you don't make any critical mistakes and you really think through your decisions.  I think that's an important part um that 26:29 kind in the book I laid out some of the  kind of the common mistakes I see people make in their journeys. And  so yeah, I think it's just important to kind of take your time with it for sure. Start small, 100%. When I that the community garden for many years, I ran myself.  I was kind of like the head person once  I got kind of involved with it. And  every year I would have  probably like 26:57 20 to 30 new gardeners come in and they always had big aspirations.  And I would always kind of coach them. like, okay, let's start small. Let's give you a hundred square feet. Let's start there.  And,  and you know, sometimes they would push back us like trust, know, just trust the process here. When it's August and it's miserable out and you have a bunch of weeds coming in, like you want it to be approachable and practical so that you're not just hating life as you're, you know, trying to weed. 27:26 way more garden than you're used to. And every time it's worked out for them and they agreed in the end. And those who didn't heed the advice always ended up with a garden full of weeds that they couldn't keep up with. yeah, small, starting that way is definitely the way to go, even if you're experienced. Yes, exactly. And I'm going to use chickens as an example. 27:55 If my husband had his way, we would have 200 chickens. He learned after we got up to about 36 chickens that having about 14 to 15 is a good number because there's enough eggs for us and there's enough eggs to sell to the neighbors in the farm stand. Yeah. Because 150 to 200 chickens, that's a lot of chicken coop cleaning out to do every week. Yeah. 28:25 Yeah.  And you need to have an outlet for those eggs, right? Like you're not going to,  if you never,  if you haven't had a business, even a small side kind of thing, uh, selling eggs, like you're not going to go from zero to a hundred as much as you want. Um, and unless, I don't know, unless you just have a particularly good location or you're really tapping in heavily into  farmers markets, but there's probably already people there selling kind of the same goods that you have.  yeah.  Um, 28:55 I think the most I ever had was about 15 chickens and  that was about right  for us at the time. Yeah.  And  honestly,  we did have, I think it was two, I  think it was last spring. I think we had 26 chickens  and now we're down to 14.  That's because chickens get um eaten by raccoons. Yeah. 29:24 Or they just get sick without any notice, keel over and die. So old, you know, all those things. Absolutely. Yep. So if I was going to give anybody advice and I shouldn't, cause I don't know anything, I know enough to be dangerous, but if I was going to give people advice about chickens, I would say start with like five and see how it goes. And if you actually like taking care of them and then you can always add more. 29:54 Yeah. So, so I try to keep these to half an hour, but I do have one last question.  How long did it take you to write your book and get it published? Let's  see. So this book, I had already had a publisher lined up and basically we worked with  Prince and Press  to kind of come up with a book concept. They wanted to be in this space. 30:23 They liked my writing because they saw it through the website, the timeline.com. uh, so I've always been fortunate to always have a publisher and not have to like shop a book around. So I've never actually done that before, but, uh, so I had that on my side and then I focused on it for, uh, about six months. It was basically every single weekend, uh, because I work, you know, like, um, you know, 30:51 Part of my own stuff consulting and then like a day job too. So I was doing a weekend and nights and things like that. So yeah, about six months of nights and weekends. Okay. So not, not forever, but it definitely took some time. Yeah. I mean, uh, this is probably one of my, I don't know. This is I think 60,000 words. So it was about middle of the road for my books and um, 31:19 He's this is my ninth book  and yeah, it's a lot of words and then you have to edit it too. So we spent, you know, three months editing as well  on top of that. then, you know, kind of going to press and all that kind of stuff.  yeah, I mean, I always enjoyed the process. It's something that I  found that I really enjoy through the years,  the tiny life and through all the other books I've written as well.  And I was really excited to work on this one because it was 31:49 Like said, the book that I wish I had handed to me when I first started. I'm sure people are going to appreciate everything in it because if it was the book you wanted, it's the book they probably want now. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Ryan, thank you so much for your time. Where can people find you? Yeah. So I appreciate the time and the conversation. For those who are interested, we're at thetinylife.com. 32:17 And  in the store, you can find a link to the book as well.  But the book is available at your local bookstores,  all major retailers online,  and a bunch of indie kind of mom and pop bookstores in  stores as well. The title is called Living Off the Grid by Ryan Mitchell.  And I appreciate the time. Thank you so much, Mary. Are you on social media anywhere? Oh, we have presence there. 32:46 We don't do a ton of social media anymore. We mainly focus on the website and our email So if people want to kind of like really stay in touch with us  I would encourage them to you know Just go to the website sign up with our newsletter and we'll kind of keep you in the loop on stuff  All right fabulous  as always people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast calm  Ryan. This was really fun. Thanks so much. Thank you. Have a great day    

Today I'm talking with Leah at Bauer Family Farms.  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Leah Bauer at Bauer Family Farms in  Faribault, Minnesota.  Good afternoon, Leah. How are you? Doing well. I got most of my chores out of the way, so I'm... 00:56 sitting pretty with a nice coffee in my house and ready to chit chat about farm life.  Good.  And normally I would say, how's the weather? But you and I both know it is a gloriously beautiful day in Minnesota today.  Compared to yesterday, yes.  Yeah. And Saturday, Saturday, we got snow in the morning. Right. It was enough to to build up on the grass where we were at. We're we just had unhooked our our plow and everything and got it put away for the 01:26 spring, which those couple of 80 degree days really, really had me going for a second there. Yeah. And I just said that wrong Sunday. It was yesterday morning. I'm not quite with it. Oh, you're right. Yeah. It was yesterday morning because I was up at five and at 515, I went out on the porch with my coffee and looked outside and I was like, I will be damned. It's snowing big white feathery flakes. Right. Which is not what you want to see once you've already had what? Five 80 degree days? Yeah. 01:55 Yeah, it's  spring in Minnesota. Doesn't know what it's doing.  Oh,  it's coming. It's all going to be okay. Our rhubarb is leafing. Our tree line is leafing. My peonies are  up. They haven't budded yet. Thank God, because they'd be  useless if they had, because the snow would have killed them. We have um tulips up with buds on them. They haven't opened yet. um 02:24 The tree has not bloomed yet. The apple trees have not bloomed yet. So that's good news too. We have about  500 cloves of garlic planted that are, I think like eight inches tall already. Wow. I know I'm so excited. We started,  I think in 2023, we planted 80 cloves from a neighbor  and the plan was to just  multiply it, you know, cause garlic is 02:50 It's one of those things that if you plant one, then you usually get five to eight cloves back at the end of the season. Oh yeah. And so started with 80 and then replanted everything. And now we've got 500. So when we harvest, we should have 3000 or 4000 cloves to plant again at the end of this year. I am so jealous because we can't grow garlic here to save our lives. The dirt's too heavy, too black. You have more of a clay soil. 03:20 Yes.  Yes, we do. That sucks. Garlic likes  soft soil, kind of a loamy almost so that it has room to expand. Yeah, I asked my husband if we should just put in a raised bed and, you know, make the soil what the garlic would like. And he said, yeah, we could do that. And we haven't done it yet.  It's easy to to get all of the dreams together. 03:47 But then once it actually comes to putting the supplies together, that's a different story. Well, we're just not sure that we need to grow garlic because lots of people grow garlic in Minnesota.  And he really loves growing tomatoes, so he puts all his focus on tomatoes. 04:06 I think  it was 2024 that  we did a ton of tomatoes  and I still have some in the freezer. We just,  we don't need a ton of them. And some other family in Wasika actually grows a greenhouse load of them. So they  cover us for that and we're going to stick with garlic, I think. It's lot of fun. Yeah. And garlic is like God's gift to cooking. So keep growing garlic, please. 04:35 Yes, absolutely. We're hoping to put it in the farm stand if we get any  smaller heads that aren't suitable for planting at the end of this year. Yes. So we kind of jumped the gun here.  How about you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to be farming and what you do? Right. So we  just kind of started up the farm and the farm page this year, but I do have  a rural 05:05 background and grew up out in the country.  Always had chickens when I was younger, but never really  cattle or  any other types of poultry or pork. ah So we're just really getting into it again, after a  few years hiatus  and  jumping in with both feet, you know, starting  chickens again, I have about 125 egg laying chickens. 05:34 Very nice.  And I have  six New Zealand doe rabbits  and one buck. And we're hoping to get some quail eggs in the incubator soon, along with  hopefully doing cut flowers for the farm stand  and lots of vegetables.  I love a big garden and I do a lot of canning myself. And so most of it's for my own shelves. But I'm hoping to get my cottage license here soon and I'll be able to sell  my canned goods. 06:04 Yes, do that. Cause I think it's still free. Oh yeah. To get the cottage license. It's  I've from  the women around me that have applied and gotten approved. said that the process is fairly easy.  It's super easy. have to renew mine and basically the website has a bunch of information you read through it. And then there's a  quiz. It's like 10 questions and you have to get seven or eight correct. Right. 06:33 I mean, it almost sounds too easy. Anybody could do it, but maybe that's the point. Yes. Yes. And the thing is, if you don't love to cook, you're not going to bother to get your cottage registration. So I think it's fine. But yes, we we have a farm stand on our place too. And my intention over the next month or so is to start cooking some start cooking, start baking some cookies and get them packaged up and out there because 06:59 People are stopping in for eggs anyway. And if there's like a little box of six cookies out there for eight bucks, maybe they'll buy them. Who knows? Oh yeah. I'm pretty terrible at the impulse buys. And so that would get me a hundred percent. Yes. And my cookies are way better than store-bought cookies. I promise. That rings true for, I think, at least 99 % of farm goods. 07:27 Why buy it in the store when your neighbor can make it and you can barter for it or...  And it doesn't have preservatives in it. You're right. Exactly. Five ingredients compared to a paragraph. Yes. And thank God for that because the labels would be impossible to create. So  our neighbor, um the lady that I do the farm stand with, her name is Summer and her cottage name is Summer Flowers. It's kind of a play on words. 07:57 Cute. so she does all of the cottage baking and she is incredible at it. I mean, she's she truly has a gift. I'm looking at uh jalapeno cheddar and cinnamon raisin loaves right now that I snagged  from the weekend.  And so she does a lot of  the cottage baking and I am going to supply cut flowers, fresh produce  and farm fresh eggs at the farm stand. So it's kind of a 08:27 oh co-operation with the farm stand. But it's been a lot of fun so far. We've only been open, I think, three weekends now on Saturdays and Sundays.  Nice. So do you get a lot of traffic in there? Yes. They  have a gorgeous property and  it's a little brick building that I think used to be like a pump house or a garden shed or something, but  it was  repurposed  beautifully into what the farm stand is now. 08:56 but lots of, uh, not nitpicking, but we'll change little things about it as the season goes. Yes. You'll have to re revamp it as the season goes. Right. Fresh pangy,  um, some decorations. I've saved seeds from when I grew  marigolds  last year and I have like a gallon bag full of marigold seeds that I just plan on kind of sprinkling everywhere.  That'll be really pretty. 09:26 Marigolds are great for  chicken eggs too.  I don't know the exact science behind it, but they're supposed to lower the cholesterol  in chicken eggs, along with making the yolks darker. If the chickens eat the blooms? Both flowers  and the greenery on the plant too, I believe.  Cool. I didn't know that. I will have to let my husband know that. That would be really cool to plant some marigolds for them. Right.  I inherited a 09:55 gallon bag of expired seeds from my mom  and was just kind of chaos planting everything because why not? You know, if it grows, it grows and I can separate it and put it where it belongs or it doesn't grow and becomes fertilizer. You know, one way or the other, it'll do okay.  But so I planted like eight packets worth of marigold seeds in like a two by two square. 10:25 in one of my planting boxes and all of them germinated and it just became this super dense marigold bush that got like three feet tall.  bet it was gorgeous. Oh, you could smell it from  a mile away. It was great. But so I saved all the seeds from that and I'll plant them around our chicken pasture this year. Your chickens are going to love you.  I really hope so. Yeah. ah 10:54 So  because we're talking  about the farm stand thing, I have a question for you. Do you know what scones are? S-C-O-N-E-S? Yes.  Summer makes  like blueberry white chocolate chip scones that are to die for. Okay. Are they like the ones at the grocery store that are really flat and dense or are they the ones that are fluffy? Oh, they're fluffy. They're so nice. Okay. 11:23 The reason I ask is because one of things I'm thinking about baking and putting in the farm stand is scones. Because I make a really flaky, fluffy scone. And I'm not sure that people will even know what they are because the only scones I've seen for sale in Minnesota  are the ones at the grocery store that are flat and dense. 11:44 Well, if your farm stand has a decent, I mean, you are on Facebook for the farm stand, right? Yes. I would just post them on Facebook first to gauge interest, maybe. I love those videos where people like take their sourdough loaf and split it in half and then like slowly open it to show the crumb. And squish it so it crackles. Yes, you could do that with the scones to show that they're not. 12:14 dense kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I was so flabbergasted when I, when I bought scones at the store the first time I was like, these are terrible.  same thing has been going for the  sourdough English muffins. The ones that I just bought at Aldi like a month ago are  so small and so sad and so thin. 12:42 And the ones that I am looking at in front of me are like an inch thick and they're fluffy. You'll, you'll never go back once you have one. Yes. And that's the other thing I wanted to, I wanted to bring up since we're talking about this particular subject,  everybody has their own magic when they cook. And if you're, if you're a good cook, that magic can't help, but be infused into the food.  So. 13:09 One person can make a scone and another person can make a scone  and they can be  absolutely wonderful and delicious,  but they're going to be different because two different people made them. I've always kind of wondered if different sourdough bakers, if their starters have like a different. I don't know, flavor or like base to them.  I don't think so. I think what's different, I think it's just water and flour. 13:38 I mean, it could be different kind of flour, obviously, but it's water and flour. What it is that every home has a different environment. What's in the air? Oh, interesting. And so that's what makes it different. But I also think that it's how the person actually makes whatever they're making out of the starter, how they make the bread or the pizza dough or whatever. Right. I know I've followed a recipe before where if you don't mix all the dry ingredients before you 14:07 add the wet ingredients, then that can change the entire outcome. Yeah, chemistry is amazing. 14:15 Chemistry is a pain in the butt, but it's also amazing. Right. It wasn't my forte in high school. I'll admit that. Yeah, I was okay with chemistry and biology. Physics was the one that kicked my butt. I don't think I ever made it to physics. I really loved uh reading, literature, English,  writing. I loved all that stuff. Yeah, that was more my thing. I'm good at math. I just don't enjoy it at all. And physics is a lot of math. 14:43 So that's probably why physics was very hard for me. Algebra was easy.  was,  I think geometry is what sucked. Once you get into like the cosine and tangent and that kind of stuff, that's where it tripped me up a little bit. Yeah. And what's funny is as a homesteader or a farmer, we all tend to use geometry without even thinking about it.  Right. But it's because it's practically applied geometry. 15:14 I know that every teacher that told me that I wouldn't have a calculator in real life was absolutely wrong. Yeah, funny how that worked out.  You're not always going to have a calculator a hundred years later. Oh, really? Right. I have one right here in my pocket.  And not only do I have that in the same device, I have a camera  and a video camera  and a way to access the answer to any question ever asked by any man ever. 15:43 It's  terrible, but it is true. It's real handy though.  I do believe that thinking for yourself is important, but having answers easily available is also  so much more convenient. Yes, like why is my dog scratching at her ear? Oh, she might have ear mites. What can I do about ear mites?  You can put olive oil in a Q-tip and put it inside of her ear and it will kill the ear mites. 16:13 Right. That's $200 that I can save instead of taking her to the vet and... And it worked. Oh, right. It's... love... I consider myself a semi-crunchy type person. Like, I love the holistic approach to bumps and scrapes and bruises, but I'll still go and get myself a nice coffee kind of thing. Oh, yes. Absolutely. They will pry my coffee from my cold dead hands. 16:44 They'll do their best at least. Yeah, I don't know. My spirit might come back into my body because I'll be really angry. I don't know. I'm just being silly. So you have chickens. What else do you have? Right. So we raise New Zealand rabbits, mainly for meat. I have a couple of pelts in the feet and the heads in my freezer. I am a sucker for oddities, curiosities, that kind of thing. 17:14 And so that world is in my wheelhouse as well. I sell any rabbits that don't make it or die of natural causes and some chicken eggs to the save a fox rescue out of Millersburg. 17:32 So they take some of the rabbit products. Otherwise, we're trying to market rabbit meat for human consumption as well. yes, definitely. Rabbit is really yummy. Millersburg, where is that? Oh, it would be north of Faribault, think like 15 miles or so. And then it's west of I've 35. And they are what? 18:01 What's the place that you're? It's called Save a Fox  and it's all one word. Yeah. They're pretty popular on Facebook, I think. They have a couple of different Facebook pages, though, but they're great. They rescue foxes from fur farms and let them live their happy little fox lives in a contained environment. 18:26 I'm going to have to look them up and see if they will chat with me because I like, I like talking to people that are sort of adjacent to what I talk about. Yeah. I, I don't know if they would be open to it or not, but  they've, I think they're above a million followers on Facebook. Wow.  I know they're awesome too.  The people that work with Fox's  have a lot of patients, I think. Yes. And it's interesting because I was brought up being told that 18:54 that wild animals are wild animals and that you don't really get to be anywhere near friends with them. But there is a uh fox rescue that I do follow it. I don't think it's the one you're talking about though. I think it's another one.  And  they have foxes that they rescued that literally will eat out of their hands and sit in their laps.  right. Yes. The foxes  at ah that rescue,  they... 19:23 are like nine generations  bred out of the out of  a wild habitat. So they're completely they're like a cat and a dog's body, I think is how they refer to them. Yeah. Yep. It's just it's so funny because like I saw on Facebook,  I find everybody I talk to on Facebook. So I spent a lot of time on Facebook. I shouldn't, but I do.  And there was a guy that rescued a coyote. 19:52 It had gotten hit by a car and it was, it was really hurt and took it to the vet. The vet got it fixed up and then the guy took care of it while it was in recovery.  The coyote comes back all the time to visit the guy. He let him go. The guy let the coyote go wild and the coyote comes back to see him all the time. That's really sweet. We've, it's, been a, I've, I've loved working with animals  since 20:21 I was younger, maybe it started with a chicken obsession, but who knows? But I would love to in the near future, if not, maybe like a five-year plan or something, but I would love to have a wildlife rescue. 20:37 uh I would love for you to have a wildlife rescue too so I can come visit.  Right. ah A lot of times in the spring people disturb like cottontail nests or a baby bird falls out of the tree or a possum gets hit on the highway kind of thing. I just really enjoy that  rehabilitation work. 21:01 Yes. And if you do it, I hope you get to rehabilitate baby raccoons because we had some visit last spring and oh my God, they were cute. They, their little hands just kill me.  They're little squeaks. The noises they make.  I know they're the best. I love little raccoons. That's a lot of,  um, roadkill happens in the spring because all these animals are trying to feed their young right now. So it's  in the spring, it's  usually a good time to take your 21:31 speed down five, 10 miles an hour or so on the highways because everything's crossing. Yes. And sometimes you hit people's barn cats and they die. And that's really hard on us who own the barn cats. Yeah. For Fairbolt has a really heavy, uh,  feral cat population as well.  There's,  um, the Fox rescue in Millersburg and Fairbolt, there is furball farms. Yes.  I actually did a, an article about them for, um, 22:02 River Valley Woman Magazine a few years back. They're so much fun. They have a pretty huge following around here. They're kind of like a local  celebrity type thing. But a lot of my family has gone to just go hang out with the cats. They have events where you can just go in and hang out and. Yes, and if you love cats, you will love being there because there are cats  everywhere. 22:33 I love cats. My husband is more of a loves kittens,  not the adult cats. Yes.  So we do have two of our own along with our livestock guardian dog. She's a great Pyrenees. Her name's Mika. Nice.  But then the two cats are kind of indoor outdoor. If  it's a thunderstorm, they get to come hide out in the garage. But typically they like spending their days outside. 23:01 So I have a question. your cats like your dog?  They don't snuggle, but they respect each other's space.  Okay. The reason I ask is our barn cats  love our dog. Our dog is an Australian shepherd and she's only about 36 pounds. And we just got three new kittens. They were like 16 to 20 weeks old when we got them last summer. 23:29 They wanted nothing to do with Maggie at first. They wanted nothing to do with anybody at first. And now in the morning they come running up when we let her outside and  they just rub up against her and purr. And I'm like, didn't take you guys very long to be friends, did it? Right. You have very well tempered cats and the dog, I think. Well, 23:51 Maggie would have been a great mama dog, but we got her spayed when she was six months old because puppies was not on the bucket list.  Right. We had a,  German shepherd just passed in January and he was the same way. I really wish we hadn't gotten him neutered because his temperament was  ideal. Yup. But  you can't, you can't know.  And also there are so  many. 24:20 animals in the world that are in shelters that don't have a home and I was just like I don't want her to get pregnant by oh geez a dog that's too big and she ends up dying because the puppies are too big right she's small dog and There was no guarantee we could find homes for puppies. So I was just like the smartest thing is to Make her not a mama permanently and it's sad 24:49 But it was probably the smartest thing we did. Right.  I would love to someday go to a shelter and adopt like who's who's been there the longest or the senior dog that got surrendered or something like that. I would love to give  somebody's pet uh a good ending to their life. Yes. Oh, I love that.  I love that. And actually, that's probably what we'll end up doing when Maggie is no longer with us. We probably will never get a puppy. 25:18 again because my husband and I are both 56 and puppy energy is a lot and I can't imagine going through it in our 60s. So we'll probably just get  a dog that is a dog, not a puppy. We still try to get out and travel as much as we can. We also have two small children here in our homestead, farmstead, whatever you want to call it. um But they're two years and six months.  so young children and the farm makes travel. 25:47 pretty difficult, but someday we'd like to  be able to take a month off in the winter and go to Mexico or something. But having too much going on and  needing to find someone to watch  everything, you know, and be able to learn feeding schedules and all that is  such a challenge.  It is. And we're going through that too, because it's just my husband and I.  So 26:16 If we want to go somewhere,  we really can't because  I don't know what you know about Australian Shepherds, but they are very, very close with their people, but not really close with anybody else. Oh, so she wouldn't do well with like a doggy hotel type thing.  No,  no, she would not. I suspect she probably would go on a hunger strike. And she also is scared to death of people, strangers. 26:45 So even if we could take her with us, all she would do the whole time we were not home, if she was with us, is bark. So  we have the joy of having a wonderful dog, but we also have the pain of knowing that it's gonna be a problem if we actually wanna go somewhere. Right? It's like a, kinda like a toddler in that respect. Yes, exactly. 27:12 And honestly, it is a lot like a toddler. husband took her out and  threw the frisbee for her last night.  And I got up at midnight to go potty and she was snoring in her crate in her crate. I thought you were going to say crib.  Yeah, almost.  I was going to say kennel and I'm like, it's not really a kennel. It's a crate, but she was snoring and I was like, wow, he must have run her  hard.  That's so funny. Yeah. But anyway, um, 27:41 So you said chickens, you said rabbits. Do you have other animals or is that it for now? For now, that's it. We have done pigs in the past, but  as  typical farm life goes, we found ah things that needed to be stored in the shed that the pigs were kept in. So it turned from livestock back into storage and  we just haven't really had the time. 28:11 with two small children to start pigs up again. I would like to start quails soon. I'm hoping my incubator has sat empty for about a week and I'm starting to get the itch to hatch eggs again. 28:23 Yep.  It's so funny because quail is very much on the radar here and it keeps coming up in these conversations with you guys. uh We're thinking about it. We're about 50 % sold on the idea of getting quail. I just found a little hutch on Facebook Marketplace  and so I think that I would keep quailing that. We have thought about doing other poultry, know, throwing some turkeys or something in with the chickens. 28:51 Getting turkey eggs or turkey poults is  they're so expensive. It's insane. I think I saw a sign in Tractor Supply that was like $18.99 for one turkey pulled.  Really? Yeah, like wildly expensive  and nobody around me has any hatching eggs available. So are  chicken chicks expensive this year too? Like five or six bucks a piece? Well, I mean, it depends on if you want 29:20 barnyard mix or if you want some sort of purebred specialty type. So I ordered from Hoover's Hatchery for our egg layers that I, oh, I think they were Valentine's Day chicks. So they're, I don't know how many weeks old that would make them. They're about to start laying next month. So we got 70 there and those were. 29:47 between four to six dollars a piece, because I went with the more budget-friendly breeds. But I see a lot of people hatching ah like cream leg bars, which do the blue eggs or  the black copper morans, which give you the dark chocolate eggs.  Those can be like nine to fifteen dollars a check if you're getting them from purebredlines. I swear, just like two years ago, 30:17 The not fancy chicks were only like a buck and a half a piece.  I would love to know where you saw those prices. It might have been three or four years ago, but it wasn't that long ago that they weren't five to six dollars a piece.  Right. I know that backyard chicken keeping has become wildly popular, especially after the pandemic. think a lot of people turned to  wanting to be more self-sufficient ah after you couldn't find toilet paper at Walmart. 30:47 made a lot of people panic on uh the whole food supply in America.  It absolutely did. That's why so many people moved out of the towns and cities they were in out into the country. And I'm not going to like throw any shade about that because I think that if you can do it, you should. Right. Absolutely.  I fully support anybody that wants to  commit to  a lifestyle in the country. Yeah. 31:15 Yeah, I do too. And it's not for everybody. There are lots of people who really want to live  in  an area where there are people around. I am not one of them. I really, really value being  not surrounded by people anymore. Let's put it that way.  Right. I grew up 20 minutes from  the nearest  town. And so going into town to the grocery store with my mom was always a trip. 31:45 You know, was preparation to get out of the house took 20 minutes in itself, 20 minutes to drive to the grocery store and then 20 minutes back home. Yeah, it was like half the day. But I always would go to sleepovers at a friend's house and not be able to sleep because of the headlights bouncing off the walls at night. It's like, how can you how can you sleep like this? There's so much going on outside. Like, aren't you worried about 32:13 people looking in your windows or, you why is your neighbor's window pointing at your kitchen? Uh huh. That's, it's just the strangest concept to me being stacked on top of other people like that. Yes. And it's part of the reason that we decided to move five and a half years ago. Well, actually almost six years ago,  we moved in here on August  7th  of 2020. Wow. You have a very good memory. Well, 32:40 Part of the reason I remember it is because I spent the first night I spent here was August 3rd into the 4th because we, had to be here because they were going to hook up the internet and bring a stove because this place didn't have a cook stove when we bought it. So I had to be here on August 4th in the morning and I vividly remember going to sleep on the couch downstairs that we had moved in. So I had a place to sleep. 33:10 And I couldn't sleep. I was just so excited to be spending the first night here. And my husband was actually at the old house because he had to work and it was much closer for him to stay where we were living before to drive to work.  And we hadn't moved clothes down here yet. And I could not sleep because I was so excited and because it was so  quiet. 33:37 That's like the night before a field trip when you're a kid that you're just jittering in bed. so excited. Your backpack's ready. Your clothes are set out. Yeah. And I've told the story a billion times, but I'll tell it again because it's one of my favorites. I made sure to set the alarm on my phone for before sunrise because the window over the kitchen sink faces east. And I really wanted to see the first sunrise out over the field. Oh, that's so exciting. 34:05 I think I slept an hour the first night I stayed here  and I was definitely awake for sunrise and it was worth every second of it.  I hope you took a picture or something that would be a framed photo.  I have a picture  of looking at the window so it's not like through the window at the sunrise it's just the window and you can see the sunrise outside so it's not 34:33 It's not necessarily focused on the sunrise. It's focused on my cute little kitchen window over the sink. But either way,  just, feel like certain people are city people and they always will be. And that's where they're comfortable and they love it. And there are certain people who are not and that's where they're comfortable and they love it. I think that  anything worth having you have to work for.  so convenience, 35:03 kind of  kills part of that. 35:09 Yes,  I agree.  do. However, I am a sucker for a good burger and I don't mean the ones we make here at home. So I'm real happy that one of the best dive bars in Minnesota is in Lesour. What is it called?  It's called the Bar and Grill. That's very vague.  Yes, it's very original. It's a bar and a grill and they make a really, really good burger. But the best thing they make is homemade onion rings. 35:38 battered onion rings. Oh, I put onions and mushrooms and almost everything I make. Uh huh. So when we're going to celebrate something, we we go grab a burger and really good onion rings at the bar and grill. That's awesome. I think there was just a do you know where Lonsdale is? I do. The Shields Lake cheesecake was just on the news. 36:05 And I've never heard of them. Really? Oh my gosh, they're it's the best cheesecake you'll ever have in your life. Is it a it a bakery? It's they only sell cheesecake. OK, so so is it like a store? Yes, they have a storefront in  Lonsdale. I think that the city of Fairbolt put up too much of a fuss about regulations, and so they intended to  open their storefront in Fairbolt, but 36:35 opted for Lonsdale instead. They're the type of place that you have to get there and wait in line because they sell out so quickly. is a that's a terrible problem to have. Boy, I don't know. It's I they it was worth I got there early one day and didn't have to wait in line for my cheesecake. But it is it is a hefty slice that you get. 37:03 and they do all sorts of different flavors and concoctions. They supply weddings. Huh? I might have to go check that out. I would say it's worth it. Yeah, because I'm kind of a real sucker for cheesecake, which is why I only eat it about once every five years, because otherwise I would eat it every day. Okay, awesome. Well, I try to keep this half an hour. We're at almost 37 minutes. So. 37:31 I am going to cut you loose, but before we go, where can people find you? So Bauer Family Farms is  currently only on Facebook. Bauer is spelled B-A-U-E-R. That is so far our only socials. We're getting connected to a couple of farm stand websites  and  the name is spelled the same in all those spots.  Okay. Hopefully  someday I'll connect to Instagram or TikTok, but for now it's just Facebook. 38:00 That's good enough. It's a place where people can find you online, which means that I can link to it for you in the show notes. All right, Leah, this was really fun. Thank you for your time. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you. You too. See you later.  

Today I'm talking with Becky at Homesteading with BeckyJ.  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. A tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Becky at Homesteading with Becky J in Oregon. How are you this morning, Becky?  I am fabulous. How about you? I'm good. What's the weather doing in Oregon? 00:57 We're actually really overcast today. 01:02 Is it raining or is it just overcast? Just overcast. It looks like it wants to try, but nothing's happening.  Yeah. And rain is not, it's not anything unusual in Oregon or Washington state. So I'm sure you're ready for it to sprinkle whenever, right? Yeah. Well, and I'm in Eastern Oregon. So we actually, lot of the storms tend to go around us. We're usually pretty dry. So yeah, we definitely take all the rain that we can get. 01:30 Yeah, I'm in Minnesota. It is yet another really lovely morning. It's  the reason I sound weird about that is because this winter has been the longest, grayest,  wettest we've had in probably four years. Oh, geez. But the sun is coming in the bedroom window. There's no wind  and it's just really pretty outside. I'm like, hmm, another good morning. Yay.  So. ah 01:59 I have to tell you when I saw the name of your page, Homesteading with Becky J, for some reason it made me think of a pop star and I can't for the life of me think of who it is right now. But I was like, that sounds like a rock star homesteader. I want to talk to her. Easy to remember then. Yes. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Well, I am 37 years old. have 02:28 Three children, a whole full-fledged homestead now. I literally have animals all over, but it was not like that. You know, six, seven years ago, I was living in a trailer park. So, I mean, we made some major changes for the better, obviously. There was a lot of work to get here, but... 02:51 Still grilling.  So when you were in the trailer park, were you already like practicing homesteading skills though? you already learning? I mean, I've always been a meal prepper, baker, cooker. So I kind of had that going for me, but honestly, no. And I wish that I would have been practicing some of these basic skills. You know, like I could have been gardening on my porch. I could have been utilizing container gardening or 03:19 you know, worm composting or learning how to sow, but I was so oblivious to all of it. And I guess I just thought that like the property had to come first. So I'm a big advocate for people. Like it doesn't matter where you're at. Like you can literally do this anywhere. And I wish I would have started sooner, you know? Well, I would say, okay, listener, you heard it here first, but I say it all the time. So, okay, listener, you're hearing it again. Learn to cook, grow a plant,  learn to 03:49 crochet or sew,  just  learn some basic skills of do-it-yourself things because that way you're not caught flat-footed. Yeah. Yup. 04:01 Okay, so  when did you move into, when did you acquire your land? We have been here about seven years now. it  just slowly but surely we started getting some animals and the first year I tried to garden it was a complete flop because I didn't know what I was doing.  That's okay, at least you tried.  Yeah. 04:31 Yep. Okay. So tried gardening. Yeah. The people that had lived here before us, she had a big, big garden  and I know them personally. So like I seen what it looked like in full bloom and everything that she had been growing. like, Oh, I could totally do that. And so of course I just planted everything in the ground with no idea of like weed control or how I was going to water or anything. And then of course, 04:58 everything started sprouting. It looked fabulous, but then I couldn't tell what were like weeds and what were the plants.  By the time it was big enough for me to tell, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm not pulling all these. I just gave up.  I just let it grow wild that year. I'm like, yeah, no.  Did you get anything out of it though, even though it was crowded? Some lettuce. 05:26 I did get some lettuce, but that was about it.  Well, it's better than nothing. Yeah. Yeah, you're right.  It's definitely a learning lesson.  Are you plant, are you, so have you gotten better at gardening over the years? Oh yes. I now know like what works for me and because I do work full time still. So I definitely have to have some major systems in place in order for me to  make it work growing as much as I do.  Um, 05:53 but I have some weed barriers down. have an automatic watering system now. I grow certain things in raised beds, certain things in the ground. And so I have a system now.  Yeah. Systems are really  very, very, I would could say very a hundred times. It wouldn't be enough  important to making a homestead run where you don't feel like you're putting out fires all the time.  Definitely. Yup. And you said you have animals. So what do you have for animals and what animal did you get first? 06:23 Um, so funny enough, we got cows first, which seems backwards in my head. Yeah. But there, we already had a fence pasture and my husband always wanted cows, you know, raise our own beef. And we started with cows and that also obviously was a learning experience. Um, the first cow we had his name was Houdini given for a very good reason, because even though it was a fenced pasture, the fence needed some work. 06:52 And so he got out constantly. So I don't know how many times I, we had to walk that guy home. Like he would end up at the neighbors, you know, half a mile down the road and someone else's pasture. And it was like, oh my gosh, this animal is huge. I'm going to get ran over.  And I got chickens and chickens obviously were a little bit easier to manage.  Yeah. They say chickens are the gateway animal for homesteaders. Cows is not. 07:21 Cows is not the animal they say is the gateway animal. Yeah. Really quick. I'm going to jump in our neighbors to our west, our Northwest. They have cows and they have at least one donkey.  And we've lived here. We've lived here for a little over five years and I keep, I keep waiting to get up in the morning and find a cow or a donkey in my yard and they've never shown up. So they must have really good fences.  And what's really dumb, Becky is that 07:51 I would not be terribly offended if I woke up to a cow or a donkey standing in my yard. It would be definitely has their own personalities. Yeah. As long as I could get hold of the owner and say, you need to come get your critter because I can't do it. I would be fine with it. Cause I think that we don't have livestock here. We have chickens, we have a dog, we have barn cats. And I 08:18 We have three acres. We don't have enough room for anybody to graze and feeding livestock right now is real expensive if you're not grazing them. Yeah. So the idea of waking up to a cow or a donkey in my yard would be highly entertaining  once.  Yeah. Let me just visit. Okay. Like babysit them a couple hours, maybe once a week and then take them back. Yeah. Their beautiful dog came over one day and she's,  I think her name is shy or sky. 08:48 And she's the red  golden retriever. Like she's not the yellow golden. She's the reddish kind and friendly as all get out. I was just like, Oh my God, she can stay. And my husband was like, we have a dog. She's going home. oh So we've met their dog and she's wonderful, but  have not met any of their other livestock yet. And I wait for the morning where I do. Do you have like, I don't want to say. 09:19 There's a word. I hate this.  Do you have average chickens or do you have special chickens? Let's put it that way. Do you have like a bunch of different kinds or just have egg producers? em We honestly have a really big variety in our flock. I'm not really particular on certain breeds. I don't care if they're pretty. Yeah. We're dual purpose. So like I'll raise them and I incubate them and then, you know, 09:45 There tends to always be a ton of roosters when you incubate them, seems like.  so,  you know, those will go to freezer camp generally. So then that way it's kind of a full circle and it's less I'm having to buy from the hot trees like to fill my freezer. Yes,  absolutely. Especially right now. I mean, you've been doing it for a while, but right now it's really important to have that. 10:08 Yes. I'm real excited.  We just did.  So we've had cows for a while  and we do the chickens and we raised pigs and which I probably will never do again. They are so destructive. I mean, I love pigs. Don't get me wrong.  But we just picked up our butcher pigs yesterday and filled our freezer. So now I literally don't have to go to the store for any kind of meat.  How does that feel, Rebecca? Fabulous. It's fabulous. 10:38 Like I said, they're really destructive and they got really big. And I mean, they were super docile, the breed that I got, we got a Mangalitza red wattle cross. Oh, nice. Yeah, they were not mean like at all. I there's a few times my legs got squished, but they didn't, they didn't realize they were hurting me. You know, they just want food.  But yeah, they definitely tore up that section of the pasture and it's going to need a lot of work. 11:06 Yeah, I keep hearing people either be  very pro pig or very, I did it once, I'm not doing it again pig. Yeah, you know, I feel like if you have enough property or a lot of wooded area, they're really good at clearing land, but I just have a grassy pasture, you know, so like that whole section is just all dirt now.  Yeah.  Yeah. And trying to get it back to where you want it to be is going to take some time and probably some money. 11:35 Yeah.  Do you have goats or lamb or sheep? do.  I have goats, but I just have a dwarf variety because I'm  not a large person  and I wanted to be able to handle them. I did have goats, like regular,  full-size goats for like three months when we first got this property and it just did not work out. We got them from someone else when they were already full grown. 12:01 They were skittish of people. didn't want anything to do with me. And then when they did get out, it was so hard trying to get them back in.  And at least with a dwarf, like I can pick them up if I need to,  you know, I can actually handle them.  Yeah, absolutely.  Do one of the things that I would tell anybody looking to get any kind of livestock  is  really consider  what you can handle. 12:27 Because if you can't handle them you will sell them or you will process them within months of getting them. Yep I've been doing pretty good with the ones we have now  and we have it like they have a nice little fenced in area now So they're not getting out constantly even though they're dwarfs. They still got some hops on them. They can still jump.  Oh, Yeah, how many do you have? Let's see. How many do I have now? um 12:56 And then I have two babies right now in my backyard. I'm just weaning off and they're going to be going to new homes this weekend. So much fun. you, are you like an in love with baby goats person?  Yes, they're so cute and it's to get rid of them, but  you only get so much milk off them when they're dwarf size, you know? So it's like, I don't want to have like 20 goats  have to get rid of them. 13:25 While you're talking about that, have a question because we're very, very lightly flirting with the idea of uh dwarf goats at some point in the next couple of years. And I read that they're good for meat and for milk. So how much milk can you get from a dwarf mama goat? So it depends. So I have a dwarf Nigerian and a dwarf Lamontia, and I definitely get more milk off my Lamontia. 13:55 but it's still like maybe a  pint a day if I'm milking twice a day.  Okay. It's still like, it's not a whole lot compared to like, you know, a dairy cow or a full size goat. But I mean, if it's just you and your husband, it would be enough, you know, like it's really good in your morning coffee.  Oh, I know. And that's part of the reason we're even remotely thinking about this. Cause when we moved here, we were like, we are not getting goats. 14:24 We're not getting goats because we don't have enough room for them to graze.  And then I saw that there were mini goats, pygmy goats as it were.  And I was like, they wouldn't eat much. That would, that might work. Maybe. So I've been doing research on that and I've been doing research on quail and we have not decided on anything yet because  it's spring in Minnesota. My husband has been every weekend outside because he's been stuck in the house all winter. 14:53 He's been chopping wood for this winter and he's been planting seeds in the greenhouse and he's been checking out the fruit trees and the lilac bushes and the rhubarb and the peonies and I can't keep this man in the house from sun up to sun down. So he's been very, very busy and we're probably not going to do any major changes this year. 15:19 partly because we don't know what this year is going to bring with everything going on in the world. we're like, you know, the gardens and the chickens are pretty stable. Let's just stick with that for 2026. Yeah. Cause I would hate to get into something new and then  have to give it up because money just gets too tight because prices have gone up so much. Yeah. Well, and that's what, where I was kind of at, um,  cause I, I'd melt last year and I'm 15:49 will probably start milking again here soon. But getting them up on the milk stand, like after they finally get used to sitting there, you know, you typically give them like some kind of a treat or give them grain to like eat on while you're milking. And the grain here at where I buy it is really expensive. So I'm like, you know, I could probably just take this $30 and give it to another farmer that has a bunch of goats and just buy their milk instead. 16:18 That too, yes. And I'm always saying if you can't produce the thing that you want yourself, find somebody local who's already producing it and support them. Yeah. So it's a good plan. Yeah. So what do you, I'm just going to sound really dumb. What do you love most about homesteading? Possibilities, I guess. There is just so much  to it when you... 16:45 finally dip a toe in and then you're like, oh, well, I could do this, but then I could do that and I can collect my rainwater and I can sell my own clothes and I guess it just opens, opens your, your mind up a little bit more or, you know, we've been raised our whole life. Like, Oh, do this, do that, get a job, go to college, have kids. it's like, they don't teach you how to be self-sufficient or to. 17:11 you know, care for your family in the ways that you may want to versus just going to the store to buy dinner, you know what I mean? So it's kind of like, oh, well, I can do all these things. Like what do I want to do?  And so I think that's my  favorite part.  absolutely. And you bring up a good point. We are brought up in the last, let's say, 50 years, we've been brought up to be  do what we're told. 17:39 Instead of brought up to be functioning humans who know how to cook a meal, who know how to start a fire outside if you need to for, for, um, whatever you need it for.  Um,  we, we were not brought up taught how to know how to do a stitch in clothing, you know, how to hem pants, how to darn socks. We, didn't need to do that anymore, but. 18:08 I don't think that's true. I think that we all need to know how to do this stuff. Yes. And I was actually thinking the other day and I haven't said anything to my husband yet because he's got a lot going on his plate and he's also ADD.  So if I bring it up, he's going to want to talk about it for three hours. And I'm like, I don't have three hours.  But I was thinking about the fact that we now have a little thing that we carry around in our pockets called a cell phone. 18:37 most everybody does, smartphone, that lets us take video and photos whenever we want. And I'm 56, so I remember having to take film to the pharmacy or the Kodak, whatever, and get pictures developed, actual pictures you hold onto.  You can hold in your hand. And it was expensive to get film developed. When you chose to take a picture, you were making a choice. 19:08 And I mean, there hardly anybody I knew had a video camera when I was in my teens, because they were brand new. Isn't that scary? I'm only 56.  And  I couldn't just pick up the phone and call somebody. I had to ask my mom if it was okay if I called my friend  and we had to keep the conversation to under 60 seconds because  it was a dollar a minute. 19:39 That's funny. can't freaking believe that I have been alive for 56 years and what has changed since I was born and what changed from the time that my parents were born till now. You know, it's insane. And it's made it so easy. Everything has been become so very convenient, but we have lost the soul of creation. 20:07 human creation in all of this stuff. Yep, you can pretty much get anything you want delivered to your door, whether it's in days or hours.  Yeah, and I don't know about you, but I really do like cooking.  I really do. And when I talk to people who like, I can't believe you make soup from scratch, you can get it in a can. 20:33 It doesn't taste the same though. Like I don't want my soup to taste like aluminum. I want it to taste like soup. Yeah. It doesn't taste like aluminum. I'm like, um, yes it does. And if you want soup that doesn't taste like aluminum, I will make you soup. I had friends, we lived up at the old house. We moved half an hour away, so I still have friends up there. But if my friends were sick. 20:59 They would call me and say, do you happen to have any of your chicken soup in your freezer? My, the stuff I make, chicken soup. And I would be like, I do or I don't. And usually I did. And I would say yes. And they'd be like, could I, could I please have some? Cause I'm really not great. I've got a cold, I'm miserable. Your soup is like medicine.  And I would let them have a little container of soup. I couldn't give them all of it. Obviously I had a family of six, but I was happy to share. 21:28 And my next door neighbor, she was so funny. She had a really bad head cold and about three days after she ate my soup, she came over and she was like, I'm all better. It's all thanks to you.  That made me feel  so good inside and I helped her and it was no skin off my nose because the soup was already made. Yeah. oh 21:52 So not only do I feel like I'm accomplished, I feel like I'm helping other people. And I swear that's why people get into homesteading, because they're trying to do something for themselves.  And then their friends find out about it and you end up helping your friends and it's really fun. Yeah. Well, food really is fuel. Oh, know, it is medicine, you know, for our bodies. So it's I feel like it makes a big difference. Yeah. And I feel like I'm constantly talking about food. 22:21 on these episodes. And homesteading isn't just about food.  It's about getting outside and touching grass and getting your hands dirty.  It's about being responsible for other lives, even if it's just a barn cat. It doesn't matter.  And it's about being part of nature because humans are nature. We are.  And people have forgotten that too. Yeah. 22:52 So I just,  I don't want to beat a dead horse because it doesn't do any good, Beats your soul. Yes. Homesteading is not about having land. It's about the way you live your life.  And  if you have made chocolate chip cookies from scratch, or if you have made, I don't know, bacon and eggs, you've practiced a homestead skill. Yeah. I've had a few people, um, 23:21 You always, I don't know what you call them, trolls online. just, people just aren't nice sometimes. And then you get them behind a computer or a phone and then they just say really not nice things. But I've had a few people be like, I thought homesteading was working the land. What are you talking about? like, well, yeah, originally it was about working the land, but it's not the same as it was back then. No, it's not. 23:50 And if we can encourage, you know, your average  Joe that lives in apartment to have a tomato plant in the corner of their house with a sunny window and to start baking from scratch, even though they don't have any land, why wouldn't you? m 24:08 Hang on one second. 24:14 I was going to cough and I didn't want to cough in your ear. uh No, I'm good. That's fine. It's an echo.  It's an, it's an invisible echo. It was awesome.  Um,  the other thing is, is that I feel like people started looking down their noses at actual work a long time ago. Yeah. The trades are just dying for people to come to work for them. Plumbers, electricians. 24:44 construction. And the fact is, if we don't have people go into those trades, we're not going to have houses to live in.  Or a toilet to flush or water to drink or  where, where did everybody go? It's like there were so many people,  but I feel like the workforce is like diminished. Like there's no one out there actually working. It's like everyone just stuck at home behind a computer screen. 25:12 I think what happened is that back 20, 25 years ago when computers became quote unquote easier, and I'm not saying coding is easy. It is not. I've tried it. I don't like it. It's not my thing. My daughter learned and she's great at it. But when people learn that you can make a lot of money working in the computer field, they were like, oh, well, I can make more than being a plumber. So I'm going to go into computers. think that's what happened. 25:42 And don't get me wrong, you can make a lot of money if you're really good at in the computer field. But we still need people to, you know,  use a wrench or a hammer  or take down trees that might land on your house. I mean, that's a really important thing too. 26:03 So  I don't, I don't know.  And I didn't expect to go down this trail this morning, but it's interesting.  I think that, I think that to be a functioning human these days, it would be good if you knew how to cook a couple of meals from scratch. I mean, if you want to buy food from somebody else five nights a week,  just make a meal on Sunday, you know, learn on meal. Cause it's so, 26:33 Amazing when flour and butter and salt and milk turn into a biscuit. Yeah. Like a little experiment. Yeah, a nice fluffy biscuit that you can put star bot jam on if you want and butter and eat it because at least you made the biscuit. 26:56 Yeah. 26:58 And the gratitude that you feel or just the pure, what's the word I'm looking for? Being proud of yourself. Eating the food that you made. You're like, oh my gosh, I made this whole meal from scratch. it's so gratifying.  Oh yes. I have uh a drop biscuit recipe that I use all the time for, for just biscuits or for sausage and gravy and biscuits or for butter and jam biscuits, whatever.  And. 27:28 We had gotten strawberries a couple of years ago.  We did not grow them. We bought them and we made strawberry jam out of those strawberries. And we did not have a cow. We will probably never have a cow. But I was so excited to have our strawberry jam on biscuits that I made with butter from the store because two of those things we made. Yeah. Awesome. was super cool. I love it. um 27:57 The other thing that I will tell you, and obviously I will tell the listener as well, is that when we lived in town, we lived in town. We lived in a town of 6,000 people and we lived in the old part of town. Our neighbors were very, very close. And the main reason I wanted to move out to the country was for the quiet.  if you are a person who is shy and really likes quiet, 28:27 Living in town is not going to be your jam. It's just not. Definitely not.  People ask me why I moved,  why we moved to home. I'm like, because I needed quiet. And they're like, not because you wanted animals or more space to garden. I'm like, oh no, no, I wanted that too. But the main priority was  quiet.  More nature, less people, please. 28:54 Yeah. And I was so sick of having  our bedroom fronted on the street that we lived on and we had the windows open, all that smell from the cars going by and all the dust on the road would get kicked up and my bedroom was always dusty.  And I was like, this is so gross.  I sweep this floor twice a day and it's still dusty.  Oh my God. And we don't have that problem here because we're back from the road. 29:23 We still live off of a busy road, but we are way further back from it.  So there are many, many reasons that people choose to move to a quote unquote homestead and homestead can be a half an acre. It can be a hundred acres, but typically it is not just a little tiny lot city lot. Yeah. I have seen some people do some amazing things with their backyards though. 29:53 Like  their whole backyard will be like a garden oasis. Like it's amazing what people can do when they really put their mind to it. That's exactly what we did at the old house. We lived on a 10th of an acre lot with a house and a four car garage on it. 30:12 And we grew up, we put up trellises and we grew everything up instead of out. And it was really beautiful. I mean, it was crowded and it was a lot, but it was beautiful.  You make it work. Yeah, it was so fun. We  had the kids then, we have four kids. And the youngest was  born. He wasn't born in that house, but we were living in that house when he was born. And he knew no different than to have 30:42 a little tiny  piece of land covered in vegetable plants.  And he, he and his brother, older brother came home from school when they were in, I think Kent was a freshman in high school and Cameron was in fourth or fifth grade.  And  they came home from school and I guess they had talked to each other about this and they were like, we should talk to mom. 31:11 And they said, can we talk to you? And when your boys walk up to you and say, can we talk to you? And they're very serious. You're like, Oh God, what's wrong? Yeah. was like, yes, what's going on? they were, Cameron looked at Kent cause Kent's the older one and Kent said, can we start taking leftovers from dinner for lunch to school in a, in a pale, a lunch pail? And I said, why? he said, because school lunch isn't food. 31:40 I mean, he's not wrong, but.  Yep. And I looked at, I looked at Cameron who was in, you know, fourth grade, fifth grade, whatever it was. I said, do you want to do the same thing? And he was like, yeah. He said, mom, the school lunches just suck. 31:56 I was like,  sure. So I just started making more of whatever it was we were gonna have for dinner so that they could take it for lunch the next day. And luckily they both had  microwaves that they could use at school to warm up. Oh, very cool. Yeah, I was so impressed with these kids that they recognized that they were eating stuff that wasn't good for them. 32:20 Yep, you can definitely taste the difference.  Yes, but there is nothing scarier than your kids walking up to you and saying,  can we talk to you for a minute? I'm like, what did I do now? You know? And then it was just that. like, oh, well, absolutely.  Oh, definitely. easy, yes. Yeah. And they both really wanted soups, you know, like three, days a week. They wanted to take soups for lunch. 32:44 And I didn't have any little thermoses for them to take. So we literally went out and bought the little thermoses that are like a pint. You know,  like the  Stanley thermoses, the small ones, and got the little lunch bags that are soft.  we would just, they would just scoop the soup into the thermoses, put the lid on and take it to school. they'd warm, and it was still warm when they ate. So they loved it. It was great. 33:13 So that's another thing that happens is that you try things and then it surprises you at how well things work out. Yeah. So I haven't told that story before because I had forgotten about it. Thank you for giving me an opening.  All right. I try to keep these to half an hour. Becky, I appreciate your time so much. Where can people find you? um 33:38 Facebook. I'm on Facebook quite frequently. I do have a YouTube channel, but I don't know what I'm doing with it yet. So, but it's  all of them are home studying with Becky J. I have a blogs all connected, but I try to keep it all uniform. So it was easy to locate me.  Fantastic. I so appreciate your time as always people can find me. Sorry. 34:05 People can find me at AtidyHolmsteadPodcast.com.  Becky, thank you again. Have a great day. You as well. Thank you for having me.  

Today I'm talking with Maryann at Morning Sun Homestead.  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:28 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Green Bush Twins. That Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Green Bush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Mary Ann at Morning Sun Homestead in West Virginia. Good morning, Mary Ann. How are you? We're doing well. Thank you for having us on your podcast. 00:55 Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it.  I was just going to close Facebook, your Facebook page because it was still open.  Do you have an Australian Shepherd? We actually have two of them puppies.  We got them the first weekend in January.  Two males.  One is Remington, one's Winchester and we love them. They are wonderful dogs. 01:21 Yeah, I happen to see the always on guard even if it's watching a pesky cat post and I was like that looks just like my Maggie because we have one too. 01:32 We are in the process of trying to train them to herd cows and chickens. uh One is more  relaxed. He likes just to stay  on the porch and watch, but the other one has the instinct and the drive to really herd.  So we have to watch him a lot. He's very good about keeping the chickens across the fence where they belong, but  he likes to nip a little bit. And that is okay for a cow,  but a chicken is much more tender. So we're working on that right now. 02:04 I wish you all the luck in the world with that. Our Maggie doesn't really have a farm job. Her job is watchdogging for the home. And uh the thing we've learned in the five years we've had her is that she is not a dog that knows how to fetch. She loves to chase things, but if we say bring it back, she will not bring it back. 02:28 That sounds very familiar. Yup. And are yours full size Australian Shepherds or are they the smaller ones? 02:39 They are full size. Once they're grown, they'll be full size. Okay, Maggie's a small standard. weighs like 36 pounds. 02:53 Okay, so how is the weather in West Virginia this morning? It is sunny and cold in Minnesota. 03:01 We are supposed to have 78 degrees today. We had rain last night, a thunderstorm moved through. It rained really, really hard. Then this morning it was 52 degrees and we had a little bit more rain. It stopped, a few more showers. Right now it's 66. We're supposed to have 78. But this is a roller coaster. We've had some nice weather and now tonight it is supposed to be 37 and tomorrow we're supposed to have snow. 03:30 And then it's supposed to shoot back up to the 50s, 60s.  And then next week on Tuesday, we are supposed to have 17 at night. So we are just up and down with the weather. But this is a small taste of spring and we want to get out and do all kinds of things, but we have a lot of mud, which is okay because we needed the moisture. We are very dry. So that worked out to get more rain. um We're really anxious for spring to come when you have warm days like this and you get out and you're able to work a little bit. And then 03:58 you have snow again. So that's a let down,  but we are on a roller coaster ride.  Yeah, we're supposed to get a little bit of snow every day through Sunday this week here. And I'm like, okay,  um, I guess I can handle it because hopefully it'll be the last of it for the  winter. Hopefully.  Um, so tell me a little bit about yourself  and morning  sun homestead. 04:28 So my husband and I, um well when we got married of course we ate like everyone else.  You know, was fast food and quick dinners and things like that.  And then over time once we had our children we realized that that wasn't the life we wanted to continue. So we started to dig in  and um grow in our own food. And we have branched off from that and now we do our own meats. You know, of course we have our own eggs.  The girls are a tremendous help. 04:58 They  all are on the bandwagon with us, so to speak. So it really helps to have their help. They know how to do everything, which is a huge help now that as we're getting older, you just don't have as much energy. And uh when I look back, I wonder how I did it all when they were small. I guess it was just all willpower and grit. But that's how we got started. We just got tired of eating all the processed stuff, feeling bad, waking up with inflammation, you know, 05:28 bags under our eyes and that sort of thing and decided to pick a healthier path  and it's worked out well and we are so glad that we decided to do that. It has made a major difference in our lives. 05:43 Awesome, and I'm glad you just said all that because I'm gonna do my my public service announcement early in the podcast episode today  if you live in America right now, and you don't know how to cook  learn and If you don't grow anything to eat start a plant this year  try growing something even if it's herbs on your windowsill  and 06:08 get to know your local producers, your local farmers, because if the supply chain should happen to go down again,  it's good to be able to know who to buy from locally. That's my public service announcement.  And there is so much truth in that.  know, local is best. If you can't grow it yourself, the next level would be local. That way, the way I look at it,  have, we milk cows, so we have raw milk and it's became legal now to sell raw milk in West Virginia. 06:37 And I would never sell a gallon of milk that I felt my family wouldn't drink. And I think that a lot of people that are local feel the same way about their produce or their meat, their eggs, whatever they may be selling. I feel that if they wouldn't feed it to their family, they're probably not going to try to sell it to you. I know I wouldn't. Hopefully that's how most producers are.  But the big corporations really don't care. They will send us whatever. 07:04 And because it doesn't matter to them, it's all one big connection with pharmaceuticals and big farms and our health. 07:14 Absolutely yes.  Yes, yes, yes, you are absolutely right. uh I,  how do I say this?  We grow a garden and we have chickens, partly because it's fun,  but we're not doing it for funsies. We're doing it to feed ourselves and feed our community, if that makes sense at all. 07:39 Yes, it most certainly does. um I'm assuming from the comment that you made, must also sell any additional eggs that you have and uh garden produce you give away. Right, and we do that if we have extra produce to older people. um There's a lot of older people that used to eat healthy. This was not... 08:02 like a trend, this was the normal way of life, this is how they always did it, and now they're just not able to get out there and do it, and we will give them produce from our garden em just because  that's what we want to do. If we can help someone out, that's what we do, but it sounds like your family does the same thing, and that's wonderful. uh We need more of that in America. 08:23 Yes, we do. need everybody who has a talent. And by the way, everyone has a talent.  It doesn't matter what it is. If you sing, then sing to your kids or sing to your friends. It makes them feel good. um If you're good at writing, write a story. It makes people feel good. If you're good at growing things, feed people. Everyone has a talent. You just have to figure out what it is. 08:50 Yes,  you're exactly right. God gave us all a talent. We're all here on a purpose.  We just have to sometime research and dig deep to find it, but it's  Yes,  and uh yes, we grow a hundred foot by fifty foot or 150 by a hundred foot.  I don't know the dimensions. My husband does. He's the one that does it.  Produce garden, farm to market garden, and we sell at our farm stand and we sell at the farmer's market in town in the summertime. 09:21 And we mostly have chickens because we don't want to buy eggs at the store, but because we always have more chickens than we can keep up with. We sell the eggs too, because when the bird flu comes through, people are very happy to get their eggs at $5 a dozen from our farm stand. Yes. Yes, I'm sure they are. 09:43 So  I found you on Facebook and I am absolutely smitten with your Facebook page. I am thinking of you in my head. Your nickname is the Homestead Hack Queen because you have all the tips and tricks on your Facebook page. People, if you want to learn about homesteading,  go look at Mary Ann's Facebook page. Why are you doing a Facebook page full of homestead hacks? What's your motivation? 10:12 Well, I like to teach people what I know. uh I feel that knowledge is power.  And if we can teach more people how to do dry mixes or how to can, how to provide for their self more and for their family, they're less reliant on the system.  And therefore, we have more power as people for our nation. And when you can take care of yourself, you're much better off.  And with my hacks and things that I'm trying to teach people, 10:40 I feel that a good stock pantry is so important. And if you're able to do that, then you're able to survive a lot of things. And when we think of rainy days, we think of maybe a nuclear attack or something to that extent. It doesn't have to be like that. It can be a blizzard. It can be you lose your job. It can just be that a sickness has come through your home  and  the flu this year is really bad. A lot of people in our community are sick. But you know, if you just have a jar of soup to open, 11:09 That is going to be so convenient when you're so sick you can hardly stand up but your children still needs to be fed.  So, you know, there's a lot of different scenarios that we can look at and that's why it's so important to be able to have all these hacks and know a knowledge of how to can, how to preserve, how to grow.  Eventually, that is a complete circle and it comes back and you're able to provide your family with nutrition meals on the table. 11:38 Yes.  Amen, sister.  I  mentioned to you before we started recording that I saw your post about the homemade cough drops.  I have a story you might get a kick out of. Back when my youngest was probably eight or 10, I don't know, he was young. uh I had gone to the store because he was sick and I'd gone and gotten orange juice and cold medicine and I didn't get cough drops on the list. Therefore, I didn't buy any. 12:08 And I realized it the minute I unpacked the groceries and I was like, what do I have? How can I make cough drops? I had honey, I had sugar and I had the other things the recipe called for. And I was like, I'm going to make homemade cough drops. It'll probably be better for him. And he'll probably think it's candy, which means that he will like them. And I made homemade cough drops. I was so disappointed in myself that I didn't put cough drops on the list, but I was so proud of myself for making them. 12:38 Yes, because I can relate to them. 12:44 Yup, I couldn't believe it. He was standing there waiting for the cough drop package to come out of the bag. And I was like, I completely forgot. And he was like, Mom, you know how when kids are actually disappointed in you, it just breaks your heart? It was that kind of mom. And I was just like, I'm a better mom than this. I am going to do something I've never done. I'm going to make a curative for my kids. 13:15 And that's great that you went out of your comfort zone. I just think a lot more people need to do that because  a lot have the I can't attitude. You can't. It's just the willpower to do it.  And does everything I make turn out? Absolutely not. That was my second batch of cough drops. The first ones failed miserably. They would not harden.  So I just dug through, found a different recipe, and this one worked. This was an Amish recipe  with blackberry. uh They called for a juice. So 13:44 just made my own juice. had frozen blackberries in the freezer. I took them out  and I poured boiling water over it, let them set in that for 10 minutes, and then I strained them really well and squeezed it all through cheesecloth.  So sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.  I know many during the depression, there was a saying of make do, wear it out, use it up or do without. And that's kind of what I try to stick with. We have to use what we have. 14:10 We just can't say can't. We gotta do it. And that's great that you took the initiative and you did it. And that's what we all need to do. 14:20 Yes.  And  I have been kind of pushing my husband about eating leftovers because  he's the kind of guy who would like a different dinner every night. And I'm the kind of girl who likes to cook big and  money just keeps getting tighter and tighter with inflation. So I finally have him convinced that leftovers taste better or the dinner tastes better the second night. 14:48 And we have literally been eating the same thing two nights in a row.  And he said to me the other day, said, you know, this is actually better the second day. So I'm winning the fight here at my house. That's great.  That's great. And yes, mean, leftovers are important. But you know, another thing you could do is  one thing I did a lot when the girls were younger was at the end of the week, I just made a whatever stew. 15:12 Sometimes it didn't turn out so well, but sometimes it was really good. So whatever was leftover, I put in there. But yes, leftovers, that's a great idea of what you're doing. 15:24 Yeah, and  I have always been a leftovers girl because I was raised that way. And my mom used to make this fabulous  venison stew. And I swear to you, it tasted better the second day. I don't know why, but it did. 15:41 think that's the way with chili also. That's how we feel. If chili sets a couple days, it just gets better. But there's a lot of soup and stews that are like that. And it's just trying to get people to try them. And then once they do, they  realize, yes, it does taste better the second day. 16:01 Yeah, it's really weird. think it's because the flavors have a chance to hang out and get to know each other. That's how I see it in my head. That's a great explanation. 16:13 So what do you have for animals on your homestead? You said you have animals. We do. We have numerous chickens, uh well 25 chickens that lay eggs and then we have ducks. uh We think that we might be leaving that market just because  they're not real productive in the winter. We have muskogees and they were supposed to lay throughout the winter.  This year they haven't. 16:38 Now they do breed  very rapidly and we also butchered the duck meat. We wasn't crazy about it. We love chicken, but the duck was kind of, it was different.  We also have two milk cows.  And of course, when they calve, we usually butcher the calves or we sell a calf and then butcher the other one once it's raised up so far. uh The girls have a horse  and we raise our own pigs. 17:07 not from birth. We buy them  usually at 50 pounds and then we raise them into feeder hogs and butcher them in the fall.  And we also do meat chickens that we get  and they're supposed to come this year the first of May. We have a chicken tractor that we move around the yard and then  usually about 12 weeks we butcher them.  They're on a  grass diet  so they take a little bit longer but  even 17:34 You know people say they butchered in eight weeks. Ours would not be ready in eight weeks and I think factory farms do it in four to six weeks.  So without the hormones they just don't grow like that. So ours is longer and then we butcher them as well  and we have four dogs  and we have three cats  and I think that's the end of the zoo. 17:58 I have a question. Do you coach people on homesteading because you are  a  great source of information? No, I mean, a lot of people ask us questions and I'm very willing to give information but as to and a lot of people have said, you know, you should do classes and that sort of thing. But no, I don't. I don't. I'm always willing.  But I  don't do that. If someone asked, I would be helpful. But as a side gig, no, I don't. 18:31 Well, if you ever decide you want to, you're gonna be fantastic at it, because you have  all the skills, ma'am. 18:39 Thank you, that was a kind compliment. 18:45 I don't lie. So it was more than a compliment. was truth. You are brilliant. I love what you're doing. um You have girls. How many girls do you have and how old are they?  We have four.  The oldest one is 19  and she is a CNA  and she doesn't live at home anymore. She has moved on to a city. I'm not sure how she adjusts to that, but that's what she does.  And then we have 19:12 an 18 year old, she babysits  and she still lives at home.  And then we have a 16 year old  and she works at a local diner  washing dishes and that sort of thing. now remember they've all been homeschooled as well.  And then we have a 14 year old and she stays at home and gets to help mom with all the boring things.  But anyway, they've all been homeschooled, they're all doing very well and we are proud of the young ladies that they have become and are becoming. 19:43 Okay. So did they ever know anything other than homesteading and homeschooling growing up? No, they were homeschooled from kindergarten  on. They've never been to public school and we have homeschooled.  the older two, weren't  into the homesteading as much uh as the later two. They don't know any other life other than homesteading. The older two,  yeah, they, you know, 20:12 We ate the processed food and did all that when they were littler, but they were so young I'm not sure they remembered. 20:19 So  most other labs, I'm sorry. 20:25 No, go ahead, most of their lives? Most of their lives they've been raised on the homestead, all of them. And I'm guessing they're pretty healthy young ladies. Yes, they are. They are. you know, no sickness. Occasionally they get a snuffle or a cold or the flu. Our daughter that works at the diner, she just got the flu and the rest of us didn't get it, thank goodness. And that's who the cough drops was for, but... 20:54 You know with lots of liquids and herbal teas and things like that she's made it through except for her energy level but she continued to work because she's a little bit of a miser. So they are relatively healthy no one has any problems. They do great. 21:13 I'm also guessing, correct me if I'm wrong, that they can hold their own in pretty much any situation, especially with boys. Yes,  yes, they don't seem to have any trouble with that at all. I  know from an early age, they went hunting, so we eat a lot of venison, and  if we can get a wild turkey, that sort of thing. So they're very proficient with guns and that sort of thing. 21:41 But yes, they can hold their own with just about anything because once you wrangle calves and you know, you're chasing chickens,  so you've got muscles in your arms, you've got muscles in your legs, and overall you're pretty tough. 21:56 Yes.  One of the things I love the most about girls that are raised on homesteads or farms or ranches  is that they believe in themselves. They have been through hard things and they don't take any shit off anybody. You know? They don't. They don't. They, you know, they always have a comment. As a matter of fact, our youngest,  I was telling my husband that, you know, she has this mouth that, um 22:24 It's probably going to get her in trouble one day, but I don't really know what to say. That's just an issue that I'm kind of letting ride.  She doesn't have it with us  as she does other people, but it just, I don't know. She doesn't mind to tell people what she thinks, which is what we've always taught them, that you need to think for yourself and it's okay to swim upstream when everybody else is swimming down and, you know, staying for what you believe in.  But yeah, they do okay. They're  good. 22:53 good mom, I'm so glad because it is so hard raising kids. And I was raised in the golden age of the  1980s. I'm 56.  1980s were great. And then I raised my kids  in  the  1990s and the early  2000s. That wasn't quite as easy, I don't think, as it was for my mom to raise myself and my siblings.  And I don't envy anyone. 23:21 who's raising little kids right now. It is such a hard world for people to be raising kids and make the kids believe that there's hope that they're gonna have a good life, you know? I agree. I think it's a very difficult time.  Not only is everything so expensive, but we have all kind of propaganda that's trying to be constantly pressed at our children that we don't agree with.  One thing that we've always based our family on is God. 23:49 We feel that if God's in the center, everything else comes together. So we've worked with that. Not saying, you know, my husband and I, sometimes we really get into arguments because he's got to have the last word and I've got to have the last word  and we end up in that kind of tangle. But  yes,  if without God, I'm not sure how everything would come together,  but it is a difficult time. It's very expensive.  And you know, if you're just starting out, it's even worse, but it's possible and we need good children. 24:19 and we need good parents  to raise good children because that's our future of our country and our lives. So it's so important for good people to continue to have good children. 24:32 Absolutely. All right. I have one more question for you because I try to keep this to half an hour.  If somebody  is considering getting into the homestead lifestyle, we'll call it,  what would you suggest that they learn first before they jump in whole hog both feet? What would you suggest that they take unto themselves to learn to start the process? 24:58 think the first thing that they would need to do  is, of course, plan, but if we step past that,  the first thing to do would be to start in the kitchen and just learn how to make bread. I know that sounds very simple, but if you can get your family and you can learn how to make bread and you can get your family to consume that bread,  that's going to make it open for the whole family to want to go deeper. And when you have your family on board, that makes it so much easier for everybody involved. 25:28 Bread is a simple thing and once people taste homemade bread, they're on board to homestead.  I was expecting you to say get chickens, but I like make bread better because make bread,  if you screw it up,  nothing dies.  Right,  Chickens are a great thing, but you know, that takes room. It takes a building. It takes time. 25:52 Bread you can do even if you live in a suburb or  if you haven't bought your land, if you don't have your homestead yet.  That's something that you can test the waters. You're not going to kill anything. You're not going to kill anybody. uh It's just a yeast. So that's why I would suggest bread. 26:10 I love it. MaryAnn, this has been so much fun and I'm going to be looking at your Facebook page every morning. I'm adding it into the rotation so that I can smile  every single morning. um Where can people find you? Well, we're on Facebook, obviously. We're also on TikTok and we have a YouTube that we post there. We try to post once a week. It doesn't always happen. So we're at all three social medias that you can find us under Morning Sun Homestead. 26:39 Fantastic.  As always, you can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  MaryAnn,  no joke, this was a joy. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for having us. We were glad to be invited. All right. You have a great rest of your day. Thank you. also.  

Today I'm talking with Abigail and Christian at Faithful Harvest MN.  A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Green Bush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Green Bush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Abigail and Christian at Faithful Harvest Minnesota in Dexter, Minnesota. Good afternoon, guys. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Good. 00:54 So I'm in LaSore, Minnesota and it's overcast here and it's like 57 degrees. Is that what it's doing where you are? Yeah, it's about that here. It's really windy today, but the sun is out. So we're happy about it. Yeah, the sun is not out here. It's kind of great.  Oh. 01:15 But that's okay, because at least it's warm and it's not snowing. Finally, yeah. You get all cooked up over the winter and then finally like the nice days, you just want to break out and do clean everything all at once. 01:33 Oh yes, my husband spent most of Easter day outside and he was either riding the tractor and watering chickens or he was in the greenhouse planting seeds. yeah,  perfect timing to start doing this stuff. It gets exciting when the weather finally starts getting nice and  itching to get outside and get all that stuff done.  Absolutely. So do you guys consider yourselves homesteaders or farmers? 02:01 Uh, we consider ourselves homesteaders,  um, just because  whenever I think of farm, I kind of think of the large scale industrial farming and  our homestead is  very small batch and homemade and we have it smaller right now.  yeah. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do as homesteaders. Yeah. So,  um,  I'm right now I'm an ER nurse,  um, and I'm 02:31 part time with that right now. And uh that's kind of a new transition for me personally. And  we've been doing the homestead for about four years now.  And uh recently over the last year, we've gotten much more into the business side of the homestead and just starting to share what we do on the homestead and our daily life and everything. So that's kind of where we're at right now and what we do. 03:01 I'm just spending a lot more time doing stuff for marketing and just getting ready for the planting season here. Yeah. When starting the homestead, I do have a drywall business. 03:21 other than doing the homestead. 03:26 so you both have outside income. 03:30 Yeah, yeah, we both have our jobs outside of this.  And then, you know, we're considering this a really fun job.  The homestead is the job you want to be doing. The other two jobs are the jobby jobs.  Yeah, exactly.  The goal is to maybe one day we both do this full time and that's kind of our long term dream one day. But for now, just paying the bills with that and then in our free time we... 03:59 do everything we can for the homestead just to be out there and just working together on it. sounds very familiar after talking with people over 500 episodes in the last two and a half years. You're not alone in that guys. That's how it's done. So did you always want to be homesteaders? Were you raised by people who grew things? How did it work? Yeah. on 04:27 My side, I did grow up on a small hobby farm is what we called it. And my parents just raised cows, pigs, and sometimes chickens just to feed the family and some friends.  And my mom always had a garden growing up. So it's kind of been in my blood. And when we finally got together and we've been, Christian and I have been together for five years and just got married last year. And in that five years we've 04:54 learned a lot about each other that we both would love to get back to our roots of making things homemade and growing our own things, growing our own produce and livestock and just being able to be self-sustaining more. And that was kind of our biggest goal. So I do have a background in farming, I guess, but I learned a lot more in the last five years of Christian than I ever had growing up. Yeah, I would I would agree with that in the last five years. 05:23 I've learned more than I ever have in my life. Growing up, I grew up on a small acreage and the extent of that was  what we would do was have a small garden and it was basics, tomatoes, peppers, onion. No, not onions,  just oh pretty basic garden plots, small garden plots. We didn't have any  livestock or anything like that, but 05:51 always grew up just being outside and either working  or just  playing mow the lawn, stuff like that. But yeah, it wasn't until Abby and I met and... uh 06:11 to start getting into this learning little by little. Yeah, it's a whole different ball game when it's just you guys and it's not family doing it.  Mm For sure. Yeah. There's a lot more that  I didn't realize that my parents know so much more that I never even learned that I find myself going back to them like, what did you do with this when we were younger and all this stuff and now when it's just us, it's fun learning the little things that maybe we didn't know in the past. 06:41 Yes. And honestly, I think one of the best things about getting into homesteading is the learning curve because it's not, it's not necessarily a steep learning curve. is a consistent learning curve. Yeah, that's a really good way to put it. Yeah, I agree. Everything we've done over the years has just come little by little. Reading here, watching, you know, watching this or then trial and error that and 07:12 At the beginning projects, it seemed a little daunting, but just getting into it, it's always been a steady, steady incline.  Yes.  And once you know it, you know it. You don't forget it. It's like riding a bike. It's true. I love that part because if I had to relearn everything every day, I would just throw in the towel. It would be too much. Groundhog Day is not an appealing concept to me. 07:41 Um, Abigail, I saw your video on your Facebook page of your soap, making your soap. Yeah. Yes. And you were saying that it makes your skin so much softer and that I can't remember the rest of it, but just you were kind of raving in the commentary about how much you love it. Is that cold process, Lysow? Yeah. So that is, I guess I'm... 08:10 not a connoisseur of making soap. And I, when I first learned how to make it, I actually learned it from a guy that makes it in Minneapolis and he had a YouTube video out there. I was, and I had always wanted to start making soap eventually. And so we just pulled the trigger and pulled up this YouTube video. Like let's just buy the exact ingredients. Let's do it. And yeah, it is a cold process soap. ever since then, we've been using that same exact recipe just because we, we love it so much and it 08:40 changed how our skin feels and everything. So yeah. Yeah. Well,  let me tell you, girly, I am, am 56 years old. We started making our own cold process Lysol a good 15 years ago, mostly because mostly because the store bought soap that I could get made my skin dry and it made me itchy. And I got a bar of cold process Lysol. 09:10 at the Renaissance Festival from,  I can't remember the name of the company, I don't think they're even out there anymore, but they had an oatmeal almond soap. And I fell in love with it and  I had the same reaction. I did not have itchy skin anymore. My skin was soft and it didn't smell like the soap at all.  And I said to my husband, said, can we please try making cold processed lye soap? 09:36 I cannot afford to spend five or six dollars a bar per soap and it will cost us like less than a dollar if we make it ourselves. So he took it upon himself to deal with the scary lie because I don't like dealing with it. And we still to this day make soap and we sell it in the farm stand that we have on our property and people really like it. They really like the coffee scented one and they really like the leather scented one. 10:04 Oh, that sounds really nice. I feel like I'd really like the coffee one too. It sounds waking up in the morning and taking a shower and just like that coffee smell. It's like, okay, I'm not gonna drink a cup of coffee now. It's fabulous. I actually love the lemon. 10:24 I can't remember the oil we used first. We use a straight lemon oil now and we have a lemon soap and that one's my favorite in the morning because it smells  so bright and sunshiny  and it wakes you up.  Oh, I love that. You might have to try a lemon one.  Sounds really nice.  Yeah, the unscented ones work just as good.  My wife makes like a forest one that I really enjoy. That's the one I use right now. 10:53 Yeah, it's like I ended up finding an Old Spice copycat mix and was able to kind of get that same smell. That's a lot of the people's favorites right now on the guys' side. Oh yeah, absolutely. The other thing that we did do, I don't know if we're going to keep doing, is we use the same oils to make candles. And so our candles mirror our soap scents. 11:22 And so at the farmer's market, people come up and smell the candles and then they look over and they see the soaps and they see the same names on the soaps and they're like, are you kidding? The soap smells like the candles. Yes. Yes, it does. That's awesome. I love that. It's really fun. Okay. So you guys have a garden now. You do a garden now. 11:48 Yeah, right now  we're getting ready. We're getting ready to start making more beds, but yeah, we have a raise. What we do is raise beds.  That's kind of what's kicked off everything. But. Yeah, we have a garden that we started indoors. I'm playing, sowing seeds and then we'll eventually be. Putting him outside to harden them off. Yeah, we ended up starting with raised beds when we started. 12:18 gardening about three years ago, just because we wanted to kind of keep it simple. We weren't sure if we wanted to do the tilling yet. We're just like, let's just start with five raised beds and see how it goes. And now we're up to 27 raised beds and planning to expand more this year. So we try to get enough produce to last ourselves for the year. That was kind of why we started gardening in the first place is we wanted to preserve and whatever we needed to do between canning, freezing, drying. 12:47 to save on the grocery bill every year. So being able to start that, and then it just kind of expanded into, okay, maybe we can start selling at markets. But yeah, our garden is one of our favorite times of year just to be able to see all the green out there and start getting the produce and eating what we  grow by seeds inside months and months ago. It's exciting. So is your kitchen table covered with seed trays right now?  Basement. Yeah, our basement is our... 13:16 We call it like the factory down there because we have tables of  seedlings growing down there. Racks, racks  and  LED lights. uh every morning  when our neighbors are driving by, they're like, your basement oh looks like a spaceship  down there.  Do you have the pink lights or just the white lights? White lights right now. And then eventually they're going to turn into pink lights when we start moving. 13:47 We start moving the tomatoes over to the other  table. Yeah, once the seedlings get bigger, we have to move them to a different table because they get  so tall when they're just in the basement. So we got more industrial lights on another side and those ones are pink and then it kind of looks like we're yeah. Yeah. Why? Like tabletops? Yeah. Doors and whatnot. Yeah. 14:11 Yeah, I made the mistake of getting the pink lights. I didn't realize I had ordered pink lights. I thought I had ordered white lights and those pink lights are really creepy in the middle of the night. They are. They were. What's going on over there? This is the first year in forever. And that's a that's a big overstatement, but whatever. This is the first year since we moved in here in August of 2020 that I do not have ceiling trays on my kitchen table right now. 14:40 because we started every single seed in our hard-sided greenhouse this year. Wow, that is awesome. So you have greenhouses outside right now? Yeah, we have a big, we have a, I always screw up the measurements. I thought it was 20 feet by 40 feet, but it's actually smaller than that, but not by much. So we have a hard-sided greenhouse, yes. That is cool. That's  another goal, but how... 15:10 How did you go about building that? I well, I applied for a grant, number one, and got it amazingly enough. I didn't think we had a chance in hell of getting it.  And then that paid for the supplies and my husband and my son and a neighbor helped us build it, helped us put it up.  Congratulations. That's awesome. 15:37 I feel like that's a big weight lifted  off your shoulders. You can just keep production going and be able to use that space all year round. Well, it gives us an extra couple months in the fall and it gives us a couple extra months in the spring. It is not great for growing anything past December and until March. 16:02 Okay. I suppose that makes sense here in Minnesota. I would need a heater if you had to want it to grow anything indoors and there's probably not enough sun either. Yeah, that's the thing. We would either have to use one of those, I don't know what they're called, they're a great big heating unit and they're heated with propane, I think. You hang them up. Or we'd have to use 16:29 electricity, which we don't want to do because it's too expensive,  or we would have to get solar panels and a generator. And all of those options aren't really worth it for just three months in the winter time. Yeah, that's true.  It would build a lot of costs up for,  and then I'm sure in the greenhouse, you can't grow much more than like greens and things that are more fragile that don't need a ton of sunlight.  So I suppose it might not be worth  the cost it would take to do that. 17:00 Yeah. And then the other thing is, that where would we sell them? Cause there aren't really a whole lot of winter markets.  Yeah, that's true too. So we decided that gaining that two  months in the fall and that two months in the spring  really was a good idea because getting our plants started in March and 1st of April means that we actually have stuff to sell at the first farmers market in June. Oh yeah. It's very smart. Yeah. 17:30 And we just wanted we just wanted a greenhouse. Darn it. That was part of the reason. 17:41 Yeah. One day we'll be building up to it. Hopefully. Well, you guys are young yet. Yes. Are you in your late 20s? Yeah, I'm 26. Yeah, 32. 17:59 You have lots of time to grow and stretch and decide what works for you for your homestead, which is amazing. Yeah, that is true. And you put it like that. I appreciate that. Yeah, it was just, at the feels of, you know, still trying to figure out what's the next step for us. And you will be until you leave the homestead for good. I swear to you, we bought our place five years ago, five and a half years ago. And, uh, 18:29 We're still not sure what we're doing and we're like fully fledged adult people. Our kids are grown. So it's always going to be what's next. It's always going to be what should we do? What do you want to do? Yeah. 18:45 I like that part that  we've felt  really creative since starting this, at least  just from all the ideas that have been coming up and the what ifs, like maybe we can do this and that and  how do we get there? that's, you  know, being creative is just what homesteading has allowed us to do. 19:09 And it's fun.  Yeah. 19:14 That's my favorite part. It's fun. 19:18 My wife and I were just talking the other day about that.  When you get home from a long day  of just being out there, whether it's  working on a project that you had no idea  how  to start it, ah being in the garden, hands  dirty, tired,  how satisfying it is when you get inside and the laughs you had throughout just working throughout the day, how goofy you can get. 19:48 We get really goofy out there. Yeah. Some of the some of the best memories we've made have been out outside working and being creative, as he said, and at the end of the day. And I still think back to last year, I still remember those memories out there working hard and until the moon comes out and we got blood lights out there just trying to keep working, trying to get plants in before it rains the next day. And yeah, I remember. Yeah, I remember we remember that time when we exactly we took out 20:18 the shop lights and I took out the drywall lights and we just started hooking everything up and planting in the middle of the night.  It looked like a basketball court out there. bet it did. You guys don't have kids, do you? Not yet, no.  it's going to be harder to do those kinds of things once you have babies. So enjoy the silliness now  because the silliness that comes with kids is a whole different animal. 20:46 Oh, I suppose. That's something to look forward to, Absolutely. So do you guys have any animals on the homestead yet? Do have chickens? Yeah, we do have chickens. have right now we have 19 hens that we get eggs from for ourselves and then to sell at markets. And then every year we do 75 broiler chickens to be able to we butcher them ourselves come when they're. 21:16 eight weeks old  and we have a whole family day of it, butcher the chickens. And then when we're done, we have our freezer full for the year. And then we're able to fill our parents' freezers and a couple friends. um So yeah, just have chickens, but no other livestock right now. um Potentially maybe work into getting pigs this year. that's in the plan this year. Nice. 21:44 If money was no object and time  wasn't a real object, and it is because you guys both have jobby jobs, what would you like to have for animals on the homestead? 21:55 Oh, that's a really good question. Yeah. I would like a whole zoo out there if I could. But Christian would probably stop me. I love all animals, but I think specifically for thinking for the homestead. Yeah. Yeah. I would like for as far as an exotic animal, I was like if money was no option, it gets a couple of peacocks out there for sure. That'd be the fun. That'd be the fun bird. But I would go. 22:25 I would go beef  and a lot of beef, lot of pigs, chickens, those basic ones, which I don't think  there was. Yeah, I think  we've always kind of, we've talked about goats in the past, but I think that we're kind of leaning more towards beef, pork and chicken just because those can have the most yield. And we kind of want animals that will. 22:53 give back to us in the long run. know,  we do we do love pets and everything, but I guess if money was no object, then we'd get all of the fun animals to like goats, and stuff. get like fish because we have like a little bit of a pond back there. You can start getting like you can start farming fish, trout, stuff like that. mean, just imagine getting into that. Yeah.  You start farming trout. I'm coming to see you and I'm bringing money.  Bring it over. 23:21 Come on, on.  It's sitting there.  You could just see at one point it was a pond and has water backed up. 23:39 Well, I've started asking that question now and then because the answers are always interesting. I asked them the other day and she said,  I think I would like kangaroos. And I was like, okay, that would be great.  Oh, would be a fine fence.  Yeah. My husband and I have been talking about getting into quail. And I mentioned this a couple of episodes ago and we haven't actually decided yet because 24:07 Money's a little tight with the way everything keeps going up in price. So we're waiting until we have at least an extra, literally extra, $200 before we do anything. Because we know we have to get an incubator. We know who we're getting the eggs from, and that's probably not going to cost us anything right now. But we still have to make the coop. We have to get the brooder. We have to get things to make this happen. So we're working on 24:37 putting $200 aside that is not allocated for anything for Quail. And that would be awesome. Yeah, it's amazing to when you think about you want to get an animal and then you start think like when it's a dream, it's like, oh yeah, we can do that. And then when you start thinking seriously about it, then you remember all the little things that will add up. that. But I think that's a really cool idea that you set aside. You're waiting to set aside that money. 25:04 to be able to do that. Cause then it's like, know that you are for sure. Like you have a really good plan going forward and everything. Oh, that's what it helps to us. I feel too, like it's always helped  like, well, not always, but I should say it started more  responsibility with money and really thinking about, right, what's, you know, let's sit down, let's write it out. Let's see, let's make a plan. I've always enjoyed that part of it too. Yeah, for sure. 25:32 Well, it's either feed the quail or feed us and we need to eat to be able to do the things to be able to feed the quail. So the quail comes  second. other thing that  I haven't said anything to my husband yet because I'm still chewing on it, but  I made the mistake of watching a video about pygmy goats the other day. The little tiny goats, they're only about two feet tall and the biggest they get. 25:57 The biggest they get is 70 pounds. And I was like, oh my God, I could have goats. We could handle those. Those are small. And then I was like, but they're probably going to cost $500 a piece and we have to have a fenced in area for them, which means you got to buy the wood to make the fence. And my brain just started spinning. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to keep this to myself until I figure it out.  Then I will be like, Hey, there's somebody that has two pigmy goats. We could have baby goats. And he'll be like,  um. 26:27 Lay out the full plan. What? Yeah. He's going to be like, we need a plan. I already got it. Yes, I am trying really hard to keep my bright ideas to myself right now because he has ADD or ADHD. And if I even so much as breathe the word goat with any kind of intention near him, he's going to be like, goats. And he'll do he'll do the he'll do the deep dive into how we can make it happen. I 26:55 don't want to do a deep dive. want to take it slow on this.  quail is much more doable. Pygmy goats  are  a pipe dream right this second, but I suspect there might be little goats here within two years. So we'll see. Oh, I love that. It's exciting.  Yes, and uh it's only him and I, and we like goat milk and pygmy goats are just as good for milk as regular goats. 27:24 but they produce less of it, which means we wouldn't be wasting any. Oh, there you go. That's a smart way of going about it. 27:33 Yes, and I could probably handle a small goat. I don't think I can handle a big 150 pound goat. That's not my idea of fun. So.  It is so much fun talking to homesteaders because you guys get it. I said, pig me goats and both of your voices just went up like, oh.  We'll have to come visit them when you can come to the trout farm, then we'll go visit the goats. 28:04 We'll trade visiting rights. It'll be great. Yeah, there you go. I remember my, was just thinking back to when my buddy had a Billy goat and that, uh, I see way bigger than pigmen goats, but this thing, this thing was named Bob and it was just a nuisance, man. It was, it would stand on cars. It would stand everywhere. I was, I don't know, that came to my head. thought those goats, man. 28:33 Goats are either a huge pain in the ass or they are a blessing. And if I get little tiny goats, maybe there'll be blessings. Maybe.  We'll see.  We will see how that plays out eventually.  But it's fun to think about and it's fun to do the research and I am a big lifelong learner. really like learning new things. So studying up on pygmy goats is no skin off my nose.  All right, guys, I try to keep these to half an hour. Where can people find you? 29:02 Yeah, so we're um on Facebook at Faithful Harvest MN and we're also on Instagram with this same uh username. And then  maybe in the future we're working on a website so you can keep an eye out for that. But yeah, I've been trying to post on social media a lot more so you can keep up with us on there and see some fun videos and content.  And that will be in the show notes so people can find you. 29:30 All right, as always, people can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  This was really fun, you guys. And Christian, thank you for making the time too, because Abigail said you were going to join us, and I was like, yes.  Thank you. Yeah, thank you for reaching out to us. Really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for giving us a platform to be able to share about homesteads and other people get to share different things going on with their tiny homestead. It's a good platform that you've created for everyone. Yeah,  it's so. 30:00 We've never done anything like this before. So  we're excited. We really were to be able to talk to you.  Good. And it's so fun for me.  You guys say thank you. All the people I've interviewed, you're all like, thank you so much. And you have no idea how this lights up my days too. So thank you.  All right. You guys have a great day.  Thank you.  

Today I'm talking with Diane at Montana Country Homesteading. You can also follow on Facebook. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Green Bush Twins. That tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Green Bush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Diane at Montana Country something  homesteading  in Montana because it's Montana country homesteading. Good morning, Diane. How are you?  Good morning. I'm wonderful. How are you this morning?  I'm good. How's the weather there? 00:59 Actually yesterday for Easter was just about as perfect as it could be. And this morning it's a little overcast, but it's going to be a nice day. Unusual weather in Montana, to be honest. Yeah. It was a lovely day in Minnesota here yesterday too. Yesterday was beautiful. Sunny 50s light breeze. was, it was really good. All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Montana country home study. Well, um, 01:28 Let's see a little bit about us.  I've been married to my husband who was my high school sweetheart for 47 years now. um We came to Montana exactly 30 years ago in just a couple of weeks, the first weekend of May.  And um we came with our three kids, two dogs,  a motor home,  a U-Haul carrying a pickup truck full of all my husband's construction tools and away we went. 01:57 and  came out onto a bare piece of property that quite honestly, my husband found in the back of a Field and Stream magazine  in a one inch by two inch ad and said, honey, let's go to Montana.  And  so we did, we packed up everything 30 years ago and came onto this 20 acre parcel that  we actually bought it with a couple of Polaroid, the shake pictures, you know, that you shake to develop them. 02:26 And  away we went  and it's  been a whirlwind since we actually did homestead this property.  It was set up in 20 acre tracks out here with quite honestly, no roads, no development, no nothing. They had just subdivided the land. um When we moved on the property, there was literally a two lane dirt path that came down to our 20 acres. And that I looked at. 02:52 dirt path up by the way. And it is actually considered um a stage coach line road from Billings, Montana to Park City, Montana back in the day. So that was of interesting. Yeah, we live on a stage coach road. uh It's now been a little better developed than it used to be, but it's still just a gravel road coming in here. uh But yeah, 30 years ago, we came onto this property with just a dream and an idea. uh 03:21 We were uh building contractors in the Bay Area and were just on complete overload and did not want to raise our kids in that environment.  And so we made a pact with each other to get the heck out of there before our kids got uh in middle school and away we went. And we've been here since. That is amazing. I love that.  Okay. So  did you... 03:47 Did you grow up with people who did homesteading or gardening or farming or ranching at all? My grandparents um on my dad's side had a farm, but we didn't go there very often. uh My other grandma was the most incredible gardener that you had ever seen. She lived in a  little town in Pemberville, Ohio.  And um quite honestly, that woman could grow anything. And what was really amazing to me is she would 04:15 pull all of her flowers in from her flower beds and put them in what she called her breezeway  in the winter months in Ohio. And she would hold those flowers over till next year and put them all back out in the beds. It was amazing to me.  I don't have that gift that grandma had, but  I can grow a thing or two.  So what are the  thing or twos that you grow?  We grow a lot of our own food. um I think it's really important that you grow your own food, especially today. 04:45 with what's going on with the food chain and the modified foods and all the sprays and such that they're putting on our foods. think it's wildly important that you grow your own food today.  So I actually have,  one of the first things we did on this homestead was we built some raised beds, started some gardens with my kids.  And then of course the deer came and ate everything. I didn't realize  that I was dealing with some serious 05:15 predation with animals and such around here, but we were. uh Then we decided to put a hoop house over the raised beds and got wise and kept the animals out and started growing food there. uh If you look on my social media page right now,  my husband finally finished uh our main greenhouse that we're going to be growing and I actually just started putting plants in there on Saturday afternoon. 05:39 That's exciting. It's super exciting. It's like over the top greenhouse, of course, my husband's that go bigger, go home kind of guy. um But the first greenhouse that we we grew food in  was just a little  raised bed area that we put  literally sheet panels that we hooped over it and uh buttoned them down to both sides of the  of the raised bed and then put um plastic over top of it. And that's what we grew and put a wall in the front. 06:07 some mesh in the back and away we went.  And I grew in that for  20 some years. So  it doesn't need to be elaborate, but you need to grow your own food.  And now we've just stepped up the game to grow into this uh major greenhouse.  And  years ago, I took a horse barn that we had when we were actually raising paints back in the day.  I took that horse barn and I rented it to somebody who cultivated. uh 06:34 inside of that and they have since moved out. So now I have an area where I can actually grow indoor produce all year long. So we're working on that next. That's our next big project. We've had one project after another here on this piece of land. Again, we drove up, there was nothing here, like literally nothing.  No water, no power, no phones, no driveways, uh just a piece of land with some pin markers so that you knew what was yours and what wasn't and 07:04 We laid it out from there and it's been  quite interesting. Okay. After everything you just told me, I have a couple of thoughts.  I'm going do my public service announcement now because it plays into what you just said.  I do this on every episode lately.  If you live in America right now and you don't know how to cook from scratch,  learn because you will save yourself a lot of money if you're buying ingredients instead of finished foods.  Number two, if you 07:30 can't grow a garden, get to know your local producers and growers because they can grow a garden  and you're feeding yourself really good food and you're supporting your neighbors.  Love all of that. That's incredible. Yep. And then number two, I have been trying to figure out a way to explain the feeling  that we homesteaders get when we have a project and we get it finished. And the only thing I can liken it to 07:57 is if you were in Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts or you took art class in elementary school and you learned a new skill, whether it was building a homemade birdhouse or Girl Scouts, they used to have you make an apron  or in art class, did, I don't know what it was called, but we took a chisel and we chiseled out  a design on a piece of vinyl board and then we would make stamps with that vinyl board. 08:26 When,  if you've ever done those kinds of things as a kid, if you have the, I don't know, luck to end up having property and having some of your own choices be your choices, not the city planner's choices, and you can put in a greenhouse or you can put in a garden or you put in a raised bed and you see success with that.  It's the same feeling as when you took on a project when you were a kid. 08:57 Boy, and to add to that, Mary,  if you do have the property and you do have the means to do it, do some kids classes.  One of the other things that we did on this property, we actually started it in 2023,  is we built out an area on the west side of our property, which is called Montana Country Pines. um 09:18 Montana Country Pines is eight short-term rentals that we built over there that consists of teepees and a really cool 100-year-old sheep wagon and some  vintage RVs. But one of the other things that I do with Montana Country Pines is I put a sign out at the road  and the kids know that it's Craft Day at Montana Country Pines. And we have all the stuff here ready for them. 09:42 So all they gotta do is show up at noon on a Saturday when the signs out and they can come make something and take it back to their properties. So that's been really, really awesome to do those sort of things and teach kids that, you know, you can do things other than be in front of screens all the time. We can find things in nature and turn them into art. And I just love doing stuff like that with kids because when I was a kid, we used to ride our bicycles to a place called the 10:11 Miami Valley Rec Center, and there were volunteer moms that showed up with  stuff in boxes that you could make something and take it home.  And that was one of the most  biggest highlights of my childhood is going and making stuff at the Rec Center.  So that's why I do that. put a street sign out there, a little sandwich sign, and the kids know that tomorrow it's Craft Day at Montana Country Pines. So they show up, make something, and take it home. 10:40 That is so amazing, Diane. love it. uh Summer rec saved my mother's sanity. That's not bad. Mine too, I'm sure. 10:53 Yeah. And the same thing we would go and I mean, they were minor crafts. was like, I don't know. It's been so long. I'm 56. It's been forever since I went to summer rec. I remember having fun. I remember being outside for part of the day because it was at a school building. So we would play on the playground or play soccer or whatever. And then the other part of the day was indoor crafts. And I seem to remember having like little one foot by one foot boards and nails and we put nails in the wood. 11:23 And then we took colored strings and made really pretty designs on it. But I don't remember what  the art form was called. String art, some kind of string art. was really fun and it was really Zen. I loved that because you couldn't focus on anything except getting strings right.  And I think that's what's missing with kids today because with social media, it isn't Zen. It's just feeding your brain constantly in all different directions. 11:54 Yeah, that's why I grab my grandsons up and I say, let's go paint some rocks and leave them around.  We're that family too, that paints a rock and leaves it and picks up a rock and leaves a rock.  We're those people.  But yeah, my grandkids, they paint rocks and they leave them out here in our park. And uh it's fun. You you walk by and you see a rock that looks like a Volkswagen itself. It's pretty cool. yeah, have all sorts of stuff like that.  you do little rocks with them? 12:22 encouraging words like joy and kindness. yeah. Hippie rocks. That's what I call it. Hippie rocks. Hey, again, I'm 65. I grew up in the seventies. I am that old hippie at heart, but you we use it. We use that hippie spirit to do good things for kids and people today. I love it. I told you when we talked on the phone that I was so excited to talk to you for the interview, cause I knew it was going to be fun. And so far you have not disappointed me. And in the least. 12:52 So do you guys have chickens or goats or anything? We do, okay. So we used to raise horses, um got a little older and decided that maybe we'd let the younger people raise horses. um And um we do have a couple of goats. They are cashmere goats that we just use them for the fiber, um which is something else that we've got coming up here pretty soon. We're going to have a couple of gals come out here with a couple of spinning wheels and 13:19 bring a group of homeschool kids out here and show them how to actually take fiber and turn it into uh spinnable wool  and then show them some finished products that these ladies have done.  just to kind of plant that idea in some young kids' heads that, you  you look at that animal and it's not just the animal, it's the fiber and the garments and such that can come from it.  So we do have a couple of cashmere goats. Yeah, I have a flock of chickens. I've always had chickens. um 13:48 And a couple of Dobermans right now. Other than that,  we normally get em a little bum steer that comes in every year that we'll raise up. We don't have one right at the moment.  We do have a pig pen out there waiting for a couple of little pigs again, which I'm not overly excited about, but we'll deal with.  Their food. Their food. Yeah.  So when you say a bum calf,  would you define that for me? 14:17 We usually find somebody that's got a calf that the  mom didn't make it or ignored it or it got left when people rounded up the cows and what have you and they find a bum calf somewhere.  We got a couple of  local ranchers that we always tell them when you got something that needs a home and needs fed up and we'll just put it in this pen over here, but we usually get one every year. 14:42 And then one of my dearest friends in the world has a bison ranch just about an hour and a half from here that  we always have fresh bison meat here. And we go and help on the ranch and that sort of thing and barter for m boxes of wonderful meat from the ranch.  there a big difference between how cattle beef and bison beef tastes or is it pretty much the same? 15:09 It depends on how you cook it, but yeah, it's pretty close to the same, but bison meat is much better for you cholesterol wise. It's the good cholesterol that you want.  It's just a better protein source.  At one point on this homestead,  we actually had a USDA certified organic meat facility that my husband built out of a,  he put up a hundred by 80 foot pole barn and we actually built inside of it. 15:38 a certified organic meat plant. actually produced a bison jerky product for several years. We took it then from that particular plant that we built here on our place and took it to a co-packer because we kind of outgrew our space here.  And then COVID pretty much took care of that. COVID pretty much took care of a lot of things.  COVID took care of a really good business there. 16:04 But it was awesome that we were able to create it right here from our own homestead. uh We got uh certified trim that came in from Bison facilities and actually produced the product right here on our property.  I'll tell you that that was one of the learning curves that uh took me a minute.  Learning uh nutritional labeling, um recipes that. 16:29 actually produce the nutrition that you were looking for that didn't have too much sodium or too much fat or too much whatever. um I actually formulated the recipes. My husband did the cook  and um smoked everything and then we put it into the marketplace for years. It was pretty incredible right here from our homestead.  Very cool. I didn't even know you could do that.  Yep.  We had to have certified inspectors come out here every week. We had inspections and 16:59 um Yeah, it was quite the process, but we built it from the ground up, bought every piece of machinery,  put it all together,  did the packaging, the labeling, the production, and then actually put it into the marketplace. uh I want to touch on the labeling because uh we  have a farm stand here at our property and we sell cold processed lye soap. 17:26 and we sell candles and we sell roller balls with with essential oils in them and things like that.  And as soon as I renew my cottage food registration, which I haven't done yet, we can sell breads and cookies and things too. Nice. And  what I didn't realize when we decided that we wanted to do this is that it was going to cost money for the labels and for the ink to print the labels. 17:51 God forbid we actually get the labels printed for us by ordering them because even it's even more expensive then. So so what I would like the listener to know is that when you're paying I don't know ten dollars for a loaf of sourdough bread not only are you paying for the bread you are paying for the work that it took to make the bread you are paying for the bag that the bread is in you're paying for the paper 18:20 that the label is printed on because without the label, we can't sell you that bread because the state of Minnesota won't allow us to. Correct. Correct. So it's not that we want to gouge anybody as producers, but we have to make it worth the time to do the thing. Yeah. And the consumer needs to understand the fact that they are paying for all of those things,  but they're also paying for a better quality product. 18:48 rather than buying something that's  jam-packed full of preservatives that you're going to feed your family.  So there's a cost to all of that.  What was really surprising to me when we went organic with our product, uh well, there's two sets of inspectors that would come out. There was the USDA would come out and inspect us just based on the fact we were meat, we were a meat product,  but then we'd have the organic  inspectors come out. 19:16 And the first time that she came out, she said, I need to see all of your ingredients that you've bought over the past six months. And I need to see your production runs for six months because we need to see that they match. And it just kind of struck me funny. I said, what do you mean see that they match? Of course they'd have to match. Well, she kind of filled me in on the fact that there's a lot of fraud in certified organic labeling that they have found massive fraud that, you know, it, 19:45 The label says it's certified organic, but you haven't bought enough organic materials to create  that amount of product. it just struck me. oh I didn't realize that people would defraud that system as well, but apparently they do.  So for me, buying local, buying from a farm stand, if I don't have that particular vegetable in my garden. 20:09 is important. Buying meat from my local ranchers and so forth is important because I don't want to buy meat from the counters that are full of formaldehyde and  funky stuff to make them stay pink for a while so that they look good for you to pick up. I'd rather have it wrapped in paper in my freezer knowing that my neighbor took it to the butcher that I know. They processed it the right way and  it's  what I think it is rather than what's all in everything else you're buying today. 20:39 So it is important. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Yeah. And the other thing is that if you spend your money locally, it tends to stay local. True. Very true. Very true.  I was reading something on Facebook because everybody reads something on Facebook every day at this point. But it was a story about how a guy went to the local dude who sold 21:06 And he bought a box of steaks from the farmer. And the farmer then took that money and he ended up going to the local barber for a haircut. He donated some of that money to the tithing thing at church. He put some of that money in his local bank and he spent some of it at the local grocery store.  And by the time he had done all that, he had spent money  locally, not outside of a 15-mile radius. 21:36 And I was like, you know, that's how it used to be. Yeah, that is true. And it's important, you know, if we don't, if we don't keep our, our own towns funded, they die. True. Community is everything.  And that's one of the things that I have specialized in for years and years and years is creating communities of people.  I've been in the network marketing space  in the background of everything that my husband and I have done for 35 years. 22:06 Our first child was born autistic. We could not do the daycare thing, nor did I want to for that matter. So uh when our first boy was born,  I quit my job as a pediatric dental assistant  and became that stay at home mom and did the books for my husband's construction company for years.  And I was the one that was kind of filling in in the background.  Cause if you've ever done construction, it's feast or famine. It's either really good or it's really bad. uh 22:34 So I was kind of that buffer for all those years um until, uh oh, about 10 years ago, I was able to step up my game in that space  and uh create a really, really good network of people  and create that leveraged and residual income that my husband  tells everybody now that I'm his sugar mama and  have taken over to the point where he does not have to build. 23:02 homes any longer. He doesn't have to do projects he doesn't want to do. can pick and choose what he'd like to do. He's been doing a lot of volunteer stuff is what he's done. ah He can't sit still.  We figured that one out. So uh there's always a project around here on the homestead he can deal with, but he does not have to travel and go build someone's homes any longer, which I'm pretty excited about.  take it that you really love each other because you've been together for quite a long time. 23:31 Oh yeah, 47 years. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, my parents were married in 1965. They've never been married to anyone else. My mom was 19. My dad was 22, I think, when they got married. Yeah. And they are still just smitten with each other this many years later. And I'm just like, how in the heck does that work? Well, you either grow together or you grow apart. And we grew together. 24:00 and raised three incredible boys into nice young Ben. And it's been a whirlwind, I can tell you that. um I followed him from Ohio to Florida to California and now to Montana. So yeah, I think I'd follow the boy over a cliff, but um needless to say, Montana is where we really fell in love with the people, the surroundings, the opportunity um and a way to 24:30 to create a really nice lifestyle for our family. And that's why we've been here for 30 years. This is home for us now. Congratulations on knowing what you wanted, going after it and making it a success. That is fabulous.  We are pretty driven people, I must say.  We're that go bigger, go home.  That's kind of been our attitude forever. So we kind of overdo it when we do it. 24:56 just like  the meat plant, you know, we started out, that started out with us taking our buffalo jerky that we normally made to hunting camp. And everybody kept saying, you guys should sell this stuff. You guys should sell this stuff. Well, he heard it one too many times and took the building that he had just built that he didn't know he was gonna do with and said, let's just put a meat plant in there.  And we did it.  And it was crazy. 25:24 Okay, well, you've been doing this for a long time. So  I'm gonna ask you the question that's always really weird for people to answer. What would you tell a young couple who wanna get into homesteading? How would you tell them to get started?  Plan well first,  okay? Do the planning,  figure out what it is that you really want from your homestead. Do you want it to produce food? 25:51 And is that in the source of animals and vegetables or one or the other? um Figure out what your own gifts and talents are that you have. Because here's the thing, if you  can live on a homestead and you can take your own gifts and talents and monetize them,  and today there's  hundreds of ways to monetize your talents via the internet. um So if you can take your gifts and talents and figure out a way to monetize those from your homestead. 26:20 For example, if you have goats and you like making cheese, that should be something that you figure out how to monetize. Or if you're that person that wants to make soaps and candles and that sort of thing, then you need to hone in on that craft and that talent and figure out where on your homestead will you be doing that. uh Create the space so that the space is for that. We have so many buildings on this homestead, it's insane.  It looks like a village around here, it really does. uh 26:51 But at the same token, each one of those spaces has its own purpose on the homestead.  And I think that would be one of the first things I would tell somebody. Figure out what you want from it. Make a good plan to go after it  and know that you're gonna work your little butt off for a while.  Yes. Living doesn't come easy. If you want... 27:12 If you want to live well and you want to be in a place where you're not breathing smog and everybody's exhaust from their cars or hearing all the sirens and  all the stuff in big cities, um it takes a  little extra work to live in an area like we live in. um So plan on that. That would be my first advice. 27:37 That is really good advice because that's what I would have said too.  You have to... 27:44 You have to have a plan. It's just the way it is. And  when we bought our place five and a half years ago, our plan was to start with a clean slate. And boy, did we, we started with a clean slate and we had to put in a garden and the field where the garden is had not been grown on or in for 50, think 40 or 50 years.  last thing that anyone grew on it was a big old field of  pumpkins. 28:14 So it was all grass and weeds and my husband played hell getting that garden plot dug out to plant produce in.  I bet.  And uh this year  we now have our hard side of greenhouse that we put in three maize ago  and every single seed that's planted so far is planted in trays in the greenhouse for the first time ever.  Doesn't that feel wonderful? 28:41 Oh, I'm so happy to not have my kitchen table and my desk in my living room covered with seat dress.  But uh the garden went from like, I think it was 50 by  20 feet. And now it's, I think it's a hundred feet by 150 feet. Awesome. Nice garden. So we have been here for five, well, six years this August. And it took until last year to really feel like we maybe had 29:10 some kind of a handle sort of kinda on our plans. And that's the other thing is that if you're on a homestead, plans constantly change and grow and morph. Yes, absolutely. That's what happened with the west side of our property. There was an area over on the west side that I said, honey, one of these days we should build a little cabin over here because when our grandson Mason gets old enough, he may want to be out here. 29:38 And if we had a little cabin over there for him, that would be great. Which by the way, my husband was a log home builder for a year. So when I put him to task with stuff, he usually can just get her done. So I may mention that we should probably put a cabin there for him. Well, the space that we were going to put the cabin actually is what houses a 14 by 20 wall tent. That's part of Montana country pines, which is. 30:06 Our business, operate from the west side of our property, the short-term rentals.  We set up what is  an Airbnb style camping trip for people where you just bring your clothes and your food and we've got everything else handled for you.  But again, those plans changed  because I was just going put a little cabin over there for my grandson. And as it is now,  there's a whole village there in that area. Actually on that top side where I wanted to put that cabin. 30:35 there's the two hand painted teepees, the tent, and then the sheep wagon, which is kind of like a frontier area up top.  And then we put a road that goes in down below where we've got the vintage RVs at. ah yeah, those plans changed dramatically and they changed because we got into vintage RVs.  We started refurbishing some vintage RVs and flipping them and then. 30:59 We kept one and went to a show, went to a vintage RV show and got ribbons and was like, okay, we love this. uh And then  again, that go bigger, go home attitude. My husband said, well, we just create a little RV, you know, like a little Airbnb thing. Well, here we are now, uh three years later. And uh it's pretty exciting to be able to host people from all over. We had people here last year from Sweden, which was really awesome. 31:29 but to host people from all over the world now uh here at our place and share a little piece of paradise with them has been pretty awesome.  I bet it has. I love what you're doing, Diane. Where can people find you online?  The park itself is under MontanaCountryPines.com.  We have Facebook page, but we also have a website page for Montana Country Pines for the booking engine and such. uh You can see pictures of 31:58 The inside of the a hundred year old sheep wagon is just, it's all original. It's epic. uh It came off of the largest sheep ranch, which was in Martinsdale, Montana, just up the road about  an hour or so. uh It came off of the largest sheep ranch in Northwestern America.  And  that particular sheep wagon, someone lived in it and actually 32:25 tended to the sheep of that ranch for years. It's pretty incredible.  So yeah, we've got  some interesting things going on out here. I'm a firm believer  in taking your property and  utilizing it for  what it can produce for you uh income wise.  And uh my biggest thing I must say for the last several years uh has been on a little mission to empower women, just women in general. 32:53 Not that I don't like working with men, but I really enjoy working with women more so. I was raised back in the 60s by a single mom, which back then was not the norm. You were frowned upon if you didn't have a father in the household back in the 60s and 70s, which was my era. And I realized that if my mom would have had the skill sets that I have today and the knowledge that I have today, my life would have been really different as a kid, like real different. 33:23 And here's the cold raw statistic.  One  in four women survive either being divorced or widowed without having to change all the circumstances around them, like leave their homestead or drive a different vehicle or a lot of circumstances change for women. So I have been on this mission for the last 10, 15 years to empower as many women as I can to be that  one. 33:53 Right? To be the one that can survive whatever comes at you, that you know how to create income, you know how to handle the income, you know how to invest the income,  you know how to take care of yourself.  And I realized that  real wholeheartedly  when my father-in-law passed away and I realized the situation that my mother-in-law was in, she had always had dad taking care of  everything financially for her. 34:23 quite honestly, she was 72 and did not know how to balance a checkbook.  Didn't know how to get the bills paid because dad did it all the time. So that's when I really realized she became a project person for me there for a while. But uh that's when I really realized that, my mom was one of those  three women, she wasn't the one in four that survived a divorce, right? She worked really, really hard to take care of four kids and keep a  roof over our heads. 34:52 Um, but that one in four really just struck me. And I thought, you know, I need to help other women. I am that one in four. I've, I've created businesses for myself. I've created businesses for our family. Um, and I've made sure that, um,  everything's in order that if by any chance I'm the one that's left behind, which I keep  joking with my husband that I'm going first and there's going to be a casserole line down our driveway. 35:22 which is about 300 feet or so,  300 yards or so.  Anyways, I keep joking with him that I need to go first and he needs a casserole line because I don't want to be a widow. But uh again, you gotta be that one in four. So you gotta know how to take care of yourself, how to create income for yourself, how to monetize your gifts, your skills, your talents, because everybody has something, right? Everybody's got something that they have a passion for, um something they enjoy that they can monetize. 35:52 And so I've been helping women do that for a long, time.  I'm so glad that you took that upon yourself because it's really important. Thank you for  doing that, Diane. Yeah, it's a big deal. Really, it is. It is. 36:07 All right, as always, people can find me at tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. Diane, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. You are certainly welcome. And  here's one other thing I wanna make sure everybody does. So Montana Country Pines is  our park over here, the Airbnb.  But at Montana Country Homesteading on the Facebook page of Montana Country Homesteading, we're doing a drawing for a  trip here to Montana Country Pines. You get a consultation with us on 36:36 on your home setting plans.  We're going to make a really great meal for you out of our chuck wagon that we've got.  So there's a drawing there. There's no purchase required. We just want to get uh people aware of the fact that this is here.  And we want to give away a weekend to somebody so that they could come here,  maybe learn a little bit off of our homestead that they can go take back to theirs. But we're offering that to our home setting community.  So go register for that. It's free. uh 37:05 And you just might end up here for a couple of days hanging out with my crazy husband and I. That sounds like fun. What's the deadline for that? What's the last day? The drawing is actually going to be live on a Facebook live on May 2nd. any by May 1st, by May 1st, get in the drawing. So go to Montana country homesteadings Facebook page. The drawing is on there. The link to that's there. 37:30 Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. All right, Diane, I hope you have a great day. Thanks. You as well. And this was really fun, Mary. It's really good to get to know you and I'm sure we'll do more things in the future. I hope so.  All right. That's just going on it. Thanks, Mike. All right. All right. Bye. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Lydia at An Enchanted Homestead. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Lydia at an enchanted homestead. I love that name in Idaho. Good afternoon, Lydia. How are you? Hi, I'm well. How are you?  I'm good. How's the weather in your neck of the woods today? oh 00:58 windy and rainy. Us too. In Minnesota, same thing. It is gross outside. Yes. It's like we can't make up our minds here. One day it's like a warm spring. Now it's like kind of reverting to winter. It's so funny. Every time, every time I talk with somebody about the weather and it just keeps flipping, they all have the same sigh and I do the same thing. I did it two days ago. 01:27 We just need spring to get here and stay here. That would be great. Yes. And it's unusually warm.  Um, cause I feel like winter skipped us here in Southern Idaho. We got snow like only three times and it melted the same day. And so  it got pretty warm. Like we were having a pretty warm  spring, um, which I was kind of excited about. And then this week it was like, psych.  So it's like cold and wet.  Yup. 01:56 I... There's that noise again. I hate this. Alrighty. So why is it called an enchanted homestead? Do you have magic on your homestead? Oh, gosh. I'm just always... love all things like magical and just like finding gratitude even in the mundane boring stuff and like turning it into something... Well, magical. 02:21 Enchanting and so I don't know it just it's stuck with me and we decided to name it that  Well, you'll be happy to know that one of my good friends gave me a fairy weather vane when we moved here five years ago, that's awesome  And it only took a year and a half to put up, but it's really pretty so 02:45 Yep, I can see it out my living room windows and every time I look at it, I think of her and I'm like, I hope you're looking down from heaven smiling at the weather rain.  Oh, that's awesome. That is awesome. I love adding all kinds of stuff. Like I have like  my courts around the garden, like sun catchers, wind chimes. just I love putting stuff everywhere. I'm like,  I don't know, like adding that little magical umph to like otherwise  boring places around the property. 03:15 And so I just, love that. Yes, because when things aren't blooming, you need something to look like it's blooming. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes, indeed. Make it somewhat pretty. Yeah, I get it. I really do. I was talking to somebody about the fact that peonies are my favorite flower the other day and I realized I still have at least two months before my peonies bloom. Oh yeah? Well, I want to add more flowers around the property, but I 03:43 suck. I don't know. cannot  get flowers to bloom hardly at all.  just, I don't know. Is it shady?  Some parts, but our house  faces west and so the sun does like, whoo.  Um,  but I don't know. just, I have wildflowers though that have taken off and they come back every year, thankfully. So I'm trying to get more going.  Um, 04:12 So we'll see this year.  We'll see.  Okay.  I have a question. Did you grow up in Idaho? No, actually in Puerto Rico. Oh, okay.  I was listening to you talk and I'm like, there's some accent there, but I can't place it. Yeah, no. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, moved to Hawaii and then came to Idaho. Okay. It's really subtle. I don't think anybody else would have noticed it, but I am like a fanatic about it because I listened to everything really closely. um Okay. So. 04:42 Tell me about your homestead. Well, we have a little bit over 50 chickens, I would say,  give or take.  We have four goats. We have  nine cats, five dogs. Five dogs, yeah. And we are just on, I think about three and a half acres here. um Yeah, we do gardening. 05:11 We do obviously the farm fresh eggs, all the stuff. Nice. Because I'm a dog fanatic, I never was until we got our dog five years ago. My husband is the same. What breed, what breed, what breeds are your dogs or is it one breed? Oh, so we had, we started with one Shih Tzu and then she got pregnant. And she had five puppies that were mixed. 05:41 one passed away early on and so I could not part with the other puppies. And so we were in town at first and so that is what led us to then have to find somewhere out of town limits because I think it was a three dog maximum rule  and we had a little bit more than that. And of course they're little dogs so they yap. They are quite the little yappers. um And so then when we moved out here  we had a dog 06:10 that randomly showed up. His name was Jax. He  passed um two or three years ago. But then we had another dog show up, Bruno. He's still with us. He's  a  lab mix, a black lab mix. And then our son  brought another dog home and she is a border collie lab mix. And so  we currently, yeah, one, two. 06:40 three, four, five, because we've had a few that have passed away. yeah. Yep. My husband and I are  of  the mind that one dog is more than enough for us. We adore our dog.  her mama has a litter every year.  And friends of ours own the mama. And I'm like, man, those puppies are so cute. My husband's like,  our dog is so cute. We don't need to give her a sister or a brother. What breed is she? 07:10 She's a she's an Australian shepherd.  Oh,  okay.  And they need they need to be played with. Yeah, they have energy. Yeah. So  having more than one would probably kill both of us. Yeah, that's how it is with ours. That's a border Collie mix. Nova. Oh my goodness. She has energy for days and we have her kind of like on a routine. So like they get breakfast every morning and then she gets like after breakfast playtime. Then at around three o'clock she gets another playtime. 07:39 Then after dinner, they get playtime and it's like, she will, and she knows, like she will sit by the area where her toys are at and just look like the saddest abused dog. Like, please play. Oh my goodness. I calm down.  But she loves, thought she wants to be outside playing all day long. cannot for the life of me figure out if border collies and um Australian shepherds just know how to communicate better than other dogs do. 08:08 Mm-hmm. would say so. Maggie's the same way. She has all kinds of expressions for what she wants.  They're super smart.  Yeah, it's crazy. And my mom and dad have a purebred border collie and  her name is Duchess and she was aptly named and she has all kinds of faces for what she wants to according to my dad. So  I think that those two breeds are very expressive and very clear. 08:36 when they want your attention for whatever it is that they want you to do. oh absolutely. And I could talk about dogs all day. Like  I am an absolute convert. I go to the church of dog. I swear to you. uh I've always been a dog person, but my husband,  for his whole life was scared of dogs. Like it is the funniest thing. Like even the littlest dog, he'd be like, Nope. And I'm like, come on. Like it's not going to eat you. Like really? 09:05 and he will just walk the other way. And so then when we got our first dog together, Harley,  he started coming around and his family to this day, they're like, we would have never thought you would end up with five dogs. Like of all people, like you were so scared and they sleep in bed with us. Like they are so spoiled  and people like, man, you've come a long way.  Yeah, I always loved other people's dogs. I just didn't want one of my own. Oh, that's funny. 09:34 And then we got this cute little puppy at seven weeks and six days old and I fell in love and I went off the deep end. So,  all right. So you said you would think you have about 50 chickens.  you, and you have a farm stand, right? Yes, ma'am. Yup.  Yeah. So are the girls laying? Oh my gosh, a lot. get like  around 30 a day, 30 eggs. So it's like, we stock the farm stand. So we started opening every day. 10:04 except this week, I  do announce, like, hey, it's weather permitting. Because our house faces west and across the street, like, there's a field. So there's nothing blocking the winds or anything. So the farm stand um obviously gets affected. oh And we had an upgrade. We started the farm stand, I think it was two years ago,  and my husband built it, like, literally a little stand. He built it. My dad was living with us at the time, and my dad helped paint it. So it was, like, really special. 10:34 Um, but then the wins, like she went belly up several times, several times. Thankfully it was like when she wasn't open. we didn't have stuff in it. Cause we also have like apothecary items that I make and stuff. Um, so thankfully we never experienced like damage in that sense. And anytime like my husband was able to fix her up and just, would set her back up. But then we were like, okay, we got to figure something out. And so. 11:03 we had a shed in our backyard that was just full of junk. Like  it needed cleaned out. And so  we pulled that out and that's the farm stand. So it's like a green shed that has tables in it. And that's what we're using. And thankfully it's sturdy enough to where the winds don't affect it, but still like when you open the doors, like the wind is just like blasting it. So  we keep her closed. Yeah. 11:30 We have a farm stand too and it's got like a  one door. It's got one door that opens to the left and it's a big door. And I worry when people come to get their eggs because I'm so afraid that door is going to smack somebody when they go in when the wind's blowing, but everybody's been okay so far.  And we have insurance that will cover that.  But I still don't want anyone to get hurt. I mean, I assume that they're coming to a quote unquote 11:59 farm or homestead, they know to be careful. Right. mean, normally you would, yeah, I think that's a pretty safe assumption, but yeah, it's common sense.  Yeah. It's also, it's also probably not safe for people who have mobility issues and people know that too,  because you have to step up about four inches to get into it. And  I said to my husband, we should probably put a ramp on that. And he was like, it's on the list. This was, this was three years ago. 12:28 Oh, we have a list going on stuff too. Yeah, there's still no ramp, but maybe this summer there'll be a ramp on it. I don't know yet. Yeah, I want to turn ours just a little bit because I want it to still face the road,  but kind of angled so the winds don't necessarily just like slap her inside.  But also I want to paint because right now it's just a dark green shed. So I want to get her painted.  Yeah, there's a list. 12:56 There's always a list on a homestead.  never ends either. You get like six things crossed out and then seven more things show up.  Yeah, that's true.  So you do apothecary things. What do you do? We do elderberry syrup,  herbal salves. It's just stuff that  we use personally. I just make more.  We are big on essential oils, so I have rollers out there that we use. ah 13:23 And so it's very important though with like herbal remedies. I have a disclaimer like, hey, this is what we use. This is how we use it and why. But, you know, do your research. Your mileage may vary. Yeah. I'm like, these are the ingredients, you know, because for allergy reasons, I don't want anybody. But yeah, so I have essential oil rollers. I have herbal salves. I love plantain, calendula, lavender. 13:53 Dandelion we are big on dandelions here. We're probably the only property on this road that doesn't spray.  Oh uh I swear because everybody has all the pretty green yards and then there's our house with all the dandelions and which I think is prettier  Personally same I had to get my husband on board. He's like come  on and I'm like, nope, like they're just so good So we use it for like tinctures salves.  I feed them to our goats or chickens 14:24 They're so good.  and so have you,  have you done dandelion root tea yet?  No,  I did. I have the roots. I, but I want to do,  um, this local lady was talking to me about it and it just, it got me curious, but I have not done it yet. It's like a dandelion latte. So basically you do that the tea, but then to that you add milk and then honey and it's basically like coffee, instead of coffee, it's the dandelion root. 14:53 Yes, I bought dandelion root tea at the store at the co-op. Yeah. And tried it and it does it tastes like coffee. is wonderful. I just I have it. I just I've not been brave enough. Do it. Put those roots in the oven at the lowest temperature and let them dry out. OK, deal. That's good to know. She loved it too. She was like, no, it's so delicious. I'm like, OK, we'll see. And I have it. I just I've not done it. 15:22 Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.  I will definitely report back. Yes, please. um I love my rollerball bottle that has  lemon, lavender and peppermint in it. And I put it on my like right behind my ears  and right under my nose and on my wrist when I have a migraine headache and it literally takes the migraine headache down by half.  Oh my gosh. Yes, we have a migraine roller. 15:50 Funnily enough, I had never added lemon to it. I do lemon, peppermint, and lavender as an allergy blend though. So that's awesome. killing two birds with one stone. Yes, for sure. Like it's so good. Yeah. And it smells good.  Yep. And I looked up the thieves oil recipe and I have thieves oil roller rollerball bottles too. I love these. We love thieves in this house.  Yep. I didn't know anything about it until I saw a former neighbor of mine was talking about it. 16:20 And I was like, what is Steve's oil? And I looked it up and I was like, oh, I can do that. I can make that. have all the oils for it.  Mm hmm. Yep. It's really good. And it smells good. It's almost like Christmas. Yeah, because of the clove, right? Yeah. Clove and cinnamon.  Yes. m We didn't really do much for Christmas this year and I'm kind of sad about it. We were just busy and  my youngest had some stuff going on and we just didn't do it. And my youngest is an adult. 16:49 Let's just make that clear. He's not little.  And ah we just kind of had a very quiet Christmas and we didn't really do cookies and we didn't do pumpkin pie.  And now I'm thinking about it. like, you know, we should pull some squash out of the  freezer and do pumpkin pie this weekend. Oh, that sounds so good. And nothing beats homemade. Yeah, and it's going to be chilly on Saturday. Maybe I can do that. Maybe that'll be perfect. That sounds so cozy. Maybe that'll 17:17 raise the spirits around here, who knows. If that doesn't.  And that's one of the great things about homesteading is that the stuff that people do at Thanksgiving and Christmas,  you can do anytime.  doesn't matter. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. I just baked  zucchini bread, I think it was like two weeks ago, and it was using zucchini from our garden last year that I had frozen. Did it work? Yeah. 17:44 Yes, it did. I always worry that it'll make it dry, but actually turned out so yummy. Oh, I thought it would make it really wet.  Oh, no, no, no, it did not. Huh. Okay. Mm hmm. Do you shred your zucchini before you freeze it? Yeah. Yes, I do. That's probably why it wouldn't make it wet.  Okay, cool. We grow winter squashes more than we eat zucchinis of the garden as they're coming in. So there's very little to go in the freezer because what we don't eat, we sell at the farmer's market. 18:14 But we grow winter squash and the winter squash gets roasted and put in the freezer. So that's what will be in the pumpkin pie. It'll be butternut squash pie. Oh, that sounds so good. Yeah, because pumpkins are actually squash. So it doesn't matter what winter squash you use for your pumpkin pie. It's all pumpkin pie. Really? Yep. Huh, I was now years old. OK, that's cool, Yep. I was this many years old when I discovered that pumpkin is squash. 18:43 I was like, has to be just pumpkin. Well, that's good to know. I don't think I would ever know the difference though. Yeah. I would not recommend using a Hubbard or a Delicata squash because they're not sweet. Oh, yeah. You would be able to be like, yeah, no, this is not traditionally made. But the joy of using butternut squash is if the butternut squash has had a good season, it's naturally sweet. It's so good. You can cut the sugar down in your recipe if you want. 19:13 Oh God, butternut swatch is so good. We have some planted. I'm waiting for it to start sprouting because I'm excited because they're so good.  am. I'm trying so hard to not wish the next six months away because last year's garden was not  overly successful. Let's put it that way. And the year before that, it was not overly successful either. had really terrible weather. We had a lot of rain and then a lot of heat and then a lot of rain. 19:42 which causes the blight, which kills plants. And I've got everything I have crossed that we have a successful growing season this year. Yeah.  I think it's going to be warm here. I'm nervous because we had a really warm winter. We're having an unusually warm spring. Yeah. So I'm nervous that we're going to have a really hot summer. So I'm trying to prepare for that. I hope with everything I have. 20:12 that everyone who wants to grow produce this year  has a good shot at it because the last couple of years have just been hellish. The bugs, the bugs got us last year and  so we don't, we don't use like toxic chemicals on anything. So like I make our own sprays and stuff. um But my goodness, last year I was like, holy cow,  squash bugs. I had never  known what they were and  oh,  yeah. 20:41 They give me the ick. They legit gave me the ick.  They're disgusting.  I was like, stop. I would stay on top of them, like trying to like, oh my God, was, nope. Zero out of 10.  Zero out of 10. Do you want to know a natural repellent?  What?  Neem  oil.  N as in Nancy, E-E-M as in Mary. Neem  oil. Okay. Okay. They don't like it. Good to know. I'll be able. 21:10 You bet I'm going to get some now because after last year, like, oh my goodness. I could not, like, I could not get rid of them. I had to like constantly, once I thought, okay, I got this last like hatch because you could see the eggs on the leaves and stuff. I would cut the leaves. But then I was like, okay, we're good. And then they would come back. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, where are you coming from? And once they get into the main part of the plant, you're done for. 21:39 Ugh, they just, no. Bugs in general just give me the ick.  And we've started finding ticks already.  Uh huh. I'm like, thankfully they're not on our animals, but I'm already spraying everything down. I'm like, nope. Like, no, no. They literally just, I start feeling them on me and I just, get the ick.  I cannot. Yup.  I hate that. It's so... 22:04 It's so hard to get rid of it too, because you know there's no tick on you, but you still have the creepy crawlies. Oh yes, it's so bad. The other thing that I was thinking of when you were talking about the squash bugs, back before we moved here, we were growing squashes or something, very broad leaf plants at a neighbor's house. And they got the mildew, I can't think what it's called, downy mildew on the leaves. 22:33 looked all over Google to figure out what we could do to treat it before it killed the plants. And it said milk and water, half water, half milk in a spray bottle. Really? And you wait till like 10 o'clock in the morning  and you spray the leaves and the milk somehow kills the mildew. Huh? So if you ever have downy mildew, and there's another name for it too, but again, think of it right now, spray it with a mix of milk and water. 23:03 That's  wicked. Like how interesting. I wonder what's in the milk.  I have  no idea, but it worked. We had the most beautiful squash from those plants.  Well, hey,  and it's natural. So that's a double win. Yeah, there are so many things that  people did before we had all this not natural stuff.  And they did just fine. Yeah, that's what I like. That's the whole. 23:32 thing here, like I always tell my husband like we like to turn to nature like for answers because that's how our ancestors did it. Like they didn't have all these fancy things that ironically are to make our lives easier.  But in reality, like, is it?  Um, in some ways, I'm really, really thankful for some advances we've made because because antibiotics kill strep throat. 23:59 and I used to strep throat all the time and no natural remedy  gets rid of that. So really thankful for that.  But the stuff that we can do that  is fixable with nature, think that we should do that first. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Same.  I had one time it was strep throat and ah an issue with my tonsils at the same time.  Oh my goodness. On the plus side, I lost weight. 24:28 I could not eat. So very thankful for the medicine for sure.  Yeah, I mean if I'm coming down with a head cold my go-to is orange juice and chicken soup, homemade chicken soup. And it usually does help.  But if I've got a sore throat and I've got white spots on the back of my throat, I'm going in for the prescription for antibiotics. Yeah, know. At the sign of anything here we start chugging Algaeberry syrup. I make our rollers. I diffuse oils. 24:58 Like also if it gets worse, like, okay, you know, let's get medicine. Yeah. So, so again, it's, it's one of those  six of one half dozen of another things.  I don't think it has to be an either or. think it's a yes and yes.  Yep. um I agree. I would do elderberry syrup, except that our two elderberry plant trees, sorry, not plants, they're trees.  Um, get. 25:28 eaten by the birds before we can get to the berries. Oh, so we have one here  and I didn't know what it was. It came with a property. I'm like, okay, because I wasn't into like homesteading. I didn't have that mentality when we bought our house. We literally came across it one morning and it was just like a good deal. Like, so we ended up moving in.  Plus we needed to be out of town because of the dogs. Yes. So it was like, okay. And it was the middle of winter. So it wasn't the ideal time. 25:59 But then this was  going on 10 years ago. um Then like we got chickens and like, like they say chickens, it's the gateway to everything homesteading wise. so  I started getting into essential oils, which is like the gateway to like a natural life. It's like the chickens of a natural living of sorts.  And so  all that while here, but I think like 26:28 We were like a year into the property and so like we had raspberry bushes out back that I trimmed at the wrong time and that's the end of that. um Come to find out we have an elderberry tree here on the side and I didn't know. So it got neglected for a minute  and  once I figured out what it was and I started learning about elderberry like the flowers, the berries and 26:55 how the leaves, everything is medicinal, I started babying it. Well, for the last few years, it's been like my pride and joy.  Last year, finally, it was at a place where  I could have harvested the berries. ah Except the birds.  They were like, nope, dead. I'm like, well, okay. So we go to the mountains here, we can forage them pretty locally. It's like a 45 minute drive, so I don't mind. 27:25 Worth it. Yes. Y'all,  absolutely. So I was like, okay, I guess I'll share with the birds this year.  So we just went up to the mountains and we forage. And so I've been very blessed in that sense that I still have them kind of close  and we're able to get them that way.  Yeah. Let's take a beat here on elderberry.  If you think you have an elderberry bush or tree growing on your property and you're not sure, 27:52 make sure you know somebody who can identify it for you. There's two kinds and I guess the one with thorns, you're not supposed to eat the berries. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, either way you have to cook the berries for at least 20 to 30 minutes. Yeah. Cause otherwise it'll send you to the bathroom. Yeah. But I think the one with thorns is actually poisonous. I think it can really make you sick sick. Yeah. I identify it properly. Yeah. And on foraging, 28:21 Definitely. Yeah, because  there's also another, I don't know the name of it, but it's very similar, but the berries are bigger. But they're the same shade of purple and everything, but they're bigger. I don't know the name of it, but it's also like one of those, okay, that's not elderberry. Like, no, don't do that one.  Yeah. If you want to get into foraging, find somebody who knows what they're doing and take all the notes you possibly can as they're walking through the forest with you. 28:50 Yes, and don't over harvest because I've seen also people they're just they take everything. I'm like, OK, like the tree has to be able to come back next year. Like, hello.  Let's share with nature since nature shares with us. Yes, and share with everybody.  Mm hmm. Right. Because other people would like some of those elderberries,  Oh, yeah. Like we've um we've been times where it's like you see that people have already harvested. 29:20 And it's like, come on.  Like you can tell they over-harvested. Yeah.  And  I'm going  to give them a little bit of grace.  Maybe they didn't know that they weren't supposed to.  Maybe they weren't greedy. Maybe they were just overzealous.  Maybe. Okay. But yes, try to consider the fact that we need to share. Yeah. Just like we were taught in kindergarten. 29:50 Exactly. All the things I need to know I learned in kindergarten, I swear. Yeah, for real. Be nice, share, be kind. All those good things that the world really needs right now. Oh, and that's the truth. Yes, it is. So I have one more thing about the elderberries. We are thinking about putting netting over the trees this year so the birds can't get to the berries. 30:18 The thing is, we did that with our strawberries a couple of years ago.  as the baby robins started showing up, we caught a couple of baby robins in the bird netting because they couldn't get loose. So  I'm thinking maybe we just say, screw it and let the birds get as many berries as they want. Because  I don't want baby robins dying in the  I know. think I would be like, it's fine. I'll share.  Yeah. 30:46 That's my thing here like much to my husband's dismay like I don't think I'm the typical like homesteader Because I say the goats they're just very expensive dogs. Yes um Our plan of breeding and selling babies that went out the window like I fell in love with our first baby Denver and he's very much still here. Uh-huh. Oh, I  Same with our chickens like we have raised meat birds 31:14 We raised a steer, we raised a pig, but everything that is raised for food is done so at my brother-in-law's property. Him and my sister-in-law. don't bond? Yes, literally. When we got the steer, my husband's like, no, like you're not allowed to name him. And I'm like, but why? And he's like, because otherwise he's going to die of old age. Uh-huh. Like, like he is going to feed our family when the time comes. And I'm like, so. 31:43 We would help, obviously, like they would live on their property, but we help with feed, like with chores. Like if they went out of town, like we were on duty. And so there were a few times where obviously like I went over and I was like, I like feeding him. And my husband's like, no, like, come on. No, no, no. Like, no,  you cannot fall in love with him. Same with the pig. Same with the meat birds. They were all at my brother-in-law's house.  And so he had  animals that I'll be able to love on. 32:13 That's really smart.  My husband's life is hard. He's like, well, like he's trying to figure out ways around this. Yeah, it's it's so hard. And I think all the time  we had our first litter of kittens two summers ago here.  And we knew that we were going to be finding them new barns to go be barn cats at.  And this family came and adopted two of them. 32:42 And I was so excited because it was the last two of the litter. There were like seven kittens. Oh, wow.  And I was thrilled. And the mom and dad showed up and like a three year old and a six year old got out of the car with them. And they, these little kids were so excited  and I couldn't be out there with them. I couldn't, I just would have cried. And I thought I had a handle on it. I really did. And I saw these little kids just light up like Christmas trees at these kittens. 33:12 And it was so good. Like my heart was so big and they pulled out of the driveway with those kittens and went home and I just cried. That would be me. Yup. That's why we just end up keeping them all.  And my husband, my husband came in and he said, is something actually wrong? And I said, no.  And he said, you're sobbing. And I said, they were so, those kids were so cute.  And 33:39 They took the last two babies away and he was like, oh, so it's, it's happy and sad. I said, yeah, the worst kind.  Yes. Yup. That's, yup. That's how we have nine cats. Mostly people just dump animals here.  every July, I swear for the last like three years, we've gotten a cat every July.  Um,  last year we ended up getting two and then already there's one showing up an orange cat and we have one that's orange. 34:09 And this one just looks just like him. And so one morning, my husband comes in and he's like, Hey, babe, I'm like, Yeah. He's like, there's an orange cat in the cat room. Okay, so we have an extra room that we have a little gate,  the dogs can go in it. Yeah, and eat their food. So we call it the cat room, but it's like just an extra room.  And, and I'm like, um our orange cat is in bed with us. And he's like, Yep. 34:36 That's my point. There's an orange cat in the room and it's not ours. This cat came in through the little pet door that we have in the window.  He came in, he was eating, he was on the bookshelf, obviously scared at that point because our cat had noticed him. He noticed my husband and I'm like, oh good God. So we're kind of working on him. He's come back a few times and I told my husband as soon as he lets me love on him, that's cat number 10. 35:01 And he's like, no, we already have nine. I'm like, you won't even notice. I'll just tell you it's tangerine. You won't even know the difference.  I swear people love homesteading because you have so much more. I don't know. Let's use the word freedom or autonomy. Yeah. To be able to do the things you'd like to do. Yeah. And regarding pet doors. Friend of mine, when we lived in the old house. 35:30 Again, my life is old house versus new house. We've been in the new house for over five years now.  Oh, right.  When we lived in the old house, I had a friend and they had a pet door and  one of their cats caught a pheasant and brought it in through the pet door alive.  Oh, no. They had a pheasant in their house.  That's happened to us with a pigeon. I'm like, open and they brought it in. 36:00 and they ran into the bathroom and I just heard like commotion in the bathtub. And so I opened the curtain and I see one of our cats with the bird and I'm like,  oh, like girl, like what are you doing? And then the bird just started flapping and it was alive and like this bird flying in, I'm like, oh my God. So I'm shutting off all the fans. I'm trying to keep the cats away from me. Cause then all the other cats were like,  game. Oh yeah. So, oh yeah. Yep. 36:29 The things that they bring in. Thankfully they have not brought in a snake. Well, no, that's a lie. They did bring in a snake once and I'm terrified of snakes, like petrified of snakes.  And  I was making coffee and I see like this little snake curled like in the corner. I started screaming. I called my husband and he couldn't understand what I was saying. And I'm like, there's a snake. 36:58 in our house. And he's like, okay, FaceTime me. Okay, so I FaceTime him and he's like, Oh, yeah, it is a snake. What did you think I was saying? Like, are you kidding me? Like he had to come home. Like he left work. He had to come home, get the snake out. And then go back to work. I could not I could I told him we're moving. We are moving. We are posting our house for sale. The house now belongs to the snake. Like nope. 37:29 I cannot deal with snakes. Well, luckily it got removed and you still got to keep your house. Yeah, otherwise we have been homeless. I cannot. I could see that. We don't have a pet door here because our dog is on lead all the time, so we have to hook her up. So having a pet door wouldn't help. But my biggest fear, like I've had nightmares about her not being on lead. 37:56 and having a pet door and she brings a live skunk into my house.  Oh, skunks. Oh my God. That's a whole other thing here because we had the tiniest skunks  actually kill a few of our chickens.  And so we had to dispatch them.  I am I love all animals except insects and reptiles. I cannot deal. But I love all animals. So I was like, oh, but at the same time, it's like my chickens or you, you're going. 38:24 So my husband would handle it, but anytime I would like smell it, I'm like, oh God, our chickens. And so I run out, I'm like checking, no, skunks, my husband's actually just last night, I smelled and I ran out. I was like, there's a skunk. And he's like, you have like skunk PTSD? I'm like, yes. Like it literally got rid of, I think it was  nine out of 11 chicks and a mom. It decapitated a hen. 38:53 Yeah, skunks and raccoons are the worst when it comes to chickens. We lost chickens last year to a mama raccoon and her four babies.  Oh no. See, I would be like,  ah, but also like, aw.  Yeah, it was really difficult because we didn't realize that she was a mama raccoon. My husband had actually tried to shoot her  and I stepped out on the porch at like five o'clock in the morning, the sun was just coming up  and 39:22 As I shut the door to the house, I heard little screech noises and we have a cement pad outside the door. And I looked and four little baby raccoons out there. I'm like, oh my God, here we go. Oh, how'd you handle it? She left. I don't know. My husband went out and fixed the chicken run so they couldn't get in it. So they couldn't get near the chickens. And once the food source was no longer there, the buffet had been shut down. They left. 39:52 Yeah, we had a raccoon once and my husband put a live trap and I swear it's like she saw the trap and just never came back. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay with that. Yeah, if we don't have to dispatch wild animals on our property, we go out of our way not to. Same. It's because of me. Otherwise my husband would be like, he was raised very like country boy, like you do what you need to do, blah, blah, blah. But I'm like, but also how about we don't? 40:22 Yes, and we have coyotes around here and I'm telling you, a coyote is in the yard, it's going to get shot at because that's not safe. Oh, same here. And I'm terrified of coyotes. Like in my head, you know, like a werewolf in a movie. That's what I see in my head whenever I hear a coyote. It is like the dumbest thing I know, but I cannot help it. I'm terrified. But we've never, knock on wood, had issues with them and our chickens. 40:50 but we did lose a kitten two years ago.  she was half blind. I was getting her in. I brought her in and she got out again. And then I'm like, I hear the coyotes. I'm gonna go back and look for her. And I was out there and I could not find her. And it was mating season for coyotes. So it's when they're most aggressive. And so,  yeah, they took her. And so since then, I told my husband no. I,  that will be the one animal that I... 41:18 No, like he took our little Freya, like, uh-uh, that's it. You do what you need to do.  Yeah, and the thing that's so tough with coyotes is that they are a beautiful animal,  but they will catch and eat almost anything that is smaller than them or injured. Yeah, yeah, so, uh-uh. No, I'm just, terrified of them to begin with. I've never seen one in real life. Oh, I have. So I'm like,  uh... 41:46 So in my head, all I'm thinking is like this werewolf from a movie. So it it terrifies me and we hear them so loud. And my husband thinks, because behind our property, there's a field and there's like a little creek and everything. And there's like a section with a bunch of trees that he thinks there, there might be a coyote den. so he thinks that that's where they're coming from. I'm like, fantastic. Like I love that for us. Like why? 42:14 And he's like, so like, we're just going to have to stay diligent. I'm like,  you mean you, cause let's be real.  But yeah, no. Yup.  And again, homesteading is a great thing to do, but there are some real things that come with it, like predators,  like losing animals. 42:35 Oh yeah. having people steal money out of the farm stand. We haven't had that happen. really Oh God, knock on wood, us either. And everybody always  tells us like, you guys are very trusting because like we just, I don't know, it's the honor system. even like it's a self-serve stand. So like even if somebody just wants to take the eggs, my husband's like, listen, if somebody needs eggs  to feed their family that badly. They can have them. 43:02 And I'm like, okay, cool. But also like at least  leave us a note like, hey, I needed the eggs. Thank you. And it would be really sweet if people would do that. But I think that they feel ashamed. They shouldn't. But they probably do. um I have one last thing for you. I hope it will help if you haven't already done it.  Did you know that Venmo and PayPal, the online apps that people can pay through,  they usually have a QR code that you can actually print out and put up in the arm stand? 43:32 Yep, I have those. have that one. have Venmo, PayPal, Cash App.  And I also have the Apple thing to where I could run cards because we did farmers market two years. And so I had the credit card stuff, but I just cover that with the cash box.  Yeah. I get it as easy as possible for everybody. Yeah, I just didn't know if you knew and I wanted to let you know if you didn't know because it really helps because it does. Yeah. 44:01 Because sometimes people just don't have cash on them, but they see the sign and they're like, I'm going to stop in and see what they have. And if you happen to have the QR codes, they can pay right there with their phone. I was impressed with how much cash we've also gotten,  two dollar bills. I had never seen a two dollar bill.  Like our boys had some like they were collecting them when they were little, but 44:28 I got paid with $2 bills. This one lady came over and she did, I think it was $12 in $2 bills. And I was like, this is so cool. Like I'm keeping like all the $2 bills we get, I keep. And we've gotten quite a few. Like to me, that's so cool. I didn't know that was even a thing. Yeah. And they're not in print anymore. They don't make those anymore. My husband has a $2 bill folded up in his billfold from his grandpa. Oh, see, that's so cool. Like I had never seen one of my... 44:58 The first time I got one, I even posted it. I'm like, thank you. Like, this is like, I'm geeking out something fierce. And so I keep them all like they're all folded in my  little money thing. And I'm like, nope, these are just like a keepsake that I hopefully will pass on.  It's so funny. The little things that just make your heart sing. Oh my God. Yes. Like I color code my eggs. Like they're always like  very specifically set up in their egg. 45:26 containers, like even stuff like I feel so dumb because as I'm setting the eggs, I'm smiling like a fool. I'm like, oh my gosh, like it's yeah, definitely. It's the little things that bring joy  and everybody needs the little things to bring joy. swear to you, it's so good for the soul. Yeah. All right, Lydia, this was a joy. Where can people find you? Well, we are on Facebook, Instagram  and Tik Tok. 45:54 at an Enchanted Homestead.  Fantastic. I feel like this conversation was enchanted. Thank you for your time.  Thank you for having me.  As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Lydia, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Same. You too. Thank you. All right. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Lily at Girlypop Acres. You can also follow on Facebook. A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. 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. At Green Bush Twins and Company, we believe in the power of creativity, imagination, and art to bring people together.  Our mission is to inspire connection across all ages, encouraging understanding, individuality,  and a true sense of belonging. We're building more than a brand. We're growing a mindful community rooted in kindness, intention, and shared purpose. 00:29 At our core, it's about real people sharing real stories, ideas, and products that make everyday life more meaningful.  If you believe in living with purpose and supporting brands that care,  you'll feel right at home with Greenbush Twins. That tiny homestead podcast is sponsored by Greenbush Twins and Company. Today I'm talking with Lily at Gurley Pop Far- Acres  in New York. How are you, Lily? I'm how are you doing today? I'm good. I almost messed up the introduction yet again. I'm telling you, I- 00:56 I know what I'm going to say and the brain does not translate to my tongue to come out of my face. So how is the weather in New York this morning? Oh, it's actually decent for once.  We've been hit hard by snow lately, but it's sunny and shiny and everyone, all the critters are walking around happy. Good. It is March 30th, I think. And I'm in Minnesota and the sun is pouring through my bedroom window, which is the room I do my recording in. 01:26 And it's supposed to hit 75 degrees today. Oh, goodness. I'm jealous. think we're probably in like the 40s and I'm celebrating. Yeah, the weather's been so weird. We had 81 degrees two Sundays ago for the high. Oh my goodness. And then it was cold, colder all week. And then it was really nice yesterday. I it got up to 63. It's supposed to be 75 today and it's supposed to drop down again this week. So. 01:51 I'm gonna be real happy when we get a stretch of seven days where it is moderate and spring-like. It would be great. Oh, same here. Same here. It was snowing just two days ago here.  Yeah, it's nuts. So tell me,  I wanna know  about you and what you do, but tell me why your place is called Girlie Pop Acres. So I have four dogs, three great Pyrenees and one beagle.  And back when it was just the great Pyrenees, 02:20 um I had two of them puppies  and you know, great Pyrenees puppies don't listen to anything at all.  And it was just easier to yell girly pops at them instead of being like, over here.  So I would yell girly pops and I accidentally trained all three of them to only respond to girly pop. uh And now the beagle does So I just named it after my dogs.  That is so cute. 02:50 I call my dog girly all the time. Oh, I love it. I'm sure my neighbors know that we're girly pup acres because my dogs used to break out of the fence before we had our fences as good as we do. I'd be outside yelling girly pups, girly pups. Oh, Funny. You know what would be funny? It would you made cake pops and took them to your neighbors and were like, I'm so sorry that I'm always yelling girly pop. Here's some cake pops for you. 03:19 I should. I don't know if they can even hear me because my neighbors are pretty far away, but if they do. Yeah, I think that would be really cute. If you ever get an inkling or hear a rumor that they're upset, just throw together some cake pops and I don't know, put cute little dog faces on them and take them over to them.  Oh, that's a great idea. That's what I would do because I really like turning messes into messages. That's such a cute like motto. I love that. 03:49 Uh huh. have gained so many sayings from this podcast over two and a half years from people I've talked to. 03:57 and they're all relevant. So I just, have a whole rolling lexicon in the back of my head of things that I can do or say. I love that. Yeah. It's been great. Okay. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do,  Um,  so  I'm a homesteader as you can guess, since I'm here.  Um, I raised Nigerian dwarf goats. We have eight goats right now.  Uh, we got the four dogs.  Uh, we got a goose named Boopers. 04:26 walking around  next to me right now. I got a bunch of ducks, a bunch of silkies,  and  I raised two feral farm children and a potbelly pig named Big Bertha.  sounds like Homestead.  Yep.  Very  full life over here.  I consider myself a Lyme's disease advocate because I have Lyme's disease and so does my husband. 04:56 um I'm a disabled farmer. I have two leg braces because my knees are all messed up.  I'm either always in a cane or a walker, which  is a challenge  with farming, but we make it work.  Yes, yes. And I'm glad you said that because  I'm not saying that you are over 50. I have no idea how old you are. I am over 50. 05:21 You can do homesteading at any age as long as you feel safe in what you're doing. That is an amazing thing to call out because ah I'm only 28.  My husband is 25,  but we've been doing it for a couple of years and it was pretty much the second we could get a piece of land. We're like, okay, let's get back to farming. ah I was raised on a cattle farm when I was a kid and he grew up  at this lake. 05:50 semi-famous bed and breakfast in Arkansas, where they had like 100 acres. But there's definitely times where your safety is like, goodness, like people don't think about how much goes into homesteading. Oh, there are so many ways to get hurt on a homestead. husband was splitting wood over the weekend with our wood splitter, you know, the actual 06:19 motorized one. And I was sitting on the porch because I don't do  wood, he does it. And I kept going out and  kind of keeping an eye on him because he's out there by himself. And I'm like, please don't let him get sidetracked and leave his hand in the way. Because if you get your hand caught between the wood and the metal piece that splits the wood, you're going to have a broken hand for sure.  Oh, goodness, I couldn't imagine.  So he was fine. He's got it down to a science and he's very good at it. And it's kind of fun watching your husband do 06:48 manly work, you  but  But there are so many ways I mean The first time we came to see this place over five years ago before we bought it  it's it's 3.1 acres and it is a flat it's a piece of flat land and uh There were divots or whatever. They're called trenches. I don't know  but all over the yard from where the the tractors had gone through or been moved or whatever on the property 07:18 and I caught my boot toe on one the edges and went down. In the first five minutes, I was walking this property and I was like, well, that bodes well. I'll probably break a leg before it's over. So you can do the dumbest things and get hurt or you can be the most careful ever and still get hurt. So  it's something to consider. Yeah, I'm on the dumber end of it  with my first goat. He was a little baby. 07:44 And he loved jumping up onto my shoulders to get  piggyback rides.  And I just let him because I was like, this is cute. This is adorable. This isn't going to backfire on me someday.  And now that he's a full grown goat and still tries to do it  so swell. uh I also got attacked by an emu once on our farm when we tried to raise emu. So  yes,  they are big birds and they're not 08:13 I mean, I'm sure someone in their experience has raised an emu chick and it's the friendliest, sweetest bird ever and would never hurt a fly. But I don't think that's the usual course of events. I have no idea. We got one as a baby. It was given to us by a friend as a housewarming gift and it was in our living room and it would sit around and whistle at us all day long. I loved it. 08:41 And then one day he just  snapped  and like went at me  against a tree. And I'm like, nope, you are not staying on the farm anymore. Wow. Okay. Well,  he was a he and I don't... Well, he wasn't a DNA sex. I'm not a thousand percent sure. We just called him a he because his name was Betty Sneemu the emu. So, eh I was going to say roosters of any fowl breed tend to be more aggressive than the  females. So... 09:12 Apparently in emus, it's the girls usually who are the aggressors.  Oh really? Well, maybe it was a girl maybe  You did something that made her mad  apparently Okay Yeah, go ahead.  I just thought I'd say when you were mentioned in like your property and like how the like divots  you wouldn't imagine we bought seven acres  and  the previous owners,  don't know any of this like 09:41 it's like rumors, but they were rumored to be like dog fighters that were breeding pit bulls in the forest portion of our property. And there's just like barbed wire everywhere and all sorts of hazards. We bought the property and there was a five foot tall trash pile just filled with junk. So we've had to be like, 10:07 revamping the property since day one. We're two years in and we're still removing stuff. Yep. You inherit whatever the former people  left for you. welcome to this place was a dead skunk in the back of the barn. freshly dead, so freshly smelly. 10:30 That was exciting. ah dogs,  when they used to go  into the forest area before we  fenced it off so they couldn't get back there,  they came out once with a fully intact deer skull.  Yeah, the joys of living in the country,  Yeah.  So you said you have Nigerian, is it Nigerian dwarf goats or is it Nigerian goats? Nigerian dwarf goats. 10:59 Okay, anyone who's listened to the podcast over the last two and a half years knows that goats are my nemesis. I love them so much. I don't have any because we don't have any place for them to graze. And I say nemesis as in my weakness. I love baby goats. Grown goats? Not as much of a fan. Like I see a grown goat and I'm like, oh, that's a nice animal. But I see baby goats and I melt inside. 11:28 We're planning on getting a baby buck sometime next week because I want to breed all my girls. have like six girls and I have two weathers. And I kind of want to raise them from a baby just so could get the baby. huh. And they are very cuddly. I don't know. Do you have experience with baby goats? Just with the one. Cause everyone else I've got as an adult. 11:53 I have one goat that was bred on our farm. delivered her. Her name's Adalia. She's standing right in front of me trying to climb up a slide and failing. But she's about a year old now. Okay. Yeah, I talked a lot about baby goats at the beginning of when I started the podcast back two and a half years ago, because my friend, her parents raised goats and they had the long eared 12:21 goats? they newbies or lemonges maybe or both?  And those little babies with those long ears were the sweetest things ever. I will have to send you  some photos of my goats after because I love all my babies.  I have this one tri-color goat that I just had over heels for. She looks like she's a baby but she's not. She's like two years old.  Her name's Feather. 12:48 and she has this cute little collar with bumblebees on it.  I just adore her.  Nice.  Okay, so  you sound so  happy. Like your happiness, what you're doing is just rolling through my  headphones. Cannot talk today, geez. um So  are you just doing the homesteading for yourself or are you doing like a small business with it?  So  goal is both. 13:17 I've only been doing the homestead for about two years. um So I feel like I haven't really got to the businessy portion of it yet, except for like Facebook monetization from sharing  photos of the animals online. ah But I hope to eventually get into more businessy selling and stuff.  And beyond the animals, do you grow any produce? ah Yeah, we grow some, but it's very minimal. 13:46 Mostly because last year we had 28 ducks  and they were very destructive. So this year when we got ducks, we built them a run. We stopped free-ranging them. Okay, if you have 20 or you had,  I mean, I assume you still have a few ducks, you must have eggs in the summertime. So are you using them? Are you giving them away? Are you starting to sell them?  son would eat eggs for every meal. 14:16 every day if he could. And  when we had like 80 chickens, we've downsized since then, ah we had like 80 chickens, he was going through the eggs like, wow.  Yeah. So yeah, mostly you're going to my side. I also have my dog Penelope who we found out was stealing eggs out of the nesting boxes. Uh huh. 14:43 Yeah, I have seen dogs do that. My dog doesn't because she doesn't go anywhere near the coop.  We're really lucky.  So did you tease your son that he was going to turn into a chicken if he kept eating all the chicken eggs? uh I haven't. No, I'm just glad he's eating. He's a skinny butt, so I like to get some weight on him.  Uh huh. Yeah. The whole thing with your dog  eating the chicken eggs or taking the chicken eggs. 15:08 um I don't know if you know who Millennial Farmer is. He's a guy that lives in Minnesota. has a YouTube channel. Oh, I have not heard of him. Okay. Well, he has a German shepherd named Anna and he has a chicken coop that she can go into.  he just out of the blue finds chicken eggs on his property. it's because Anna goes in and steals a chicken egg and walks around in her mouth  and then puts it down somewhere. 15:36 Penelope, uh she was inside the house the other day and my daughter had found one of the concrete eggs that we had for the nesting boxes  and she had brought it inside and I looked over and I'm like what you got in your mouth and she was trying to eat the concrete  eggs.  Yeah that's a good way to have broken teeth doggo.  Yeah I took that away so quick. Yeah our dog when she was a puppy we had the uh 16:03 It's like river rock, but it's not river rock.  It's the ugly rock that you put around your house.  And she would go out and  she would come in the house with a piece of river rock in her mouth. And I'm like,  you cannot chew on rocks. I cannot afford to get your teeth fixed. She finally outgrew it. think it was two years ago that she finally stopped doing it. But I was like, why are you doing that?  Oh, these dogs will keep you on your toes. 16:31 Yeah, it's such a bad plan. Do not chew on rocks. Your teeth are not stronger than rocks. I promise you. And I loved her so much that I was like, I don't want her to her teeth. Oh my goodness. I was such a sucker. Okay. So you have a son. Is that your only child? No, I have a daughter too. She is obsessed with our ducklings that we got. So she will just sit down in the duck pond and quack. 17:03 She's only three. She just turned three. Okay, so how old is your son again? He's seven. So have they ever known any other kind of life other than this homestead life? My daughter not really. My son, yes, but he doesn't remember it. So we were living in our friend's attic. 17:29 before we got to this place and Isla was just crawling. She like just started and Isaiah, I don't have much to say about him. was, you know, it was he five. And then we were saving, we got this place and it's all they really know now. So I of course am a convert. I love the fact that we live on a homestead. 17:57 I'm really excited for your kids because your kids are going to have such... My son's finally starting to see  the possibilities of what he could do now that he has land.  And he's starting to build his own little playhouse um out of cob. He's using pallets and cob. And yesterday,  my daughter and him came in. 18:20 all just completely covered in mud. They showed me that they were mixing in like the hay and stomping it, trying to build their little playhouse.  love that.  And before you, before you jumped in, I was going to say they're going to have so many opportunities that most kids just don't have these days.  Your kids are not going to be  noses in tablets and cell phones. Your kids are going to be outside. 18:50 with the goats and the ducks and chickens and I don't know whatever else you add in over the next 20 years. We're saving now to get a horse. That is the big goal. Next week someone is coming in to finally finish the seven acre property fence and we'll have that ready so that we can get our horse soon. Awesome. Do you have a preference on what kind of horse you're going to get? 19:17 Oh, I still am in the research stages. I need to learn more about horses, but I've wanted one since I was a kid.  Like I said, I grew up on this cattle farm and my grandpa, he was like, if you can get your mama to stop smoking cigarettes, I'll buy you a horse.  And little five-year-old me took that as my life mission. And every single day I'd be like, Hey, what you doing in there?  You're going outside? What are you doing out there?  And eventually  she got. 19:46 tired of me being up her rear 24-7 and she quit. And my grandpa forgot that he had said that because he didn't think it would actually happen. So I didn't get my dang horse. Well, you gave your mother many, many years of her life. I did. The more important thing. Good job. I hear really good things about quarter horses because quarter horses are like the horse that can do everything. 20:17 I'll definitely have to do my research on those.  Yeah, but the best horse is the horse that  is a good horse that listens to you, that is calm with your children and isn't huge. A huge horse,  it's really hard to mount up a huge horse. It's really hard to get on them. Just me with me being as broken as I am, I would imagine it. Uh-huh. So. 20:40 But no, just, literally just had a conversation with somebody about quarter horses a couple of weeks ago on one of the podcast episodes. And I was like, so what is special about quarter horses? And she was like many, many things. And then she told me, and I was like, wow,  I, if we had room, we'd have a quarter horse.  Oh, I'm excited someday. It's going to be true, but you know, got to start with like the preparing.  Yeah. I learned that the hard way. Don't get an animal before you. 21:09 have all the fences and all the things ready because, you know, it doesn't go well. Yeah, it comes back to that safety thing. You want to be safe on your homestead and you want your animals that you care for to be safe too. Okay, so you are living on a homestead. Are you getting into the whole preserving, canning, I don't know, doing sourdough, any of that stuff? Yes. So my grandma was canned my whole life and she still does. 21:39 um Every year she makes this big trip up from Illinois to bring me her canned goods because she cans way too much for just herself  and completely fills my ah now canning room.  I just got into it myself about last year and  definitely got quickly obsessed.  We just planted some blackberry  plants, some strawberries, some blueberries.  So I'm hoping to be able to can up some jam soon. 22:09 Very nice. I'm so excited for you.  We put in apple trees the first fall we were here. So we moved in in August of 2020  and we had six apple trees in the ground in October of 2020. And we just got our first decent harvest of honey gold apples this past fall. So it took four years.  Well, gives me a timeline  because we did the same thing. So  hopefully two more years to go. 22:38 You might luck out. It's anywhere from three to five, depending on the variety and how old the trees are once you put them in. When you put them in. I don't know. My husband works at tractor supplies. So every now and then I'm just like, hey, while you're at work, get a fruit tree. Hey, while you're at work, get this. Yep. We bought alder or alden plum trees last year and we have no idea how long it'll take for them to produce fruit. have to look it up. My husband asked me the other day and I was like, I don't know. 23:08 I will put it on the list of things to Google.  But I'm kind of hoping that at least we get blooms on them this year because they always smell good.  I'm kind of a uh chaos homesteader and I just  throw things in the ground, throw  water and hope for the best.  We are too. And the apple trees that we got were actually a housewarming present from a guy that owns an orchard up near where we used to live. 23:39 That's very cool. Yeah, so six apple trees because he liked us. I was just like that is the sweetest thing ever. Thank you. And my husband is always like, you he's always going to Tractor Supply or Fleet Farm or Menards or Home Depot for something. And if he sees a fruit tree that he thinks will work, he'll call me or text me and be like, I can get a couple more fruit trees for $7 apiece. Do you want them? And I'm like, if you're going to plant them, sure. 24:07 So it seems  like every year we're putting in a new tree. We just have no idea when we will see fruit on it. That's so cool.  The plants I'm most excited about right now is last time my grandpa came up from Illinois, they're getting up there in age um and they're like, I think this might be our last trip. I don't know. um But they gave me a bunch of blackberry plants. 24:36 that they brought from their farm.  So I'm very excited for those so that I can have a little piece of their farm here.  Yes, and that I'm so glad you brought that up because that is so important. History is not just in books,  it is in plants and animals. And it sounds really funny saying it about animals. But when you think about racing horses, people are so 25:04 I don't know, bent on getting particular foals from grandparents or great grandparents or great great grandparents that won races. Like Secretariat the horse, he, if you have a horse from his line, you're golden. Yeah, for sure. And it's history. And when you end up bringing plants from your family's gardens from 50 to 100 years ago, 25:32 That's their spirit in those plants. That's how we remember them. 25:38 You made me smile so much at that.  like my grandparents  mean everything to me.  And I'm definitely super happy that they did that for me. I cried when they brought those up. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I would have too. My grandma on my mom's side loved peony plants. P-E-O-N-Y.  Those are my mama's favorite.  Uh huh. And she grew them in her garden behind her little house in Oakwood, Illinois, of all places.  And I 26:08 I didn't really know much about peony plants because we were never visiting them when they were blooming. So I didn't ever see them bloom. I just saw the leaves.  And when I moved to Minnesota from Maine, everybody in Minnesota has peony plants everywhere and they're gorgeous. And so I have become a peony addict. have over a hundred plants outside right I love that. I love that. That's why I have a bunch of hostas because they were at my grandma's house. 26:35 And they're not her hostas. But the second I got property, was like, honey, you are going to scavenge the internet. And if you see hostas, you are grabbing them for me.  So I'd send him links on Marketplace, like free hostas, free hostas. Yeah, absolutely. And I wish that I had known that my grandma, her favorite flower was peonies. I didn't understand because I was too young to understand.  I wish that I had known enough to ask her if I could take some home. 27:06 Because I could nobody thinks I would have asked from for the original farm. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I'd known because I would love to have peonies for my grandma in my my peony garden. And I do not. But I have like 10 different colors growing and they will be blooming in  two months, two months. And every time I cut peonies, I'm like, oh, my grandma in heaven is probably just grinning. She's like, yes, Mary Edlin. Good job.  Oh, so sweet. 27:37 Yep, my favorite is the baby pink ones. They are so pretty and they smell so heavenly. 27:44 gonna make me need to get some peonies here.  We do plan on doing beekeeping. We have the bee boxes, we're getting set up. uh So I'm starting to plant a bunch of plants around the bee boxes  so I could probably get some peonies around them. Well the good good and bad news on that is the best time to plant peonies is now. 28:08 And I don't mean now, but I mean when you want to do it, do it. This fall is probably the best time because you plant them in the fall. But it takes three years for them to bloom. ah So if you want to have flowers for your bees ahead of time, ahead of three years from now, um Bee Balm is really good. They love that. Hence the name Bee Balm.  And they also really like um basil when it's flowering. 28:38 Ooh, we have that planted in the duck area already.  Yeah, they love basil. They love thyme. T-H-Y-M-E thyme.  And uh I can't think of what else. Oh, they love them. ah Zucchini squash blossoms. They love those. And they love winter squash blossoms. So if you wanted to, you could put up a trellis and grow like butternut squash. be so much fun. Yeah. 29:07 And it would give them  nectar to play with and make honey. So you can do a whole bunch of stuff because bees are great.  I am not going to lie. I'm being very honest. I'm not a fan of bees. I don't want to keep bees. I love what they do. I think that the wild bees can do just as good as the ones that we might keep. And I would just assume the wild ones do the job.  Yeah. My husband, the homestead is very much more my thing. 29:37 uh Like, he likes it. He likes being able to see all the cool stuff that I've done.  He comes out and helps me with fences.  But that's the one thing that he really wants to do is bees. So I really want to get that for him so that he has his little passion project. Well, he needs one because you guys have to be aligned. That's important in a marriage. Yes.  Plus you'll get honey and you can be like, honey, I love the honey that your bees produced. 30:06 Well, if you met my husband, he can go through honey like no one's business. His favorite thing to do is go to like little farm stands nearby and get those little like honey sticks that are just straight honey. I don't see the appeal in those, but he'll just drink them all the time. My kids loved those. 30:27 When they were little, they loved them and I hated them because they always ended up dripping it on their clothes. They're messy. I don't know. Just too sweet for me, but he loves them. So well, anything that is easy to keep the spouse happy is always a good thing. All right. easy now. Just now that we have this little piece of quietness, you know, if I didn't want to get stressed, it's like, OK, go sit by the duck pond. 30:58 Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's why we did it. That's why we moved too, because I just couldn't handle living in town anymore.  We had the opportunity to jump and we jumped to a 3.1 acre from a one tenth of an acre lot. That's amazing. We were ready. We were so ready. We were high from the minute the house, the offer was accepted  until we moved in a month later. And I was just like, oh my God, I'm actually home. It feels like home. 31:28 We told the guy who was selling this place, we'll pay whatever you want. It doesn't matter.  We'll pay whatever it is. just went in.  Yep.  Absolutely.  All right, Lily, I try to keep these to half an hour. We're there.  Where can people find you?  I'm  at girlypupacres on Facebook and Instagram.  Awesome. Fantastic. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Lily? 31:53 You told me at the beginning that you woke up feeling like you might be getting the flu. Thank you for  sucking it up and taking the time to talk to me. This was really fun.  I'm glad. It was fun for me too. Thank you for having me. All Have a great day. You too. Bye.  

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.  

Today I'm talking with Westen and Taylor at modernhomestead95. 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 Taylor and Westen at Modern Homestead 95, and I'm sure we'll find out what the 95 is about.  In Arkansas, did you say, Westen? Yes, we are. We're  in Northern Central Arkansas.  Awesome. 00:28 I told you to shut your video off because it uploads better without the video. But from what I saw before you shut the video off, it looks beautiful in Arkansas. Is it gorgeous there today? It is. Yeah, it's a 55 degrees and it's spring's starting to show itself. So we got all the trees blooming and the grass is turning green and starting to grow. things are all coming alive. All the bugs are coming out. Yeah. favorite part. Homesteaders. 00:57 Favorite time of year, I swear, is March and April. Yeah, it's a good time. Get everything going and just life seems to be waking back up. So yes, the long,  horrible winter is almost over.  I'm in Minnesota. It is sunny. is windy as hell this morning  and uh it's only about 35 degrees. So  I was going to say probably still cool up there. 01:22 Yeah, we had a 90, not 90. I think it got to 81 last weekend. Okay. And then it cooled right back down. I was like, okay, that's the second fall spring. Maybe the next one will be the real one. You know, we've done that a couple of times down here too. We kind of warmed up. What was it the other day? 89? Yeah. Yeah, I think we might've even hit 90 and then it's, it was 35 last night. So. Yeah. 90 in March is just gross. 01:51 Yeah, it's like we're not ready for summer yet. No, no, you cannot go from winter to summer overnight. We have to have spring. Yes, yeah, much nicer with them intermittent gradual incline. Yes. So the name of your place is Modern Homestead, Modern Homestead or 95. What's the 95 about? So my wife and I were both born in 1995. Okay. 02:19 So, yeah, we... It's a good year. Yeah, it's a good year and Modern Homestead was taken and so this is Modern Homestead 95. Well, that is a brilliant thing to call it. My kids are 36 and 34 and 28 and 24. So my older two are 02:48 are right around you guys' ages. yeah, yeah, it's perfect. Yep, it's so funny because I used to think that 30 was old. No, 30 is not old. Right. Yeah, I just realized that a little while ago. Yep. turning 30, we're like, no, we're still some spring chickens. Yes, and even at 56, you can be a spring chicken. Just make sure you take care of your health until you get there. I remember that. Yeah. 03:17 Tim McGraw has a song called in my, I don't know the name of the song, but the chorus is in, or the verses start within my next 30 years. And in my next 30 years, I want to be 25 again. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right. So what do you guys do at the Homestead? And did I read that it's, you've been, the Homestead has been a hundred year in the family? Yeah. Well, it's not in the family. we bought, 03:46 our property and house two years ago in 2023 and we moved out here to Arkansas from California. Oh wow. Yeah, so we were just just tired of all the the nonsense that California has going on with it. Just we don't need to get into politics and everything but we don't agree with a lot that the state has going on and the way they handled 04:15 COVID and  everything, we just didn't feel like it was the right way to go about it. um we've been looking  for a place to move for already a year when  COVID started going on.  And we had traveled around a couple of different states and  looked. I've lived in Texas and Mississippi and driven from coast to coast and back. 04:45 And we took a trip out to Florida and looked  and it was just getting pricey  and we couldn't really afford what we wanted.  And  one day we were sitting  in our apartment at the time. We had a little 600 square foot apartment or something.  And  my wife Taylor was like, have  you thought about Arkansas? And I was like, I don't know anything about Arkansas. 05:12 We started just looking it up  and  researching and it's just kind of checking the boxes.  And we had a pretty good list of stuff we were looking for, wanted and needed and things like that. And  so we just kind of went down the list  and it seemed to align pretty well. And we were like, let's take a trip out there and see what it's all about. And we did. We spent two weeks  or a week,  one week driving around in the car. 05:42 and just sleeping in the car and  fell in love with it. Trying to find where we wanted to be in the state. But yeah, we did. We  really liked just the landscape and the people are laid back and just down to earth.  you know, we'll help you if you need it.  just lots of God fearing people and beautiful country. And  the price was right. We found a spot. um 06:11 not too far out of town and we  bought a house with seven acres  and we've just been... uh The house is what was 100 years old and just needed everything. um I mean, we've... Gosh, we've done so much in the last couple of years since we've been here. Gotten dropped by our homeowners insurance a couple of times for things and, you know, had to rush to fix stuff to get... 06:40 our insurance back and yeah, actually last week we just got kind of to a stage where we're going to call it in quotes, let's say done. We've replumbed the whole house, redone all the sheetrock and texture and paint inside and move some walls around and tore down some walls and 07:07 We completely redid the whole kitchen, reframed the floor in it and everything, new cabinets, all new appliances. Went through the outside of the house. We got a new roof. Just sealed everything up, painted the whole house. So it's been a journey. And along with all that, I work full time and we were pregnant when we moved out here. 07:38 with our first kid  and had her  and then  got pregnant again and we just had our little boy, our second kid. um in the middle of all that, we decided  we,  you know, wanted to  do what we came out here for  and that was  just kind of be a little more, I don't want to say self-sufficient because self-sufficient is such a uh big encompassing uh umbrella. 08:08 But I think we just wanted to be a little more, I guess, stable kind of in our own environment where  we know where our food's coming from a little bit and it doesn't have all  the chemicals and pesticides and everything that are on it from the store  and, you know, good,  healthy meat that's been  treated right and just free-ranged and um 08:37 grass-fed and  and so we  built a chicken coop. I went down to the mill here in town. We have a redwood  cedar mill  and bought a bunch of first cuts which is just the like a half round log with one flat side and so I bought like four big bundles of those hauled them on our flatbed here and  and 09:06 pressure wash them and ripped them all down and built this chicken coop we have out of red cedar.  And that was a really fun project that uh kind of got the  online presence started. I was just doing all this work and I was like, you know, I 09:27 I  want our homestead  to  not only  generate good food and good things for our family, but I also,  if it can, you know, provide a little bit of, uh you know, monetary money for our family. uh The whole goal for me is to 09:55 not be working full time  and  being able to have some more time with my kids as they grow  and my wife and just just 10:07 That was another one of the reasons we moved out here is the cost of living is a little  less  than most places.  And  in the goal of all that, was hoping to set up the homestead so it can provide for our family in a way where we spend less money. And so we have to generate less money  and I can have more time. So the whole  goal in this thing is really freedom. um 10:36 Good healthy food and freedom, I guess. That sounds like a lot of the people that I talk to on a weekly basis.  Very impressed that you guys managed to do this young, because not everybody who's young has what it takes to do it. Yeah, thank you. I'm going to just take that compliment and say thank you, because yeah, it's not easy. um 11:05 just got up and worked hard every day to be here. Before my career has, I've been an elevator mechanic. so, and before that I was in the Air Force. And so, I did my Air Force career and then I jumped into the elevator mechanic thing, did that for about 10, 11 years. 11:36 And then I actually broke my back in a motorcycle accident  and  got laid off and  got hired with another company and just kind of set the wheels in motion ah for this all to happen, I think. um 11:56 So it can be done at any age. Like we were talking earlier, age is just a number on paper. And you just get up and make it happen. 12:14 pray, pray  to God that His will be done in your life because it's really not up to us. We can do everything right, everything wrong, it doesn't matter. It's really what it comes down to is God's will in our life.  Yes.  So, number one, thank you for your service. Number two, congratulations on achieving the dream and 12:42 I know that the dream isn't done because if you're a homesteader, you always have new ideas you want to try, right?  And congratulations on the new baby  and the fact that you guys are raising a little girl and a little boy. Kids are great. I miss my babies so much. Like I love that they are functioning adults. are good people, but man, there are days where I'm like, you know, 13:11 They were very sweet when they were babies. I know. feel like we're already going through that because our daughter, she seems light years bigger and older now that we have this little baby. Oh yeah. we're just trying to soak up every moment we have because it does go quick. Yes. The minute you bring a newborn into the house, if you have an older child, that older child seems like they're already full grown to you. I swear. It's so weird. 13:41 Okay, so I could hear your chickens squawking in the background. How many chickens you guys have? So we have 11 right now, which is the lowest number we've had in a while. We started with like 22 or something. And just nature kind of took its course. Chickens are good food for everything. And we have some neighbor dogs that were out roaming around. They got a couple. We had a 14:09 a couple hawk attacks  and then  we had a couple guineas that were just  being mean. They were rooster uh guineas  and  so I actually processed them along with another  rooster  and so yeah, now we're down to 11. And then we had another two hawk attacks or something after that  down to 11.  But  I do have an incubator in the mail right now. 14:39 and we're gonna put 20 eggs in there when it shows up.  Good plan.  Have you ever done that before? uh We have not. No, it'll be our first time hatching.  Okay. um I haven't done it before, but I watch a lot of videos about chickens and quail. We're looking into quail right now because my husband was like, we should look into quail. was like, okay. 15:09 Yeah, the thing that I have been seeing a lot of is it's the humidity in the incubator that can be the problem. So be sure you watch that. Gotcha. Okay. Good to know.  And I guess that sometimes when the eggs hatch,  the chicks don't come out quick enough and the membrane in the egg can get wrapped around them and dry out. And there are two schools of thought. 15:39 You either give them a little time to see if they figure it out and get out of the egg  or  you don't and use tweezers and you try to pull the egg off of them.  And I guess there's an amniotic sack that is attached to the chick when it first is hatching.  If you rip that amniotic sack, the chick will die. So you got to be really careful if you're going to try to heal m the membrane.  Help them. Yeah. So I hope that helps you. 16:09 I don't know, I haven't done it.  And this is another thing that's kind of like on my mind  when  we  do this.  So we have uh a really mixed flock. I mean, we've got a couple of... I don't want to say everything, but... We've golden comets, blue sapphires,  cinnamon queens, a silky rooster,  and guinea hens. And some guineas. And so  it's... 16:38 I don't even know if the guinea hens  eggs are fertilized. ah I'm going to have to crack a couple and see, but pretty much everyone else is it seems like, but they're all fertilized from our silky splash silky rooster. Uh huh. So is it good to  mix  silkies with all the other breeds? mean, is that, are we going to have like issues? 17:04 or like  mutation issues or is it just gonna be fine? I wish I could tell you because I don't know the answer but what I can tell you is that people have been cross breeding creatures forever so  the worst thing you find out is that you shouldn't do it. 17:24 You know? Yeah, that's kind of where we were at and we  just figured we'd give it a try, see what happens. Yep. And Google supposedly knows everything, so you could always Google it. Right. Yeah.  And at this point, it's like, you know, once you have chickens  and you look at the price chicks cost, it's, you know, five to eight dollars for one of them.  Nowadays, yeah. It's like, this is crazy. 17:54 I have chickens, I have eggs. em You know, I'll just hatch my own. That's kind of where we're at. Yep. Try it. See what happens. I mean, again, the worst thing that happens is that you can't cross those, but you could probably find somebody who's got a rooster that would make sense. Yeah, exactly. So the next step in our kind of homestead journey, I think, is this year we're going to work on getting the garden going. em We had a couple planters on the porch last year. 18:24 And we got some tomatoes and jalapenos and bell peppers and a lot of strawberries and some spinach and stuff like that. But  just want to expand and get some in-ground stuff going. I have an avocado tree that I need to transplant  that we started from seed and. 18:45 Get a little, I'd love to get a little orchard going.  Probably gonna just start some stuff from seed and then obviously get some root cuttings.  So that'll be fun.  Yeah, that's kind of where we're at now. um And just sharing our  journey with everyone. 19:09 Yeah, I saw that you started a YouTube channel in 2025 and you have a ton of videos already up. Yeah, so I was trying to do a couple a week there and I did for a good while. And I've tapered off recently just because of life and if I don't make any excuses, I just need to... 19:38 start doing it again. But we have been busy just with the house and and the new baby and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Suck that baby up because it doesn't last long as we were saying. Just spend as much time with him as you possibly can. Yeah. That's what we've been doing whenever he's not in the wife's arms. I usually got him. So. Uh huh. So speaking of well two things. If you're going to plant are you going to plant apple trees? 20:09 I do have some apple seeds and I was going to plant those and hopefully some root cuttings. Apple trees take at least three years from sapling stage to produce apples. And I know this because we put in saplings and it took almost four years for us to get apples. So don't count on apples the first year because there probably won't be any. Yeah, I was telling 20:38 Telling Taylor, just don't count  on anything from  the orchard really.  Cause it's just gonna be  a long game. is. It's a long tail game and it's hard to wait. We just got our first really good harvest of  honey gold apples this past fall. Well, congratulations. That's great. That was fabulous, except I don't like them. They're like golden delicious apples. 21:08 And I don't like Golden Delicious because they're kind of grainy. don't like them.  However, my husband loves them. So he was eating an apple a day until they were gone. Oh, that's great. Good. Yep. I'm waiting for our honey crisps to actually produce because I love those. Gotcha. Gotcha.  OK, so not that you aren't wonderful to talk to, Weston, but I would love to hear from Taylor about how she feels about  the experience that you've been going through for the last year. Absolutely. 21:37 Absolutely. So Taylor, tell me what you're thinking. Yeah, I know it's been great. It's been such a fun journey to embark on with my husband and starting a family out here in Arkansas has truly just been,  it's been amazing. It's been filled with um a lot of growth as well.  I think that it was a  a very bold move  to do what we did,  especially in the midst of finding out that I was pregnant. 22:06 But so so happy that we did because looking back we're just two people that  have really  grown so much and have accomplished so much together So it's been a really cool cool journey to go through I'm glad to hear that my second question for you Taylor is do you have a community of other women who help you because  I? Did not really have a community of women when my kids were babies, and I wish that I had so do you have one? 22:34 So yeah, mean,  to be honest, that's actually been kind of hard to cultivate. I am proud to say that uh now that we're a couple years in, because I think we've been here for almost two and a half years,  I think over the last about eight months, I've really been able to kind of find my tribe  of other moms who have kids ah of similar ages um in the community and have really kind of bonded with several uh women. 23:04 and moms. And so that's been really great because as you know, we moved from California. So we actually, we don't have any family out here. So it has been, it has been difficult. But yeah, I am, that's kind of the next phase now that the house is done and we have some more free time and  you know, cultivating friendships as an adult is, is a lot harder than it is when you're a child, just cause you don't have the time that it takes. So um 23:33 I am starting to get that and I'm so thankful for the friendships I've made. Good, because I've said this a couple of times to a few people in the last month or so, especially brand new moms or brand new moms, but they also have older kids. You have to have other women to tell you stuff. Because no one hands you a freaking guidebook when you have a baby. I know. And what's funny is... 24:01 You know, we talked to like our moms and it's been, you know, 30 something years since they've had babies. And so it's even hard for them to recall certain like, you know, nuances of what it's like and how they did this and things like that when the babies are young. So it's definitely important to have some, some other women to bounce some stuff off of. Yes. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if they did give you a guidebook when you went home with the new baby? I'm telling you. Yeah, it would be. 24:30 The other thing that is hard is that things have changed so much since our mothers had babies. Right. I mean, funny is things have changed even from our first born. uh Like in the hospital, you know, they kind of go over a few things and there's even some guidelines that have changed just from two years ago.  Yeah, it's nuts. And the one guideline that is always a constant is just love them through everything.  Yep. 25:00 If you can do that, you've got it beat by a mile. And Weston, I hope you have dad friends because men need friends that have kids too. Yeah. Yeah, that's something that I'm going to start putting some more energy towards. Plus, you miss out on all the dad jokes you need to learn if you don't have dad friends. He's pretty good at those, I have to say. Good. He's a natural. All right. 25:28 A question for both of you and I want two different answers because I want  both of your perspectives. What is your favorite thing that has happened since you moved to the homestead? 25:41 Well, for me, I mean, I don't know if I'm biased, but I mean our babies, our babies and having chickens. Having chickens has always been something that I've really wanted. And so just going through that and having them out in the yard and holding my babies and soaking up the sun, it's been like the most fulfilling experience. Okay. Weston, what about you? I think. 26:11 just watching  Taylor and I's marriage grow  and  just become what it is because we've been out here um by ourselves. We've just kind of had to rely on each other. And I think that just cultivated a strong bond that we have that just can propel us through. 26:41 trials  and  just showed us how much each of each other really care about one another and we're willing to  you know sacrifice  and and take care of each other no matter what's going on so  spoken like a man who adores his wife awesome ah okay so I know you guys have chickens do you have other animals too 27:10 We don't right now. We used to have a little  dog when we moved out here and we sadly had to  put him down for some health reasons.  yeah. Thinking about sheep. oh Sheep is  potentially sheep or goats. We haven't really decided because both are fun, but both come with their own stuff. um I got to the yard fenced. Yeah. Yes. 27:37 Yes, but good fences make good neighbors and that doesn't just apply to human neighbors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Keep those dogs out.  Yeah. For sure.  And yeah, go ahead. We're right now,  the  incubator is coming and we're working  on,  I got a clear a bunch of trees for the garden area and I think we're just going to 28:08 plant in the ground this year and just try and get something  and then next year  work on maybe some raised beds  and then probably getting the fence in and stuff like that. So.  Very nice. You guys have so  much to look forward to in the future.  I had another question and I forgot it because that's what happens when you get over 50. You forget things really easy. um 28:37 Or just when you're pregnant. feel like my brain never recovered from the first child and then now having the second, it's like compounded. So I'm constantly like, what was I doing? What was I about to say? Maybe that's what it is. that maybe having all those kids just screwed up my brain forever. Who knows? So I don't know. don't know if I have any more questions for you. I am very 29:06 excited for you both.  I  love it when young people get into this and I just remember my question. I knew as soon as I started making small talk it would happen. um Have you guys gotten into the food side of homesteading like preserving or canning or sourdough or any of that? Not yet. That's definitely going to be something we do get into though. Once I think the babies get a little older and I have some helpers,  that's definitely going to be um 29:35 We're gonna be doing a lot of stuff in the kitchen  from scratch. Yes, and I just, have another podcast that I do with a co-host and we just recorded an episode about cooking from scratch and if you'd like I can send you the link when it's released. Yeah, that would be great. Okay, cool. The other podcast is called Grit and Grace in the Heartland and we have been having such a good time with it since January. We just started it in January. 30:04 So other than that, I don't think I have any other questions and I try to keep these at 30 minutes and we just rolled to 30 minutes. That was perfect timing. Where can people find you guys? They can find us at Modern Homestead 95 on Facebook and Modern Homestead 95 on YouTube. That is the only two platforms we're on right now and we are just so thankful. 30:30 that we were able to talk with you today and having us on. And hopefully we can do this again soon and maybe after we have a little bit more growth here. yeah, we just appreciate your time and hope you have a great rest of your Saturday. I would love to have you guys back. And as always, you can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com. 30:54 You guys, so proud of you. Keep doing the good work and bring those babies up in the Homestead Life cell. You're doing them a huge favor if you do.  Thank you so much. All right. Have a great Saturday. You too. Thank you. God bless you.  

Today I'm talking with Kalan at Redwood Seeds. 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 Kalan at Redwood Seeds in  California. Good morning, Kalan, because you're not in California right now.  Good morning. Yeah, it's 10 a.m. here  where I am in New Zealand. Tomorrow, for me, right? Yes. It's Tuesday for you. 00:28 Yeah, that's right.  Yeah, I've interviewed a couple of people in Australia and New Zealand and  it's so confusing because for me it is  4.03 in the afternoon on  Monday.  Yeah, definitely. It's confusing for me as you've seen trying to um set up meetings with people, especially the states just went through the time change. 00:52 Now it's a four hour difference for me. then when New Zealand goes through its time change in about another month, then it becomes a five hour difference the next day. Uh-huh. I, every time I talk to somebody who's that far away, I say that it's, it's actual time travel because it might as well be. Yeah. feels like it. Whenever we travel down here, we basically miss a day.  It's crazy. You lose an entire day. oh 01:19 Okay, so I want to talk about redwood seeds, but I also would love to know why you're in Austria in New Zealand.  Yeah, definitely. Well, I married a man from New Zealand 20 years ago. So we come down here  a couple of months every year during our off season  and spend time with family. Well, that is a hardship to have to go to New Zealand, boy. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, it's different. We come down here or not really tourists, so we don't like. 01:49 You know, it's less of a vacation and more just like my kids, go into the public school system when we're here and we  sort of just live normal life, you know, but we get to stay on the farm with em my in-laws. And that's really, really wonderful. That's really interesting. What do they farm?  They're both retired now, but my husband grew up on like a mixed em sheep  and cattle ranch. oh 02:17 the kind with like 2000 sheep, they're shearing for wool and that kind of thing. Okay, cool. That you are a very interesting lady. I'm very glad that I asked to talk to you. so tell me all about Redwood Seeds and what you do. Okay, well, we are based in Northern California. We're about three or four hours north of San Francisco up in the foothills of Lassen Volcanic National Park, actually. So if you're looking at 02:47 California, we are in the eastern slopes, the eastern foothills at about 2,500 feet. And we have a organic seed farm. We grow organic vegetable, herb, flower seeds, and sell them in packets, essentially. We started doing this in 2009. And then... 03:11 have  now we're expanded into like about 70 different retail stores. So we have seed racks in those stores and send seeds to the stores, you know, a few times a year for customers. And then we also have a website where we sell our seeds.  It's redwoodseeds.net.  And  sometimes I sell at like different festivals and markets and things like that.  I would say that I call us a farm based seed seed company. 03:40 grow the majority of the seed that we sell. I do  purchase some  extra seed  from other organic seed farms, mostly in the western states. 03:54 Yeah, we usually offer about 150 different varieties. um All of our varieties are open pollinated, which means that you can, they're not hybrids, essentially is what that means. And you can  use traditional seed saving techniques  and uh save the seeds  and you'll get trutatite results. Most of, many of them are heirlooms,  which means that the variety is like pre 1950. 04:22 but we also have a lot of really great varieties that have been bred using traditional plant breeding techniques  since 1950. Okay. So since you do this for a living, I have a question.  I bought a 60 day watermelon seed from, I want to say it was burpee, but I could be wrong  and I'm pretty sure it's a hybrid. Okay. So, 04:51 If we were to save, if we get any melons out of it, I bought 12 seeds, we're praying we get watermelons out of it this year.  If we get watermelons, which means we get seeds, and we plant those seeds, if we save those seeds and plant them, is there any chance that  we'll get seeds producing 60 day watermelons  next summer? There's a chance, yeah. 05:15 The way that it goes is that hybrid, it's called the F1 generation. Sometimes you see hybrids referred to as F1s. That's the first generation after the cross has been made.  That watermelon had two different parents that were crossed together to make the hybrid. Then when you save seeds  from the hybrid, the next generation is called the F2 generation.  That's when you start to see the genetic diversity come out. Seed breeders do this on purpose. A seed breeder 05:45 would make the cross, get the F1, then save the seeds from it, and then plant them. You might plant 100 seeds from it, and you might see 20 or 30 different types of melons pop up, or however many, but you'll start to see genetic diversity. So you could theoretically plant out a lot of that F2 generation and look for the 60, whatever is closest 06:14 to the 60 day melon that you loved and save seeds from that one and then do that again for like seven more years. And you might be able to stabilize that hybrid into an open pollinated variety. That's like backwards breeding, right? Yeah, that sounds like a really fun science project. may have to try that. Yeah, that's what seed breeders do. Okay. I just, knew there was something about hybrid seeds that it may not come back true. 06:44 That's the thing. That's why when you're saving seeds, um that's just to start with open pollinated varieties. And so that's what we do. We only grow open pollinated varieties um so that we can save seeds from them and we know that they're going to be true to type. Okay. Thank you for  humoring me in my question because  I wanted to ask somebody who really, really knew and I figured you would really, really know. 07:12 No, it's kind of a common question actually, or like people have this thought that you can only grow heirloom seeds if you want to save seeds, but it's really the term is open pollinated. Open pollinated means that basically it's not a hybrid. Okay. Thank you so much.  As I sit here with a big smile on my face, because now when my husband asks, I can be like,  yes, we can save the seeds. Yes, you can plant them, but,  but is the key word there. 07:41 Okay, so do you have a background in this  or  how did you get into savings? Yeah. uh No, I don't. I mean, if you had asked me when I was a teenager,  if I thought I was going be a farmer, it would have been like the last thing on my mind. um And  I didn't really know what I was going to do. did go, um I went to UC Santa Cruz  and was a language studies major. So I learned to speak Spanish really well. um 08:11 but and studied like linguistics and journalism. um But it was during  that time, like in my early  20s, I also became garden curious  and started taking, like I took a garden class in college. And then I um met my husband and he was traveling through Santa Cruz,  doing like a rock climbing tour of the Western States. um And  I went and visited him in New Zealand on my spring break. 08:40 And he had a big garden going over there. so I remember we, we just sort of started gardening together really.  Um, and then we lived in New Zealand for nine months and  his parents let us  put in a garden, like, you know, in the back, couple acres of their property.  And, um, I don't know, we just, got really into it and we traveled back and forth between New Zealand and us for a few years. And then we ended up. 09:11 buying some land in Northern California where we didn't really know what we were going to do, but we knew that we wanted a rural lifestyle. We ended up starting to grow seeds on contract for larger seed companies like Seeds of Change and Fedco Seeds. And we did that for a few years from like 2006, 2007. And it kind of quickly became obvious that 09:38 to really make a living doing it, we needed to get our own label and start packaging seeds in packets rather than selling like a pound of seeds um for a relatively low price. um So we did that in 2009. We just kind of got some coin envelopes from Office Depot and had a stamp made and started stamping packets. And my husband started making wooden seed racks and we  literally like showed up at Chico Natural Foods 10:07 with a seed rack and seeds in the back of our car and asked them if they wanted to  start carrying our seeds in their store. And  luckily somebody was in a good mood that day and they said yes. em And we're still in that store today. So. so that leads me to my next question. Are there regulations from the state of California about selling the seeds that  you produce?  Yeah, definitely. I mean, you have to register with the CDFA. em 10:37 California Department of Food and Agriculture.  And we are registered seed sellers.  As a registered seed seller, you have to like adhere to their packaging requirements and their germination standards and all of that. And they have, you know, like the local county ag inspectors who can and do sometimes do inspections. 11:00 So, okay. I figured the government would have their fingers in it. Yeah, definitely. It's not, it's not onerous. I mean, the, the  more difficult standard is the organic certification. You know, we are certified organic by CCOF California certified organic farmers and have been since 2007,  I think.  Um,  so that's a yearly inspection where an inspector comes out and they mostly want to look at our 11:29 paperwork uh and then they tour around the farm as well. So how hard was it to get your certification because I keep hearing that getting certified organic is an utter pain in the ass with paperwork and it's expensive. It is expensive.  It's about a thousand dollars a year. uh California has, ah oh they did have, I mean I'm not sure how much of  a cost share they're gonna have this year. It's been kind of 11:57 decreasing, but it used to be a 75 % cost share where  you would get reimbursed that much by the state of California for becoming organic. um Now that I know what to do for the certification, it's not that difficult. um when you start out and you just don't really know what they're looking for, and maybe you don't really know how to keep records, ah it can be much more difficult. 12:26 I became certified organic when I had to like fill out a paper form, but now it's all digitized, you know.  So I don't know, I have a friend who's, who's signing up on it right now. And honestly, if you, if you know how to fill out applications and tick the boxes, then  it's not too, too difficult. If you're on a piece of land that has previously been farmed conventionally,  then it becomes more difficult um for sure. 12:55 Okay. And then  since, since you're someone who sells seeds that you produce yourself,  um,  I assume that every state is different, but if you were,  if you  grew,  I don't know, some tomato variety and you save the seeds and you wanted to give some to a friend in California,  that's fine. Right? That's fine. Yeah. But 13:23 If you wanted to sell it to a friend, can you do that on a small scale and not have to do all the bureaucratic stuff or is that a no-no?  Oh, I'm sure you can do it. Yeah. I mean, and I think that like you don't have to become a licensed seed seller in every single state to, my business is based out of California. I'm selling the seed from California. So that's where I have my seed selling license from. I mean, that would be. 13:52 really a lot of paperwork if I needed to become a seed seller in every state. We definitely ship seeds all around the country. Yeah, it's so funny since I started the podcast over two and a half years ago, I have talked to people all over the country and many, many of them, I'm guessing at least 85%, maybe 90 % have started a business. 14:19 around their homestead or the craft that they make or the food that they produce. And every single state has different laws regarding that kind of business. Yeah. And I'm like, could we maybe find a standard here for everybody? That would be cool. definitely. Yeah, know that. Yeah, definitely. There are also many different standards. It's true. It's true. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's 14:47 That end of things, mean, there's always,  for me as a farmer, and I'm sure a lot of other farmers, it's like, we started because we just want to farm and we want to do agriculture, want to grow things or um work with animals. But the business side is always a steep learning curve.  And definitely for me too. mean,  if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have probably studied like plant biology and business or something, you know, or 15:16 Kind of business major and when I had the chance to be in university, um I back in those days, I looked at business majors and I thought they were like selling out to the man or something. uh,  but now it's like, those are the skills that farmers also need to succeed in having your own business. So, um, I've had to like belatedly learn all of that.  And in fact, I'm, taking an accounting one-on-one class at my community college right now. 15:46 Um, so. Well, that's good. mean, I, I  say that I have got to know itis, which means that I have an overactive need to know.  And I'm always taking some kind of course, whether it's a lady just sent me a course on raising quail.  Interesting.  Cause we're, looking into doing that on our place. Cool. 16:13 I haven't had a chance to sit down look at it yet because I've been busy with podcast stuff and oh yeah, dishes. There's always washing dishes to do here. Definitely. And so I'm hoping to get a chance to sit down tomorrow afternoon and look at the course and see if it's videos or if it's written or how it works. But very excited about this. I don't need to know how to raise quail. I could probably just go get some quail. My husband will build the coop and we'll figure it out from there. 16:43 But because it's interesting and because I have got to know it is I have to the course. There you go. Okay. have, I have questions about number one,  what kind of produce do you grow to save seeds from? And then number two, what's the process that you go through to save the seeds? Yeah. Um, you know, we really  save seeds from just about most crops.  Um, everything from corn and beans to lettuce and tomatoes and squash and onions and. 17:14 Um, most of the major vegetable types we save seeds from and increasingly more and more, um, flowers too. Like I would say that flowers are, I don't know, 30 % of our seed sales now are 40%. Like it's more and more. When we first started, really, I don't know that I was anti flower, but I was definitely like, if I'm going to grow it, has to be something to eat, you know, 17:43 But as we've progressed, I see more more uh value in growing things for pollinators and just for beauty.  so we have more flowers now  and a lot of herbs too,  medicinal herbs like yarrow and milkweed and  things like that.  I'm so happy to hear  milkweed because we need the monarchs to keep coming back. Yeah, definitely.  We have a really big patch of milkweed now. uh 18:13 And the thing is, like, I never see monarchs. Like, rarely do we ever see a monarch.  Instead, we get that milkweed beetle that loves the milkweed, that red beetle. um But it's there in case they want to find us. So,  you know, we grow all the produce, but uh and my family eats from our gardens, but  we don't sell any produce. So it's really different than 18:40 a regular mixed veg market garden operation. Our process is that we plant our main summer gardens usually about May 20th through June 15th. It takes me about three weeks to plant everything. And because we're up in the foothills, like our growing season, I don't bother getting things in the ground before then because we can have frost in mid-May. 19:07 I will have all my spring crops in like lettuces and things that can take a light frost. um But that's our main planting season is the end of May.  And we basically like plant these really big gardens,  which  it really is like some like we're farming, but we're also like garden scale. Like we have five gardens spread out on our 40 acres.  So each plot is about, uh, 19:38 60 feet by 60 feet or they're not huge. Like I did the calculations last year and we actually like grow all of our crops, like 60 to 80 seed crops a year on about only a half an acre. Like not a really big space. It's really intensive, like mixed production. You know, like I'll have like 30 tomato plants and maybe 200 lettuces and 20:08 like 100 squash plants  of a variety. And so we plant everything and then we can basically just let it grow all summer  and do the weeding, but we're not like continuously harvesting the vegetables like you would for  a market garden. Instead, we just let everything ripen and go to seed. And then our main seed harvest  starts like kind of the end of August. 20:34 through the end of October. So we like two or three months of intensive  seed harvesting and cleaning. the process for each variety is really different.  Okay, yeah. So what's the most difficult seed to save? ah 20:55 They're all just really different. um Like for example, know, tomatoes, I'd go out and I pick tomatoes into five gallon buckets. And then we smash the tomatoes  up into like this pulp. And then you let them sit and ferment in the buckets for three or four days  and stir them daily. And that actually like um breaks down the enzyme coating around the seed to that inhibits germination. um And it also kind of 21:25 breaks down all the tomato pulp um and then you add water to those buckets and pour off all the pulp and you're left with the seeds at the bottom of the bucket using water to clean them. So  that's not extremely difficult, but it's like a process, you know? um And um so there's the things that you  harvest and you process wet, like tomatoes and squashes or melons or cucumbers. 21:52 Those,  all, there's a degree of like cutting open the fruit, scooping out the seeds.  And then you have to figure out how to separate all the pulp and the gunk from the seeds. And usually that involves water. It's kind of like gold panning, actually.  Often, often the good seed will sink to the bottom of your vessel and then you pour off everything else with water and then put it on a screen  and let it dry.  I would label the ones that you have to do wet as squick. 22:22 That would be the squick,  squick, squack process. Yeah, definitely.  Um, yeah, I mean, it's kind of fun. It's,  it's really hands on.  Um,  and then everything that you process dry, uh, that's like most of your flower seeds, your lettuce seed, all the brassicas,  like kale or cabbage,  um, radishes, carrot seed, radishes. Radishes are actually very difficult because it. 22:51 I don't know, have you seen a radish going to seed? Makes those like kind  of... Yeah, it's like, well, each of those pods only has like four seeds in it. They're not very,  and the pods are really difficult to shatter. It's different than like kale pods. Kale pods or arugula, they just shatter right away. But the radish, man,  you really have to bash them. And we don't have  really fancy threshing equipment. 23:18 I have some equipment for winnowing, the threshing part, um so there's a lot of stomping and stuff that goes into radish seed. um But basically it's like you harvest the dry seeds and you have to thresh them. So you like break open the pods. um Same with beans.  And we often like 23:43 just throw all the seed on like an old bed sheet and then literally stomp things with our feet  or  things like that. And then you have to winnow it. So you use air to blow away all of the chafe. And so we do have some equipment for that. We have this really cool  machine called a winnow wizard that was created by Mark Lutera up in Oregon. 24:08 and it has a huge hopper that you can pour the seed into and a fan and an agitation tray. And so it's cool because I can like turn it on and get it set right and then walk away from it for a half an hour while it just continues to winnow the seed and the good seed falls into a bucket. yeah, I mean, there's a lot of like harvesting seeds, piling them up in bags. 24:36 where they continue to kind of dry for a couple months and then cleaning them as we, as we get to it. So my house definitely like  in  this time period of two or three months, there's a corner of it that just gets like stacked full of bags of drying seeds. Well, I was going to ask you what kind, I mean, I don't want you to tell me exact numbers, but  what kind of space do you end up needing and  what's your inventory like? I mean, are we talking? 25:06 hundreds of thousands of seed packets?  Yeah, well, I would say that  we maybe sell about 50,000 seed packets a year, but we have an office space. yeah, we used to have this whole thing would be in our house and then it moved to a back shed and it's moved around a lot over the years. uh There's definitely like now there's the farm production part of it and then we have an office uh at our 25:33 It's our old elementary school was closed and now it's our community center. And so I rent the old teacher's lounge as my office space. So  all of our like cleaned seeds that are just in bags  live there in the office and we do all of our seed packaging in the office, um not in my home anymore. So um I don't, we don't like pack everything into hundreds of thousands of packets. Instead we pack. 26:02 more like as we need. So we'll pack like 50 to 100 packets of a variety at a time and then sell through those or send those to stores  and then pack more as we need it. So the majority of our inventory is stored as bulk. um like on-demand printing? Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like that. Cool. Yeah. So, but we pack it all by hand.  We basically know how many 26:31 Seeds are in these little spoons that we have. We have like these little teeny spoons, some like from tablespoon size down to like 1 64th of a teaspoon size. Maybe we even have a smaller one than that. And so we've counted, you know, over the years several times and we have that recorded. So we know that like a quarter teaspoon is about 25 cucumber seeds. So we pack, pack the packets like that. 27:00 Nice. Okay. I try to keep these to half an hour or at like 27 minutes. So I want to say for the listener, anybody can save seeds. We do it with basil seeds every year and we haven't had to buy basil seeds in four or five years now. Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Everybody should try to seeds. Yeah. And they come back beautifully. 27:28 Yeah, I will say that if people want to hop on my website, I do have a pretty robust section about seed saving on there. So uh there's a lot of information  and I have a YouTube channel that has like two videos on it. But one of the videos is like an hour long seed saving uh Zoom class that I taught a couple of years ago that gives good info to. That's super to know. Thank you. 27:56 And  I mean, if people don't want to save their own seeds, I'm sure that if you want to buy seeds that have been saved, Kaylyn  would be happy to sell them to you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.  But there are things that everybody can do for themselves on a small scale that are really simple. And I feel like if I'm in Minnesota and I can save basil seeds from the basil we grow, 28:22 probably smarter than buying it from Kaylin in California for me to do. Yeah, absolutely. The more people who are saving the seeds, the more secure our seed supply is. Yep. And with all the crazy that's going on in the world right now, I'm going to say it again. I say it almost every episode. If you don't know how to cook from scratch, learn. If you have any place to grow any kind of food, grow it. Learn how to do it and grow it. 28:51 And if you don't know your local grower, your local producer, get to know them because shopping locally, supporting your local growers and producers will save your butt 100 % of the time. 29:06 Absolutely. I will die on that freaking hill.  All right, Kaylin, where can people find you?  At redwoodseeds.net  and at redwoodseeds on Instagram. Okay. Are you on Facebook at all? I am on Facebook. Yep. Redwood seeds on Facebook. Okay. So if anybody has questions or if they want to go see the video about saving seeds that Kaylin put out,  that's where you find her. oh 29:36 Thank you so much for your time, Kalen. I really appreciate it. Nice to chat, Mary. Thank you. As always, you can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Kalen, I hope you have a great rest of the day because you have a whole day in front of you. Yeah, I do. Yeah, it's awesome.  Yep. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.  

Today I'm talking with Kendra at Tryna Homestead. 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 Kendra at Tryna Homestead in Wisconsin. Good afternoon, Kendra, how are you? Good, how are you?  I'm good, and I'm not gonna lie.  When I looked at who I was talking to today, because I have it in my calendar,  I saw Tryna Homestead and I was like, you know, 00:28 I hope that's trying to, you know, a play on trying to. if your name is Trina and I've been thinking it's Trina, I'm going to sound really dumb. How is the weather in Wisconsin? Did you guys get all the snow that we got on Sunday? We were supposed to get 12 to 18 inches, but we're right up against the river. And so it kind of buffered us and... 00:53 I think we only got about eight. It's hard to tell though, because we had the blowing snow and the blizzard conditions. So we have spots where it's fair and then other spots where we have two feet there. we  definitely got snow.  Did it start for you Monday night? No, we, started Saturday night while we were actually outside boiling sap.  Oh. sitting in it as it started. And then  it went, it was still snowing through Sunday night. And then 01:23 uh Yesterday and today have just been cold and sunny but cold. Okay. Where are you in Wisconsin? We're in Western Wisconsin,  Northwestern. We're right on the border with Minnesota.  Okay, because I'm in Minnesota and  it started for us about nine o'clock Saturday night. Yeah, think it ended about, it really ended about seven Sunday night. But 01:54 The wind was so bad that you couldn't see anything. All day. insane. Yeah. Yeah. It was so loud. Like all Saturday night and Sunday night. was so loud. The wind was just whipping. Oh yeah. My Australian shepherd, she sleeps downstairs and my husband and I sleep upstairs. And about every couple hours Saturday night, I would hear, Arf! Just one Arf every couple of hours. She was barking at the wind. 02:23 I believe it. I was just like, there's nothing you can do about it sweetie, go to sleep. It's all good really. The house is not going to collapse, I promise. So yeah, it was some wild weather and I don't know about you, but it's the first real snowstorm we've had all winter. Yeah, it's the first we've really had in the last three years, be honest. Yeah, it's been so bizarre and 02:49 when I talk to people who don't live in the general Minnesota, Wisconsin area, they're like, oh, it's, been a real winter for you. I'm like, we're having a real winter at least five years. Right. Yeah. I,  I love winter. It's actually my favorite season  and I love the snow, but March snows are actually my favorite because at that point I'm done with winter. I'm focusing on spring. 03:15 But when we get snow, I know it's not going to last, it covers the brown for a little bit. uh Saturday morning before the storm hit, we had green grass showing. Yeah. I was like,  we don't need a foot of snow. This is ridiculous.  So the reason I open the podcast every time with how is the weather or did you get the same weather we got is because weather is a big freaking deal for people who grow things. 03:46 and you have a homestead. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. Yeah. So we,  my husband and I, we've been homesteading in a rental for seven years and we just bought our property last fall  in like middle of August and we're just on four acres. And so this is our first year really getting to do the things that we've done on a really small scale  in our apartment for the last 04:15 seven years. um We raised chickens down at my parents place, but I'd have to drive 45 minutes to go take care of them. And I would garden in containers and fill our tiny little patio. And now I'm actually getting to have chickens right in our backyard and a large in-ground garden. So we're really excited.  And all the things that we have dreamed about  doing,  we're finally able to start putting those plans into action. 04:44 now that we have our own space. You sound like me  five and a half years ago when we moved from our tenth of an acre lot with a house and a four car garage on it to a 3.1 acre property. That's about we are just shy of four acre. We have 3.98. They couldn't give us the point oh two.  Yes, exactly. em 05:09 So I have a question. When you moved and you actually realized that you've done it, did you step outside and look around and go, oh my God, we did it? Oh, we walked around this property so many times and we're just looking at each other going, is this really ours?  Someone needs to pinch us. Is this real? we actually do this? Because with the way the housing market was every year, 05:37 Our five-year plan turned into a six-year plan, turned into a seven-year plan and it was feeling less and less likely. And the day that we closed, we just stood in the backyard looking at everything going, is this really ours? Like, is it really, really what we have been dreaming of is actually here and happening. And it was such a surreal moment to realize that all those years of hoping and praying for this property is actually happening. 06:06 Yep. I love it when I talk to somebody like you, who is like me five and a half years ago,  because  I,  my son and I had to come down and spend the first night in the new place by ourselves because my husband had to work. And where we lived at the time was an hour drive for him. And if he had had to stay here with us, it would have been an hour and a half drive for him to work. 06:33 So he stayed up at the old house and we stayed at the new house. We had to be here overnight because early morning they were gonna be a brand new gas stove for cooking, because the house didn't have a stove. And we had to be here for the internet to get hooked up because Lord knows you need internet.  I made it a point to get up before sunrise, it was August of 2020. 06:59 And I made it a point to get up before sunrise because there's a beautiful, huge window above the kitchen sink.  I did not have a window above the kitchen sink in the old house. And it looks out over, it was an alfalfa field and it's all wide open sky out that window. And I was like, I have to see the first sunrise the first morning I'm here. And I stood there and cried, Kendra, I cried. I believe it.  And I was like, oh my God, I have. 07:27 hot coffee because the first thing you put in a new house is the coffee maker if you're a coffee drinker. And the sun is all cotton candy pink and coral orange. Beautiful. And I'm just standing there tears dripping off the end of my nose and I'm like, I'm so freaking happy. Yeah, it was ridiculous. And it was the best happy cry I think I've ever had except when my kids were born. Yeah, it it was such an overwhelming feeling. And it's funny because you mentioned having a 07:57 big window over your sink. Yeah, we did not have one in our rental either. And that was one thing I always wanted.  And we have one now and it looks out over it has an eastern view.  And so I get to see the sunrise every morning from the kitchen as well. And it like, to this day, we've been here eight months now, almost nine.  And still every day, we just were like, is this really ours? And it's 08:25 so overwhelming to know that what you've worked so hard for, what you've dreamed for, for so long is finally here.  Yes,  it's so hard to explain the feeling to someone who hasn't achieved a dream like that. I mean, you can say it a billion different ways, but until the person has something they want so badly come true, they don't understand  that big feeling in your chest and in your heart. 08:56 Absolutely. know that  once we actually got everything moved in and we were done with the old house because we sold the  old house after we bought this place.  And I remember the last time being in the old house and it was just empty and I raised four kids in that house. 09:17 And I was a little sad about, you know, leaving the place that I raised my kids.  But drove back here and there were boxes everywhere. And I just looked around and I was like, okay, I'm over it. I don't ever want to go back to the other house. I'm done.  Yeah. And I also remember  once we were completely moved in, sitting  on the bench that we had refinished to have on the patio, because we have a little cement pad  outside the front door. 09:45 and sitting on that bench and looking around and looking at my husband and going, what do we do now? Yeah, it's kind of it's almost that feeling like when you get married and you're like, okay, now what? Like that's how I felt with like we purchased the place and then we still lived in our 10:13 apartment for three more weeks because of when we could actually get our stuff up here. Yeah, because it's about 40 minutes or so. And so we were just I every day I was making two or three trips a day coming up here bringing stuff, unpacking coming up bringing stuff unpacking like for two weeks and or like two and half weeks until our big move. And then once we were all moved in, and you know, we got everything here, we were done with the apartment. I can't look at my husband. was like, now what? 10:42 Like, you almost are like, this is really it. But now what do we do? Like we did the whole go through the move thing. It's like, okay. Yeah. And moving is exhausting. Oh, I don't ever want to do it again. I say that every time. I don't either. There are days where my husband and I are like, well, now we're nasty, nasty, uh-huh. Empty nesters. 11:11 Do we really want to stay? You know, is this where we want to die basically? Yeah. And some days we're like, I need to sleep on it. And then other days we're like, nah, we would be nuts to move again. Yeah. I'm, I'm okay staying here for a very, very, very long time. It's not a curse. Yep. Well, it became real to us when we ended up buying, I think we had 40 chickens at one point and I was like, so are we chicken farmers now? 11:41 And my husband was like,  no,  there. are a farm to market gardeners. And I was like, but we have 40 chickens. And he was like,  yeah, and that's probably the highest number we're going to have. I was like, don't say that out loud outside. You're going to jinx it. We're going to have 300 chickens.  Oh, but no, it's so lovely. Go ahead. Oh, no, I was just going to say the whole 40 chickens thing is making me laugh over here because 12:10 uh We  tracked, I ordered 20 chickens or baby chicks that are coming in through April. Yeah, yeah. But Tractor Supply got us and we ended up with six turkeys. And then the next Wednesday Tractor Supply got us again and we ended up with six more chicks. uh And then the next day we went to a different feed store and we ended up with six more chicks. So we currently have six baby turkey poults and 12 chicks in our basement with 20 more chicks coming. 12:38 Chicken math is real and they multiply before you even realize.  I think in your case, it's poultry math.  Right?  For sure.  That's okay. Those turkeys will come in real handy. Yes. We were hoping that we have a hen and a tom  in at least, we have two different breeds, three of each. And we're hoping we have a hen and a tom  in at least  one of those breeds, if not  both, so that we can 13:08 have some  for meat this year, but then have longevity with our trippies. So that's the goal with those.  Yes, it's really nice when the livestock reproduce because it's basically free food. For sure. Very expensive free food, but it is definitely free food.  Well, to start with, but there are dividends. So.  But my husband and I, he's like, you know, we should put a lot of money into these  free eggs that we're going to get.  So we always joke that. 13:38 It's very expensive free food because we didn't have go to the store to buy it, but we had to, you know, feed it and water it and care for it and it's expensive and all the other things. Uh-huh.  I asked my husband  if the chickens are paying for themselves because we sell eggs. Sure. And he said yes.  But there was kind of a  weird note to the yes. And I said, okay, what are you not saying? And he said, 14:08 They're keeping us in milk and butter because we don't have a cow to make, you know, to have drinking milk and to make butter.  And I said, okay, I can, I can live with that.  He said, and he said, we are never without eggs for ourselves. And I said, I can absolutely live with that. So it works out great.  So when I was looking at your Facebook page and you were telling your story at the beginning of this, 14:33 You were doing homesteading in an apartment. We were doing homesteading in an 800 square foot house and a tenth of an acre lot with a house and a four car garage on it. And the thing that I love when I talk to people who are doing homesteading, not on homesteads as people think of it, is it proves my point that homesteading is a state of mind. It is a way of being. It is not owning property. Totally. 15:02 One of our big things is we always say a home setting is a mindset, not a location. Yeah. That I have it written on many shirts, actually, because it's so true. It's not about where you are. It's about what you're doing with what you currently have.  And when we were in the rental, we like I mentioned before, we raised chickens somewhere else and we had small little  container gardens everywhere we could put them. But we learned 15:31 canning  and preserving  and we worked with other farmers and local gardeners to get the things that we didn't have and to make those relationships and we had we have met so many great people in our community that they were like hey I have a ton of apples on my apple tree and I don't have time to pick them or I've picked all I want does anyone else want them and we were able to go get them for free  and make applesauce with them and then I would give them some applesauce as a 16:01 thank you and then year after year they would contact me first, hey, would you like apples this year? And we made so many  great connections with people,  just looking for other people that were like-minded and  trying to achieve the same thing or maybe had more than what they could handle with those things. Yeah,  absolutely. And there's a joke about chickens are the gateway to homesteading. 16:26 But I beg to differ. I think that if you start learning to cook from scratch, that's the gateway to homesteading. For sure.  mean, when you start realizing, I mean, it's all connected in one big rabbit hole. But when you start looking at what's in the food, in the stores and on the shelves and all the preservatives and the things that are in there and you start realizing, I can make something fairly quick that tastes way better. 16:55 that doesn't have all these extra things added to it that's much better for my health and my family's health. And you start doing that and then you start looking at all the other areas of things that you can do and okay, well now let's get chickens and now let's, you know, have a really large garden so I don't have to go buy the things that we eat. I can just make it all from scratch here as much as we can. We'll never be a hundred percent able to grow everything, but  we do what we can. Every little bit helps, yeah. 17:24 For sure. Yep. We're trying to be really aware about what we spend for money at the grocery store right now, because we have food in the house. There's no need to go buy food that's already made. And we had a few containers of homemade sloppy Joe and homemade taco meat in the freezers. And we, Sunday, we're like, what do you want to eat? And my husband was like, I don't really want pot roast. That's what I was supposed to make. 17:54 I said, I'll make the pot roast tomorrow. What do we have in the freezer? And he pulled out what he thought was the taco meat. 18:03 I ate a sloppy Joe taco with taco sauce on it.  I don't recommend anyone do this. It really wasn't great. It was food and it was edible, but it was not great. And I looked at my husband afterwards and I was like, I must be taking this not buying already made food thing really seriously. And he said, why? I said, cause that was the most unsatisfactory filling meal I've ever had in my entire life. And I don't want to do it again. Oh, that's funny. 18:32 It was not great. And luckily,  luckily he knew because I told him that one of the containers was sloppy. Joe me and he had already he had uh him. can't talk.  He had thought out an actual taco meat one as well. So he had a sloppy Joe in a rolled up tortilla and he had a taco in a rolled up tortilla. I was like,  I'm so mad. I wish I had known because I would have had you eat the sloppy Joe tacos and I would have had the taco taco. 19:03 He's like, you're a good wife. I was like, yes, I am. Don't you forget it.  Oh, that's so funny. But point being is that even if it doesn't turn out the way you thought it was going to, it's probably still going to be okay. For sure. There's always things I feel like that you can, like you learn, like, okay, maybe we need a better label or organize things or. 19:32 you learn of like, maybe if I, instead of adding taco sauce, if I added something else, maybe it would have been better.  And who knows? You can always change things around.  was hoping the taco sauce would make it taste like taco,  but a sweet taco is not a great thing. promise you. was about to say the sweetness of that poppy joke was probably a little much.  It was very funny and I did not vomit. So we're okay. 20:00 But  I don't want to do it again. I just thought it was a funny story because sometimes we might take things a little too far.  And  if I had been sick on it, that would have been a little too far, but it was fine. So you have chickens, you have turkeys. What else do you have? So that's well, we have a golden retriever, but that's we have for right now. But we have  we have plans for adding some Gloucestershire old spot pigs at some point. Not sure if that'll be this year or next. 20:30 year. I'm kind of hoping for this year but budget-wise it's probably going to be next year. So  there's so many things that we want to do but we're not in a hurry to  do it all right now. We want to thoughtfully plan it out and make sure that we're doing the best that we can with what we have  and doing the best for the animals. We don't want to get them and then risk them getting out because we didn't plan their structures out well enough. 21:00 you know, any other scenario like that.  we're  my husband is going slow and plant thoughtfully planning things out. And I'm thinking of all the things that we should do.  So he balances me out in that way, thankfully.  Yes, that's what spouses are for.  I'm always saying start small, dream big. Yeah, that's actually our tagline, which is really funny.  So we say at the end of almost all of our videos.  Yep. Because if you dive in, m 21:28 head-first, you better pray there's a lot of water or a lot of money in the bottom of that pool.  Right? oh And it's usually not money. No,  and if there's no water, you're gonna break your neck. yeah, starting small,  looking before you leap, thinking it through is all really good advice. But the worst advice  is don't dream.  Everybody needs a dream. 21:58 Absolutely.  And the other thing is that a lot of people,  they're researching, they're planning, they're dreaming, but they don't ever take that first step.  we always say,  you just have to start at some point. Just do it, just try it.  This year, so this property that we moved on had five silver maple trees. And this spring, we're like, we've never tapped maple syrup or maple trees before. 22:26 and made our own maple syrup, let's just try it. Let's just see how it goes. It is a lot of work. We spent the last two weekends, both Saturday and Sunday, each weekend, 12 to 14 hour days making maple syrup. Like it is a lot of work, but we have this beautiful golden maple syrup that tastes phenomenal that we made and we did it. And we wouldn't have had that if we hadn't done it and just tried it. Now there's a lot of things that we're going to 22:56 change and do differently for next year knowing what we know now but we wouldn't have learned those things if we hadn't just done it. We did do  a little bit of research before but and I grew up around ah maple tapping and sugar bushes. The farm that I grew up on we own half of the woods and the other half is owned by a sugar bush that they tap they've always tapped my family's trees and so I grew up around all this but I've never actually done it and 23:26 It was such a good learning process. But if we had just said, you know what, let's just hold off until we know everything. So you have to find that balance of don't just rush in  and do it all at once. Pick one thing. But at some point you do have to just start.  Yes. And sometimes your friends help you along the way. My friend brought me some sourdough starter that was very well established and beautiful. And she was like, 23:53 Here's what you do. I wrote out the instructions, blah, blah. And I kept it alive for about a week and I went to move the jar and it hit the floor and shattered.  Oh no.  Yes, I was very sad.  And then I got over my sad and I was like, I can  make a new one. And I did the flower and water thing in another jar. And I actually made two loaves of sourdough bread out of that sourdough starter that I started. They both kind of turned out. 24:23 um bagel-y like bagel texture. Yeah. They were good  and then it got the dreaded pink mold. I've talked about this a few times in the last  two it had to go in trash and I cried over that because that is not okay. That's not fun. Especially when you start it from yourself that is so hard to do. ah Yeah so I waited until about a month and a half ago to start a new one. 24:51 They got the pink mold back in September, I think it was. So I started new one about a month and a half ago. And it's now at the point where I might actually be able to make some sourdough bread again. And it's got all the little bubbles on the side of the jar. And I'm like, oh my God, it's alive and it's working. That will never not make me giddy. When I wake up in the morning and I see those bubbles on the jar, I get so excited. Over bubbles. 25:21 It's so dumb, but it's so smart at the same time. It's such a rewarding thing because it doesn't take much. It takes five, six minutes to feed your starter. And then it's just time. You're just waiting. You're not doing anything. And then you come back and check and it's alive and happy.  It's just, it brings me such joy.  I think the reason homesteaders like sourdough,  you know, the process is because it's keeping another thing alive. Right. 25:52 There's lots of chaos in our life. Let's just keep something else alive.  I was gonna say it's not enough to grow plants and animals. We need to grow bacteria too. Right.  Well, let's grow it all.  But I'll tell you there is something  really special when you make your first loaf of sourdough bread. Out of sourdough starter,  you start it because it is literally all on you.  100%. 26:20 I was so thrilled when I pulled the first loaf out and it was bagel-ish, bagel-y, however you say that, because I love bagels and I happened to have a brick of cream cheese that we had just bought in the fridge. I was like, I can't make a bagel to save my life, but I can make bagel sourdough bread. I love it.  Oh, I bet that was so good. Especially, like you said, when it's your first loaf that you did all of it from start to finish, there's,  it just... 26:46 adds to the flavor. Like it'll taste good regardless because you did it all.  Yes and I feel like it's a true homesteading skill which probably sounds really dumb because all of it is homesteading skills but  I feel like it's what people associate homesteading with.  For sure there's a there's a few bigger things like there's like three or four things right we have sourdough, chicken, 27:13 canning and gardening, those are the things that people really associate with.  Home setting.  There's so much more to it than that, but those seem to be the big things that people recognize as home setting. Yes, one of the first things that we did when we kind of got into this, and it was more me than my husband because he was the breadwinner. He was gone all the time.  We're raising four kids on one income and I was like,  the kids need scarves. I can learn to crochet. So I learned to crochet scars for the kids. 27:43 And I was trying to be really  aware of our food expenses because kids eat a lot.  so  I to make oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies and any kind of cookie or banana bread kept them very happy and snacks. none of them were fat. They were always running around doing stuff. So they were like, can I have a cookie? Yes, please. Before you're too skinny to live, you know. 28:12 And it was just all things that I was like, okay, if I make cookies, it's going to cost me less than buying cookies.  Absolutely.  So for us,  was a way, frugality was our gateway to homesteading. I know a lot of people that that's how they start because they don't have the option to  buy  the extras at the grocery store. They can buy the necessities and that's about it. 28:41 flour, sugar, milk, bread, right? Those kinds of things. And then they start realizing, well, if I can buy those things, I can make the bread and then I can make the cookies and I can make all the other things. And it is a way for them to save money in the long run.  Yes. And I felt like I had to because 29:05 I love my husband and I loved my kids. I still love my kids, but they're adults now. They make their own cookies.  And I felt like if I was going to be home with the kids, because I wanted to raise them myself, whatever I could do to save us money was making us money.  Oh, for sure. So it was a big deal. And my husband would get asked at his job, they'd like, they'd say, what does your wife do? And he would say, well, she is at home with the kids. 29:36 And they would say, isn't she bored?  And he would just laugh. He was belly laugh.  He was like, okay, you understand that my kids are 13, 11, um six and one. And they're like, well, yeah, but three of them are in school. And my husband would be like, yes. And one of them is one year old. She's got four more years to go for the last one in school. No, she's not bored. And she's smart. 30:06 she saves us more money than I make. And every time he would tell me this story, I would just feel such a sense of pride because I was like, I am earning  my keep and not that I was ever told I had to. Right. But I am, I am so lucky to be able to have my kids leave my house and I'm home. They come home, I'm home and I get to be here for them. Yeah, it's such a great feeling knowing that 30:35 these short 18 years that you get to spend with them because those years, it's the smallest part of your life is when you're under 18.  So  bidding to have your kids in your home with you  and spending the life together and doing every single day in and day out together for those short 18 years  is, in my opinion, worth the sacrifice. um 31:05 And then it takes because living on one income is hard. And we have so we homeschool our son. He's 13 and my husband works full time out of well, he works from home quite often, but he has to go in on surveys and things like that. But. I work two part time jobs that I get to work from home, so we're still able to homeschool and do I. I'm still able to be home with him and still make 31:34 some money for the family and things like that. we made the sacrifices and the things that we gave up so that we could have that time with him because it goes so fast. It doesn't last very long. No, it does not. And that's all I have to say or I will cry. Also, every human being 32:04 has the opportunity to make a choice about how they live their life. And some of us come  at it from a privileged place, some of us do not. I'm not saying that the homeless person in Minneapolis has a lot of choice right now, so don't get me wrong. But if you happen to be lucky enough to make choices about what you want to do with your life, you're one of the luckiest people on earth. And not everybody has to be a homesteader. 32:34 I get that there are some people who want to be in an office building  as a CEO of a big company and that is totally fine. You do you. But  I love that we get to make these choices. I love that my husband and I are thinking about getting into raising quail, have not actually decided yet,  but it's a choice we get to make this year. I love it. My husband wants to raise quail. 33:03 Yeah, we've been looking into that too. They're so cool. I've been diving deep on this for  a couple of weeks and hopefully  we can make a decision this weekend about what whether we're going to buy an incubator or not. That's that's the next thing on the list is to decide that. So  exciting.  It is. It's really fun. And  I just I looked up the little quail scissors that you use to clip the eggs open. 33:30 I was like, oh my God,  I'm actually looking up quail scissors on Amazon. I've got to be out of my freaking mind. I love it.  A friend of mine raises them. And so she gave me some eggs, some quail eggs and eggs and the quail egg scissors uh in exchange. We were bartering. don't remember what  I had and we exchanged. And I love a good barter and trade, by the way.  Oh, yes, my favorite thing. And so 34:00 my friend who raises quails, she loves to barter and trade as well. So we're constantly finding things that the other one wants or needs.  We're exchanging things and she keeps telling me, she's like, hey,  I'm going to have eggs  if you want to have quail. And I'm like, we do, but we might need to wait a year for that.  But oh, it's so tempting to do it this year because they're so cute. I love them. 34:29 I'm,  I,  I am going to have a hard time spitting this out. I am very excited at the idea. I am very concerned about the actual doing it because where we live, I'm not sure there's a market for quail meat or quail eggs.  And they don't want to get deep into this until we know that we can move a quail meat and quail eggs.  So we're going to start small. 34:58 we're only gonna get like 12 or 14. And that way if we can't move them, we just don't do it past butchering the quail that we have and having them in our freezer for ourselves. That's a good place to start when you're trying to figure out if this is something that's doable and starting with just a few because and that's kind of what we did with the turkeys. We have six and so we're like if this goes the way we want to go. 35:26 and we get the breeding pair and things like that, then we do potentially have a future. If not, we have six that are going to our freezer. Yeah. And again, start small, dream big. 100%. Yup, exactly. I'm so excited to start a new project with the husband because like I said, empty nesters. And when we get snippy with each other, it's time to get aligned on a project again. 35:57 But I'm like, okay, so we have chickens, have a dog, we have barn cats, and you're gonna be getting  into the gardens again this year.  Do we have time for a new project? 36:11 That's the hard part.  Because like I see all these different things that we want to do. But each one of those will take a certain amount of time. It's like, how much do you want to put towards one thing? Because that's how much you're taking away from something else. So it's definitely a balancing act to try to figure out how much you actually want to do each year.  And it's okay to try something one year and then realize, hey, it wasn't worth the time and the effort. 36:40 next year or you know we're kind of with that with the maple syrup because of all the time into it we were looking at each other as the snow was flying on saturday night and we're still not done  and we're like is this really what we're doing is this worth it and we're like do we really want to do this again next year but then you boil it down and you look at it and  we're like okay this was this is a short season it's 37:08 on a great year, it's a month  from start to finish. Yeah. And there are some years where you're lucky if you get a run for three days because things warm up too fast  and the trees butt out. And so we're like,  what we get from it, the time spent outside,  we literally every day, every Saturday and Sunday for the last two weeks, my husband and I have spent outside together or in the house finishing it off.  And like, 37:37 Just spending time outside together, just us around the fire while we're boiling saps. It was so fun.  those special moments, like, that makes it worth it for us, even though it's  really long hours and it's a lot of work, but it's only for a short time where there's other things that, you know, it's every day for a year, you're feeding an animal. 38:06 two, sometimes three times a year, or a day for an entire year, and that might not be worth it depending on your schedule and other things you have going on. And it's okay to change from year to year what you put your focus and your time into. 38:26 Certainly, absolutely. And again,  if you guys don't want a maple syrup next spring, you don't have to because  those trees don't care whether you get the sap out of them or not.  Right. We definitely will be.  But  there was a moment as we're sitting in the start of the snowstorm looking at each other going,  is this really worth it? But  it is. It really is worth it for us. Just the time we get to spend together and then the syrup. 38:56 we go through because it's really the only sugar source that we use except for a tiny bit of raw cane sugar. And so for us, it was worth it because we go through two to three gallons a year. And that's a we have right now just over two gallons. So it's almost a year's worth of syrup in essentially two weekends worth of work. So for us, it was worth it at least. 39:21 this year.  Another year if it only runs for three days and we only get you know a half a gallon it might not feel worth it. So it's okay to change from year to year. Exactly that's what I love about this particular life choice is that again you get to choose what you want to put your time into. And the other thing is that I feel like the halfway mark on anything is the hardest part. 39:47 The beginning is exciting and fun and the end is satisfying. But the middle is the part where you're like, why did we start this? It drags on. It's just like when you decide to clean your closet and it feels like a really great idea in the beginning and you get everything pulled out and you look around and you're like, oh, I have to put it back. I like that feeling. Yep, exactly. It's new energy is amazing. 40:15 Finished energy is amazing. Middle energy sucks.  100 % on almost every project I feel like it. m Yep, that's how it always is. I'll be feeling that way tomorrow or Saturday when I make my next sourdough loaf because anyone who's ever made a sourdough loaf knows  that it's not the actual making of it that's the pain in the ass, it's the waiting time.  100%. That's what takes forever.  Yep. 40:45 I was like, you're kidding me. I do the pull, the stretch and pull four times and then I have to wait half an hour until I can do anything else. A lot  of it's very, it's very needy. Like  every 30 minutes you're doing something, but then you need to wait.  Like, can I just do it all and be done and move on?  Yeah. My husband is the, uh, the yeast bread maker. He's very good at it. 41:12 And he was like, I can't believe you're going to do sourdough when you could just do yeast breads.  The issue is, that every time I try to make yeast bread, I kill the yeast. We cannot figure out how I do this. And he's really good at making yeast bread. And I was like, I just need to be able to say that I finally made a freaking loaf of bread from scratch. Give me the sourdough.  Yeah. I did sourdough for years and I did gluten-free sourdough for many years. then 41:41 we found a flower that my son could tolerate. And so then I do regular sourdough and it wasn't until about, think it was January of this year, maybe early February that  I  tried yeast bread for the first time in probably 20 years.  And I don't know why I had never really made sandwich bread and I decided to try my sourdough sandwich bread. I didn't like how many holes were in it. 42:11 It wasn't great for sandwich for me. And so decided to try yeast bread and now I'm hooked. And now I actually haven't been doing sourdough for a while because I've been making every week, I've been making two loaves of yeast bread and then pizza dough. I'm in my yeast era at the moment.  My husband is always in the yeast bread era. He's been making, he's been making four loaves of bread every other weekend. 42:41 because he really likes bread with his eggs in the morning for toast.  the least expensive bread at the local grocery stores is terrible. The only really good tasting bread is like $7 a loaf right now.  At the least he was like, I'm just going to start making bread. I said, okay, how's the smell amazing every other weekend? And he was like, yes, will. 43:08 So we've been reminded that frugality has lots of benefits. Oh, for sure. When you start looking at well, and so my son can't have gluten or dairy. so when we would go to the store and I'm looking and I'm gluten free, anything is a minimum of eight dollars, if not 15 for a tiny little package of this thing. I just like it. 43:37 It's so expensive. Now  there are occasions, right, where we'll get it as a treat and then it's something I don't have to make for that week. But  I have started making so many things and it does come out of necessity because if I bought  everything that we eat just pre-made from the store that's organic and gluten-free and dairy-free, oh my goodness, I cannot imagine my grocery bill. It's already high enough that is it it? 44:04 as it is just eating organic. It's maddening how expensive things have gotten. Yeah. And that's all I have to say on that too, because boy, we don't want that soap box coming out either right now. All right. This has been so much fun, Kendra. And I am not saying that everyone should become a homesteader. 44:29 but I would be remiss if I didn't say this again. This is my public service announcement for every episode. You ready?  If you don't know how to cook from scratch,  learn. And please get to know your local growers and producers because  it's so important to have a local source because supply chains do  have problems  and things just keep getting more expensive. Please learn how to take care of yourself. Absolutely. 44:58 Where can people find you? So we are on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram as Trina Homestead.  Fantastic. As always, people can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Kendra, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. All right. Have a great day. You too.    

Today I'm talking with Andrea at Three Birch Homestead. 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 Andrea at Three Birch Homestead in Canada. Good morning, Andrea. How are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Canada this morning? um It's a little bit cold. We had like a really warm spell and now it's kind of freezing again. 00:30 Yeah, I'm in Minnesota and we've had a couple of really beautiful days  and they're saying we're going to get snow tomorrow, a little bit of snow Thursday, and then they're kind of hyping up a bigger storm over the weekend. And I'm like,  it's March. Could we please put it to bed now? Please.  Yeah,  I'm ready for spring. There was actually a really like  heavy windstorm here the last couple of days and the power's been out, I guess, like all over the place. 01:00 um But because we're off grid, we like don't even notice. We just hear about it from other people.  Uh-huh. It's one of the benefits of living off grid. You've got that covered.  All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself, please. um We live in northern BC, Canada,  off grid um on a property, like a rural property.  We're about 45 minutes from the closest town. 01:30 an hour and a half from like a bigger center. So it's a bit of a drive. There is like a small community about  half an hour from here. um But there's just like a general store and a post office. It's not, there's not a whole lot going on there. Yeah.  So  and  we raise animals for  meat  and we um have kids and 01:59 homeschool and yeah, just sort of try to do as much as we can on our own and provide as much food as we can for ourselves. 02:11 Okay, I have a question. You have kids. How many kids do you have? um I have five kids. Two of them are adults, so they don't live with me anymore. And then I have  a  14 year old son and then a two year old and an eight month old. 02:29 Okay, having raised four kids without a whole lot of family around, because my family lives in Maine, uh how has it been for you? Do you have family at all in the area that can help out or is it just you? um When my other kids were little, I lived in a different area and I did have family around, so that was very helpful.  Here, we didn't have much family around, but my husband's parents recently moved to the area. 02:59 They live uh here half the time and then in Ontario half the time because they wanted to be closer to their grandkids.  So, um because the  two boys are their only grandchildren, so they wanted to be close. And so that's been really helpful. 03:16 good because when I hear moms having more than a couple of kids and I don't hear anything about extended family being able to kind of help out here and there, I worry because I did a lot of the raising of my four kids myself and it is a lot of stress and a lot of energy and I loved every minute of it but it would have been helpful to have extended family to step in. Yeah, it's definitely nice to have somebody. So I thought I 03:48 Yeah, I thought I would ask because  I don't recommend anyone do  homesteading or off-grid living or anything else like that if you don't have some form of community to  call on if you do need help. It's definitely nice. Yeah. you you disagree? Yeah,  I agree. It can be really isolating. When I first moved out here, 04:12 Like where I had lived before, I did live out of town, but I only lived a couple minutes out of town and I had lots of friends around. And so when I moved out here to live with my husband, like my now husband, I didn't really have that anymore. it definitely, I didn't realize how much it was going to affect me until I got out here. And then I was like, wow, like I don't have anybody. And so I was pretty lonely. And then my son joined Taekwondo. 04:42 which helped us to meet people. And so now I do have some friends around, but they're definitely not as close. they're, you know, a good 45 minute to an hour drive away. So I don't get to see people as often as I used to, but I've kind of learned to adapt. It's given me a lot more time to do stuff at home, which is nice. I spend less time socializing and more time making bread and doing other things that I wanted to do before too, but didn't have time for because I would be out and about. 05:17 Absolutely. I am an extreme introvert and I spend most of my weekdays from about 730 in the morning until about 430.  Just me. And I love it because I get so much done and I can pursue the things that I'm interested in without anyone being like, why are you watching about chickens?  Why are you reading a book about cows? know? Yeah. 05:43 So, all right, so tell me, tell me your, your living situation. Are you in a home? Are you in a cabin? Are you in a trailer? How does that work?  Um, we're in like a cabin, I guess it's,  it's not huge. It's  maybe like, there's probably 700 square feet in the main space.  And then there's a bit of an upstairs with the bedroom. It's pretty small. Uh, like I came from a house that was like, 06:11 2500 square feet.  it's definitely like been a transition, especially once we added two more kids to the mix. My teenage son has his own little cabin, which is nice. um And so  but then he's got to like run his own fire as well. So we've got two wood stoves that we have to maintain. But yeah, so it's it's a nice little like, long cabin. But we need more space. We're definitely planning on adding 06:40 some more space in the future. This summer we actually want to, we have a deck  and it's a really nice deck.  It faces a mountain and it's  a lovely view but we're actually going to enclose it and turn it into part of the house  and forego having a deck because we need the space more than we need a deck. 06:59 Yep, yep, understand. And that's the joy of being off-grid. You can probably add whatever you would like to add as long as you have the fundage or the bartering skills to get it done. Yes, well, and like where we live, there's not like building codes. Like we don't have to get a permit or anything. We can just kind of do what we want. And Will's parents are really good about helping us with that stuff. So they're going to help us build.  They've helped us build like all of our additions. My bedroom is actually 07:28 like upstairs and it used to just be like a loft and then there was like a big open like high ceiling and we basically closed that in so  we don't have the nice expansive high ceiling anymore, but we have like a whole bedroom up here now, which  we really needed because there was only one bedroom in the whole house and so  Sweet awesome. That's fantastic uh 07:54 Okay, and so do  you just heat with the wood stoves or do you have another source? Just the wood stoves, yeah. Okay. And do you have a... I assume you do not have a well, so how do you get your water?  There's a creek on the property that runs through and it's  basically glacial-fed water, like it comes off of the mountain. So we drink from that. It must be amazing water. 08:23 It's pretty good. Yeah, it's definitely, yeah, pretty pristine.  It's very cold.  I love that. My parents, when they built their first house when I was like six, we had moved from a suburb and the water was terrible to taste to drink. And when we moved into that house, the new house, they had an artesian well dug for it. And I can 08:50 vividly remember getting the first glass of cold water from the faucet and it tasted like heaven. It was so  clean and so cold and so sweet. And I was like, this isn't water.  My mom said, yes, it is. And I was like, it tastes really good. I could drink this all day. She's like, please do. It definitely makes a difference. Water is very important. 09:16 Yeah, where we live now,  my favorite glass of water is when it's minus 20 degrees outside because the water from the faucet gets so cold because again, it's a well. And  I really love my water  almost ice when I'm drinking it.  I understand the whole  glacial water is really, really good compared to just regular water. 09:40 Okay, so you have animals, what do you have for animals? We have um two milk cows  and a bull and then we have a steer that we're raising for meat. We have chickens, turkeys, pigs.  We have goats, but we're actually getting out of goats. We're going to sell the goats off. We use them to  clear land, like clear brush, to  create more pasture land for cows. 10:08 and they've done the job well  and  we really love having them like that when they have their babies. It's just like such a wonderful time, but  it's just a lot of work to move them around the pasture. So we're just, yeah, we're going to sell them off  and  focus on the cows. We got goats originally because  we wanted, well for pasture clearing, but also  we wanted to start with a  smaller animal for milking. 10:34 And so we did that, but we don't really enjoy drinking the goat's milk. We like, like I made cheese with it and the cheese was really good.  But so we, got a milk cow and we definitely like prefer the milk cow. 10:50 Okay, so as I'm sitting here listening to you, I'm assuming that you use the animals to feed yourselves. And so when you make cheese, how do you store it? Because obviously cheese needs to be refrigerated. So do you have like solar energy or how do you power your appliances? Yeah, we have solar power. We also have a generator. And yeah, so 11:18 The cheese gets stored in a fridge.  I vacuum seal it and then store it in the fridge. So a lot of our fridge is taken up by cheese and milk.  We don't have a lot of room for other things.  So we have to be careful about what we put in our fridge and we have to use up our leftovers like fairly quickly. uh But I haven't had to buy cheese at the grocery store in like a few years now, which has been lovely. 11:47 I was going to say, isn't that a great feeling just knowing that you are set because you did it? Yeah, I don't have to like really spend any time in the dairy section of the grocery store.  Okay, so now I'm going to ask an uncomfortable question because it makes me uncomfortable to ask it. But do you have a job because even if you are off grid and living quote unquote self-sufficiently, 12:13 money still does buy things that you can't make. So do you guys have a job or are you doing this all without jobs?  Yeah, for sure. It's definitely like a big question that people ask is like, how do you pay for this? And it was something that I asked too before,  you know, living like this. mean, I've always been interested in homesteading and I've always done a little bit here and there. But yeah, so I work online. 12:42 And then my husband has a glass studio. So he does some glass work. He makes jewelry and stuff. So that  funds like quite a bit of what we do. And then, you know, we have, we don't have a mortgage.  We don't pay an electric bill. Like, so we don't,  costs are low,  but we do, yeah, still need money. You could never not need money. I think it's. 13:10 silly to think that you could live without money.  Yeah, the reason I said now for the uncomfortable question is because I always feel weird asking people stuff about their  income or their finances or how they fund things. But people need to know that  even if you're going to be a homesteader, you're probably still going to have to have some kind of jobby job to fund it. 13:36 Yes, for sure. need to bring in an income. I get real twitchy when I have to ask that question. And I always preface it so that you guys brace for it, you know? Yeah, I don't like asking people how they make money either. I'm sorry, say it again. Oh, I don't like asking people how they make money either. Like it's one of those questions that's sort of like, it's like not really any of your business. But then I also totally understand why people ask it, you know? 14:13 Yeah, it's kind of like asking a mom these days whether their newborn son was circumcised or not.  It's a really slippery slope for a conversation. 14:27 Okay, what else can I ask you? um You're in Canada, it gets really,  really cold in Canada in the winter. So  when you have to get up  at, I don't know, 5, 6 a.m. and go milk the cows or feed the animals, how  many layers are you putting on in the morning? Because I know it gets really cold. Yeah, we live in like... 14:57 sort of a coastal area so  it's not quite as cold here as some places in Canada but we do still get like cold snaps where it's quite cold  and I actually don't go outside and do the chores I'm inside with the kids and I make the food and  stuff like that and then my husband and my son my teenage son go out and so  usually they're wearing 15:22 you boots and snow pants  and a jacket. If it's really cold, they're putting on like Bella clavas and,  you know, heavier wool underneath their jackets and stuff like that. But yeah, this year we haven't had any like really cold weather. It's actually been like quite mild this year. So that's been nice. If I go out, like if I'm milking the cow that I was milking the cow before I had my ah my last baby. 15:51 And  yeah, I would wear, you know, a sweater over top of like, I've got a lot of like merino wool base layer stuff.  And so, you know, leggings and pants and snow pants and wool socks and boots and wool hats. And yeah, you're definitely covering up everywhere.  Yeah, it's  interesting because my  mom used to pack away the summer clothes in October. 16:20 and pull out the winter clothes from the attic. And then in the spring, she'd pack away the winter clothes and unpack summer clothes again.  And I'm like, I don't even understand this concept anymore because in Minnesota,  you can have a 60 degree day in December. And I don't want to be without a tank top if it's 60 degrees outside because I'm going be outside and it's going be warm. And so my mom mentioned this to me that she had packed away 16:49 the summer clothes this past fall. And I said, you know, you don't really have to do that. You can wear the clothes all year round. And she laughed and she said,  you do your outfits the way you want to. I'm gonna do mine the way I want to. And it's funny because we all have our systems and our habits and the way we do things. And she said, seriously, you don't pack away your winter clothes in springtime? I said, no, because  it can be 17:18 in June in Minnesota and I want my sweater. And she just giggled and she lives in Maine. It's not that different. 17:28 Yeah, I do usually put away the  big winter gear  because  it doesn't get cold enough in the summer for us to need  snow pants and heavy woolies and stuff like that. But I will keep out some of the warmer clothes because at night, in the evenings if we're out, it gets chilly. um 17:51 Yeah, and actually, like I do keep a lot of  summer stuff out now because our house gets so warm because it's so small and we have like a big wood stove like right in the center of it.  It'll be 30 degrees in here at 30 Celsius. I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit, but it's it's warm. 18:17 Yeah. Okay. So what led you to wanting to live off grid? Um, I mean, I've wanted to live off grid for a long time. I, I've always been interested in gardening and wanted to have like my own animals and a milk cow. A lot of it is for health benefits and just having control over my own food source. But like my ex husband, 18:46 was not, he was sort of into that stuff, but not really. And so we never really like, actually were able to pursue it. I would do some like, I would dabble, you know, I'd do some canning and I did some wild harvesting and we had chickens and I had a garden and stuff like that. And then I got divorced and so I, I was, you know, on the market again and sort of was looking for, you know, someone to spend my life with and 19:16 that was definitely like something that I was looking for was somebody who was into those things, know, into self-sufficient living and stuff like that. It wasn't like it had to be somebody off grid necessarily, but just somebody who was living, you know,  on the land and gardening and  growing food and  raising animals and such.  And so when I met my husband, he was into all those things. So we hit it off pretty... 19:42 pretty quickly and he lived off grid, which was lovely. It was like, oh, that's cool. know,  I mean, we had a long distance relationship for like three or four years before I actually moved out here because where I lived, like my kids were attending the high school and  you know, I wasn't really able to move. Plus when I met him, he lived in just like a tiny shack. was just, it was like a non-insulated building.  The cabin that we're in now wasn't here at the time. 20:11 So it wasn't really like practical for me to move out here. ah But  yeah, like I definitely was attracted to the off-grid lifestyle, mostly just for self-sufficiency because you're not connected to, you know, main power grid. You're not paying a big corporation for your power and,  you know, they can hike up the prices at any moment and  stuff like that.  So. 20:37 Yeah, exactly. um We keep talking about looking into solar panels again. We have a big pole barn and it would be great for solar panels.  And every time I even dip my toe in the water to research it, I see big, big numbers to get solar panels installed. And I'm like, yeah, we don't have it right now. I want to real bad, but it's going to have to wait. Yeah, it's. 21:03 not a cheap thing, but I guess supposedly the prices have gone down significantly from when they first came out.  So the technology is getting better and  that's what we were told by someone that we know who installs solar panels. He was saying that  the prices have gone down significantly from what they used to be. em Well, maybe this fall I'll revisit it.  Yeah. 21:31 They now have like these bifacial ones too that capture sunlight on both sides,  which then you can kind of have them standing up. Like they maybe wouldn't work as well like  on a roof, know, like  mounted to a roof. But if they're standing up, then  you can get the sun from both sides, makes them more efficient. Very nice. That would be very cool. ah So  are your 21:57 I guess your younger kids don't know any different than living off-grid, right?  Yeah.  I mean, they're still young, like, so they don't really know  even what off-grid is, but  yeah, they won't know any different. Like, we have a composting toilet and we kind of joke about how our son is going to be like,  know, weirded out by like regular toilets when we go to town. 22:26 Yeah, the noise will scare him. Yeah, and like there's no water in our toilet and  you don't flush it.  But I mean, he has seen toilets in town, so I don't know if he'll actually be like so weirded out by it. But I'm sure at some point he'll ask us a question like, why,  why is our toilet not like this? Uh  huh.  Yeah, it's stuff you don't think about like that,  that when it comes up, you're like, oh, wow, I hadn't even thought of that. 22:55 Yeah, the craziest thing to me about like living off grid versus like living on It's like here. We...  Oh,  sorry. Yeah, just the  biggest thing that I've noticed with living like off grid versus living on grid is like when I go visit my friends who live on grid. 23:13 Like they're running, know, they've got their coffee machine on, they've got their microwave going, they've got their vacuum going, they've got like all these things running at the same time. And I just like, I can't live like that anymore. Like we can't do that.  You know, if  we're running the vacuum, it's like, that's the only thing that we're running. You know, we're not, can't use the toaster at the same time as the water pump.  you have to be really like. 23:39 careful about like what you're using when and so that'll be something that my kids  will  be used to and so you know maybe when we go visit other people they might be like why are they doing all these things at once like that's so crazy 23:59 Yeah, I feel like homesteading and living off grid makes you far more intentional about what you do and when you do it. For sure. 24:17 I lose you? No. Oh, sorry. I was really quiet there for a was like, Oh, sorry. for sure. then I paused. Yeah. I need to ask a couple of questions because it's three birch homestead and you're off grid. So 24:37 Yeah, no, that's okay. So again, three words. 24:48 Sorry, think we have a delay going on here. So, okay. No, we just have a delay. I can, I can tell. There you go. Okay. So your three birch homestead and your off-grid. So have you learned how to make your own soaps or your own lotions or do you do sourdough bread or any of the things that people usually think of when they think of homestead and off-grid? 25:15 um I don't make soap or lotion.  I buy those at the store from one of my friends makes soap. But I do  make bread and I make cheese and  cook most of my food from scratch. ah I have made sourdough, but  I haven't in a while. I recently got  a mixer for my birthday and so I've been making more bread. So I want to get back into sourdough. 25:42 I found that like hand kneading stuff just, it took too much time. So I just didn't bother. em But now that I have a mixer,  I am on a  major baking spree. 25:57 Yeah, my husband is the yeast bread maker. I've said this before, I kill the yeast every time I try to get it to bloom. I don't know why, it just dies on me.  And when  he wants to relax and  zen out, he will hand knead the bread dough. But when he just wants to get it done, he uses the KitchenAid mixer. And I always know when he's really thinking about something, because he's like, I'm going to make bread. And he gets everything ready and he gets the dough together. 26:26 And he slaps it on the island top and starts to hand knead it. And I'm like,  are you considering an idea or are you upset? Because the only time you need dough is when that's going on. And it's always a hint to me that he's in a state of mind about something.  could see that being like a therapeutic thing for sure. Yeah.  And the thing that I love most about cooking from scratch is that the house always smells good. Always. Yes. 26:59 My favorite thing that he makes is cinnamon rolls from scratch. And he makes the cinnamon rolls and I make the frosting and I always try to have lemon juice on hand so I can make a lemon frosting because lemon frosting on cinnamon rolls is amazing. That sounds really good. I've been making cinnamon buns too, actually. I  do like a sticky topping. So I cook like  that, right? I make butter and sugar and then cook it in that. um But yeah, lemon frosting. That sounds really yummy. 27:30 It's a drizzle. shouldn't say frosting because people are probably thinking of the buttercream frosting and I try to make it a drizzle  because if you try to put buttercream frosting on a warm cinnamon roll, it just slides off.  doesn't do any good. That's true. em 27:46 So,  all right, well, I try to keep these to half an hour.  I appreciate your time so much. I know you guys are all busy and you take time out of your busy days to just  basically entertain me and by default, entertain anybody who listens to the conversation. So,  where can people find you, Andrea?  I'm on Instagram at 3birchhomestead.com. 28:12 pool,  I will make sure I put that in the show notes so people can go look at your pictures because I did and I was like, wow, that's awesome. I  want to come back in my next life as an off-grid homesteader because right now on-grid homesteading is good enough. um As always, people can find me at AtinyHomesteadPodcast.com. Thank you again for your time, Andrea. I hope you have a great day. You too. Thanks.  

Today I'm talking with Sidney at Greenbush Twins & Company. 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 Sydney Greenbush at Greenbush Twins and Company in California.  And  is it 11 o'clock there? Yes. We just had daylight savings times,  you know, so that it would normally be 10, but now it's 11. 00:25 Yeah, so I would say, well, I'm in Minnesota, so I'm two hours ahead of you. So good morning to you and good afternoon to me. Good morning.  I am so happy to have you as a guest. I saw you on Facebook, your page, and I was like, hmm,  there's a story there. I've got to talk to her.  But before we get into it, I always say, how is the weather wherever my guest is? So how's the weather in California today?  Oh, it's really windy today, but the winds are supposed to... 00:54 die down. So we have the Santa Ana winds, which are the winds that come from the inland and blow out to the ocean. And they get very strong. You get gassed up to, you know, 60 to 100 miles an hour. So  we're all like  really ready for them to die down today.  I feel like 50 to 60 miles our mile hour and a winds. I can't say it.  I feel like 50 to 60 mile per hour winds. 01:23 are a weekly occurrence where we live in Minnesota. So  I'm used to it.  Yeah. We,  and for us, the winds aren't  the bad part of it. The bad part of it is when we have obviously the wildfires on top of it. So everybody kind of gets a little anxious because you never know when  one's going to pop up or where. Um, and so you're always kind of like got that little bit of guard going.  Yeah. Especially after last year, I'm sure you guys are on a swivel. 01:52 Yeah, and so for us that live in this area, we've had a few  really bad fires.  The last one was obviously the Palisades and the Altadena fire.  But years before that, we had the Woolsey and we've had um really bad fires in the  80s and stuff. One year,  actually burnt down part of  Johnny Carson's home.  So  it almost becomes a way of life here on the coastline around by Los Angeles because 02:20 It's not if you're going to have a fire, it's when are you going to have another fire? Because it's just the way that eh the vegetation and the habitat  kind of the ecosystem is. Well,  I'm always astounded at people who want to live in California. My daughter lived there for a few years and she loved it. She loved everything about it. And then she fell in love and moved to New York and now she's in Florida with her husband. So. uh 02:49 Yeah, it's amazing where you'll move for the person you love.  So let's just address the elephant in the room. If Sydney's name sounds familiar, it's because she played along with her sister, Carrie on Little House on  the Prairie. Right.  And Sydney  is  way more than just that. She has started a new project  and I think it's fairly recent, like in the last year. Yeah. 03:18 Well, the, really started in December was the official launch of the website and the ramp up for the book, the seven sisters, lantern of humanity.  And so it's all just very fresh for, for me. And it's been an amazing trip so far and I can only imagine what the future holds, you know. Yeah. Are you still riding the new energy high of a new project? 03:46 I am because I keep thinking at some point, you you try and build your audience and I keep thinking at some point, okay, it's going to taper down because it's not quite so new anymore.  And it's been about six months that we've been, we've been talking about it. But every day I'm so surprised because I, I log in and then the number has increased and sometimes it's not like a major increase, but it's still that momentum going forward and it hasn't tapered off yet. 04:16 And then I start to get excited and I start thinking, oh, I could do this and I could do that and I could do that. And I'm like, OK, slow down. You got to focus like one one thing at a time. Let's get through the first one first. You know, so. Oh, yes, I woke up this morning and I know I was going to be talking with you. I knew I had to get two podcasts ready to go out for tomorrow. I also have a course that I'm supposed to be taking that someone gifted me about raising quail that I need to sit down and look at. 04:44 And I was like, I can't do all three of these things at the same time this morning. So one thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. And if I don't get them all done, it's OK. Right. Yeah. And  see, I'm, you know,  I'm easily excited about things that I want to do.  And so that's where I really have to manage my focus, because it's easy for me to start something. Right.  But the hard part is. 05:11 Seeing it through to completion, right? So  I have to remind myself before I get off on another tangent like I really need to do this especially when it comes to like housework because I Really don't like it. So I have to go. Okay. Yeah, you need to really do like your laundry or clean the kitchen You know that kind of stuff that we all have a tendency to put off a little bit but em But it's all good once you know those things about yourself and your personality 05:39 and you acknowledge it, it's much easier to manage it, you know? Absolutely. And housework never ends. So you just do it as it comes up. um So tell me, tell me about, tell me about um Greenbush Twins and Company. Well,  Greenbush Twins and Company,  the and company really refers to other artists, other collaborators and our  our followers, right? 06:08 an idea that none of us can do something completely on our own, that we do need each other and together our differences and our experiences, they  make us  stronger. Because I might have experience in one area, but when I decided to do like the children's book, that's an area that I didn't have any experience in. But I was willing to,  you know, try and take that adventure. 06:37 but you need somebody really that has the experience to help to guide you, to show you  the ins and the outs and the dos and the don'ts.  And so that's really what Greenbush Twins is meant for. And it's also meant to help support the small batch makers, the smaller artists, people that  may not get the... 07:02 notoriety because  the marketing may not be in their budget or uh they just haven't  got to a platform where they can really, really shine  and uh sustainable living and all that stuff. So it's really a platform  made to be a hub where, say, if you're looking for a hair product or you're looking for a piece of artwork or something that's uh special, that's handcrafted, 07:31 You can look through the directory that we have,  the products that we represent, and you can see if you can uh find what you're looking for.  And if you can't, there's a few of the  collaborators and artisians that do  custom work. So you can reach out to them or we can facilitate reaching out.  And uh that's really what it's meant to be. uh Corporate America really doesn't... 07:57 care about people. They don't care really what they're putting in their products. And this has really uh been  shown by like, for example, everybody thought it was so great when we got non-stick pans that were coated in Teflon, right? But then they found that Teflon caused cancer and they knew about it, but they didn't take it off of the market. So it's really an aim at  bringing products that don't have those 08:26 conservatives, those toxins, those things that you may not see them affect you today, but down the road, it will have an impact on your health um and try and come back to the more  natural holistic living like you saw, you know, even in little house, you know, a lot of things were handmade.  And I think that  as a community, we will be stronger because we'll be able to 08:54 do things that  are more sustainable in the long run.  there's,  Los Angeles is known for having a huge um garment district. But now you're seeing that there's garment companies that take in, they recycle clothing so that it stays out of the landfills.  And there's companies that go to like the fashion district and they um buy all the fabric from the previous year from the fashion shows that didn't get used. 09:23 And they repurpose it, break it down and sell it out to  people that sew and create  and upcycle.  And so that we're not always just making the planet toxic  by shoving all this stuff in the landfill that takes so long to break down.  Absolutely.  I haven't bought new jeans in over five years.  I have three pairs of jeans that don't have any holes in them at this point. oh 09:53 And  I  patch my jeans with the old jeans that do have holes in them that I can't wear anymore. So I know what you're talking about. Right. And it's so stylish now to take those holes and put like  patterned fabric underneath it and let it peek through. then that um what normally would be  considered like  a uh flaw in that actual pair of pants. Now you've actually made it into a fashion statement that, you know, 10:22 can go forward on its own, its own design.  So it's really incredible a lot of what the people that are um doing the upcycling and stuff um are doing with  fabric. And there's people taking old lamps and making them into  plant stands and different things. And I'm  always amazed at the creativity of how people repurpose something into something else. I've 10:48 I would be like, I never would have even thought of that, but it works so perfectly the way that they've done it, you know? And so  that's the really fun part of the journey  is sharing the creativity with other creative individuals.  Yes,  there is nothing more beautiful than seeing somebody's light shine. Right, yeah, exactly. And  I love, you know, trying to help people  get their light to shine because 11:17 A lot of people will say that they're not creative, but creativity isn't something you're born with. It's actually a muscle that you exercise. And I think John Cleese one time uh explained it the best that it's like it's a mode of operating. It's like a perspective that you have. It's not anything that you can't learn or do. It takes practice like any other art form, but it's something that is available to everyone. Thank God. 11:46 Otherwise it would be a really boring world.  you said  back a few minutes ago, kind of like on Little House. So that leads me to a question that I feel comfortable asking you about Little House on the Prairie.  Did it inform who you became as an adult  in acting as Carrie in that particular timeframe? Did it color who you became? 12:11 Well, I believe that all our experiences kind of color who we are,  even if we don't, you know,  directly recognize that they did, they even subconsciously have  an influence. But yes, it did because  we started so young.  And when we started Little House, we actually had come off of another movie called Sunshine with  Cliff DeYoung and Christina Reigns. 12:39 And having a father that was an actor and a mother that was in  a model, a successful model,  it kind of gave us an open door that a lot of other people don't have.  But we started so young that we really didn't know anything different. We thought everybody did this, that this was like the normal way that you grow up. So when I think back on childhood or I talk to people about their childhood, there are 13:08 certain things that  are missing, like there's gaps, because we spent so much time on the studio set or there was  birthday parties that we couldn't go to because we were working or my mom used to trade out,  because we went to public school when we weren't uh working.  so  certain years, my sister is in the school photo and certain years it's me because my mom used to take one of us to work and then one of them would stay back for the  annual. 13:37 you know, class photo and such. So yeah, directly it shapes a lot of  who you are. And then  when you're a kid, you see how other people treat other people. And that is a guideline for you too. And the messages in the themes of Little House as we got older and we started reading the books, they resonated  also because then you understand, you have a better understanding of the purpose of the whole bigger picture of the show. Yeah. 14:07 Absolutely.  I grew up on the East Coast. I grew up in Maine. And I think the fifth or sixth  novel book I read when I was seven years old was the first book in the Little House series. And I ended up reading all of them and had no idea that I would end up living in Minnesota.  And so when I moved here, I was like, oh, man. 14:34 I live in the state where Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family spent some time. Do you think I've been to any of the places that  commemorate that? No, I have not yet.  I live half an hour from Mankato, Minnesota.  Well, we'll have to change that one time when I'm in,  next time I'm in Minnesota.  yeah, I would love that. That would be so fun. 14:58 Walnut Grove is actually one of my favorite places to go and when they have Laura Ingalls Wilder days, um every year that the museum has asked me to go, like, just tell me when to be there. I know it's July, but just tell me when. And uh the people in the town are so hospitable. And then you always hear the story of the people that came. It's like their family vacation and they've saved for it all year.  And it's a really big event. 15:26 And sometimes the stories are just so incredible because you'll see that um everything in somebody's life is totally breaking apart and they've got these huge things going on. But the one thing that gives them solace and consistency is watching the Little House on the Prairie  series and reading the books. And so a lot of times they'll tell you these stories and they make you teary-eyed because to have such a 15:53 profound effect on somebody's life. It's not anything you ever imagined you were capable of doing, you know,  so  it is  it's just really it's hard to articulate  the profound that effect it has on the cast as well as uh the fans and we're very appreciative of the fans because we know for all those years that we were 16:19 uh on NBC and the years after if it wasn't for their loyalty and their patronage, we wouldn't be able to do the things that  we have done like  for the 50th. They took  a uh group of the cast member to Monaco and they did a big film festival in Monaco. And you know, when  I was like, you know, seven or eight and doing the show, that is not, I mean, I didn't get to go. 16:44 because I didn't have my passport at the time, but  that wasn't anything I ever thought would be an offer for us to do. So it's just amazing. It's special in the truest sense of the word. Yeah. Yep.  And the other thing that I would tell you is that in reading the Little House on the Prairie books and watching the show, it colored my perspective and 17:10 I'm sure that's why I live on a 3.1 acre homestead with chickens and a dog and a garden and barn cats, because the stuff that you read when you're a kid, it sticks. It sticks in the back of your head and it, it paints a picture of the things that you could do when you're a grownup. Right. Right. And who doesn't want to have like a Jack or a bandit or 17:35 you know, a raccoon that stays in the barn  or a bunny who doesn't want to go riding on bunny all the time, you know,  and  there's a lot of those connections just not between people on the show, but between, you know, humans and animals and stuff like that. You know, you get kind of like the little lassie theme with with Bandit, you know, where he seems to have this understanding beyond just being a dog, you know. 18:03 uh And those things are really, I think, important to kids to inspire them to use their imagination and think beyond the social restrictions and not everything fits in a little, know, perfectly little neat compartmentalized uh box, you know. So it's important for them to know that there are alternatives out there if you don't want to settle for what is right in front of you. Yep. My bandit is named Maggie and she's a girl dog. 18:33 Mine is named Rios. Rios? Uh huh, Rios. Nice, okay.  So tell me about your book. I didn't realize that you had written the book because I glanced at the picture and didn't realize it was your book.  Yeah, it's my book and uh it's geared towards children ages two to nine. So it's  more, you know, pictures rather than actual uh written word. 19:00 But it's based on  the seven angelic virtues  and there's the seven sisters each one of them embodies  one of the virtues and is named after them and then they're sent to  the earth to help the humans because Psyche who is known  as the mother of the soul in Greek mythology she  was a human and then got turned into a 19:28 or God later, which is a whole another story.  she creates the seven sisters and sends them to Earth to help humans learn how to cope and manage.  then she gives them the  lantern of humanity, which is a beacon and will shine a light when somebody is struggling and lead the sisters to that person to help them uh work through a resolution together. So it um 19:59 It fosters that even though you may have a personal struggle, you're not alone in your struggle. There's others that can help you.  And it really kind of uh echoes that through teamwork, ah we can do  incredible things and make changes. That's beautiful. Did the book just come out?  It's actually being delivered today, believe it or not. So we were taking pre-orders and then... 20:26 We're gonna start uh mailing them out this week.  And the first 150 of the books are limited edition series  that have an authenticity certificate in the back of it.  They're numbered and they have my signature. And then they're in a hard laminated cover for longevity and durability so that uh they won't get  bent or tweaked out of shape. 20:56 And then the spines on them are all hand bound  and there's beautiful illustrations in uh them. it's been so interesting because when we made the illustrations, I didn't have any experience doing a book and neither did the illustrator that helped me. And so when you do it, you're supposed to use a little extra room so that some of it can fit into the binding. 21:23 And I didn't know that so that we had to go back and rework all the images so that when we bound them, all the um story wasn't in the the seam of the of the book. So I delayed us a little bit, but it's probably going to be better in the in long run, you know.  So, yeah, so so excited. I'm very excited to see them  with the certificate of authenticity and everything today. And then I'm going to do like an unboxing. 21:53 video so that everybody can kind of open them with me for the first time.  I'm so glad you said that because I was just going to ask you if you're going to do that because I would love to see your face when you open that box of books.  Yeah, I'm not uh I'm not  technically  good enough yet to do like a, you know, a Facebook live, but I will do the actual, you know, real video footage so that people can can see it and then. 22:22 Eventually I'll get there. I'll get to where I can do like the podcast and the live and all that stuff. But it  just has picked up so much momentum  since December that I'm caught a little off guard because I never did all the social media stuff  before. So now I'm having to learn it along the way too.  Just if you get frustrated, take a breath and walk away from it. 22:51 do something else like dishes by hand because it will give your brain a chance to catch up. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. And there are times like that. And I think that's totally normal for everyone. So I have to remind myself because we always hold ourselves to a super high standard and I know I do. And so a lot of times when I'm trying to do some of the reels, I might have scripted out the keynotes of the dialogue. 23:21 that I want to use or the key points that I want to hit. But I try and keep it a little bit fluid because it's easier for me because as soon as I lock it down and it has to be certain words, I get super tongue-tied. And the more I get tongue-tied, the more frustrated I get. And there are times where I have to do exactly that and go, okay, just take a break for a minute. It's not such a big deal. Like we've got all day to do this, you know. 23:50 And you step away for a second and come back because uh you  start thinking like, you know, why can't I do this? Why isn't this easy? And one of things I had to adjust to is like when you  use like your uh cell phone to do a video, you're actually seeing yourself in the video as you're talking. And so that can itself can be a distraction. And then you start getting self-conscious and you're like,  well, 24:20 Do I really move my hands that much? Do I really make that face? And then all of a sudden you're off track from what you're trying to do and you're like, okay, okay, like just take a minute. absolutely. People think that doing social media, know, doing videos is easy. It's not. I refuse to do them because it does the same thing to me. I get distracted by the phone and I cannot think. And it's been something I've really had to 24:50 adjust to. never realized like I've known people that did like, you know, TikTok videos, and they call them influencers and that kind of stuff. And I was like, Oh, yeah, great. But I really never realized how labor intensive it is, how detailed it is. Like when you get into the marketing of it, how you can break it down into different demographics and stuff. And it's just way more 25:18 uh technical  than I ever gave it credit for. So  to all the people that do social media and run their own sites and their own pages,  you have kudos from me because it's way more work than anybody ever gives, probably gives you credit for, you know? It is. And it's funny because I  don't, I do two podcasts. It's easy because I don't go on video ever. 25:46 So I don't get distracted. get to focus on the person I'm talking to.  And it works great. And I keep thinking I really should do video. I don't want to. Probably never will. We'll see what happens.  So I have one more question about the Green Bush Twins and Company project that you're in the middle of, the beginning of. um Is it just California artisans or is it  nationwide? 26:14 No, it's nationwide and eventually I'd like to be, you know, worldwide. um Really, we're all just uh human beings. It doesn't matter if we live uh in Europe or if we live in  the United States or if we live in South America.  We're all just humans trying to  get along and  do our thing. And so  it started here in California because I am here, but it's not 26:43 uh restricted to anyone. I really want it to be an open format where everyone is welcome,  every voice matters, when we get to the part where we can share stories and uh experiences, then we can get there too. uh And it's  really  making those human connections. uh We  as a society have 27:08 lost some of our human connection, right? Because everything's um online now. And although you can connect with people  visually and auditorially, m you lose that touch and that feel. So eventually we'll go out and I'll do um site, like we can call them site visits, but um public appearances in different places and. 27:34 help to bring people into that area. And if anybody ever wants to be involved in the site beyond just being in like a joiner of the community, like if you make things and you think you've got something that you want to  propose to the site, by all means contact me, you know, because that's really what it's meant for. Like  it's to shine a light on those individuals that may be 28:02 uh can't reach out to a lot of people but have stuff that they believe in or they want to promote or  they want to show you that there's an alternative uh product that  you don't have to necessarily use the stuff that  Big Pharma or corporate America tells you  is what is proper to be used.  love that you're doing this, Sydney. Thank you for doing it. 28:32 And I love the concept of your book and I will tell you why. The reason why is because the last probably five or six years have been scary and chaotic and  weird and there is still light in the world. And I think that you are  like one of the brightest lights shining in it right now. Oh, thank you so much. That's sweet. But  I agree with you. I've seen that too.  When  I was a 29:00 a kid, you know, we were always talking about the golden rule. And sometimes you ask kids today and you ask them, do you know what the golden rule is? And they'll say, oh, yeah, that's Bitcoin. And they don't they don't have those little sayings and phrases that we had um growing up. And so it's really to to try and show the younger generation that  even if something looks scary or looks different, 29:27 It's not something to be feared. doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. You know, it could be a great thing, but you won't know until you, you know, try. um so, yeah, it's really something that  has come around because of my time on Little House, but it's kind of the same um lessons and morals, but in a fresh uh format, you know. 29:56 There, for some reason I lost you. Oh, you can hear me now? I said, I here's an older, an old saying for you too. Don't hide your light under a bushel. That's right. That's right. That's a good one. I like that one. Yeah, I'm 56. My mom is 79 and my mom had all kinds. She's still with us by the way. But when I was a kid growing up, she had all kinds of sayings like that. And I remember all of them. 30:23 And I will say them around my grown kids. And they're like, that's so old fashioned.  It's it's funny because you and I are the same  age. I'll be I'll be 56 in May.  But yeah, you you you say that to people and then you go, oh, my God, I sound like my mother. Where did that come from?  Well, I love my mom, so I'm OK with sounding like my mom. And  my dad had sayings, too. He's still with us as well. He's 82. 30:51 I insulted him the other day because I said he was 83 and he was like, I am not. I was like, well, I just gave you back a year of your life then. but, but if you're lucky enough to have parents that share things like don't hide your light under a bushel and do onto others, it's, it's a great thing. Oh yeah. I mean, I, a lot of those little things are 31:18 Because the way Seven Sisters was set up was to be a series of seven different books. so  obviously the first one is easiest because it deals with envy and greed, which are really common themes. then that's some of the later stories are going to be,  know, don't  be afraid to be you. Don't be afraid to be different.  know, not everybody has to be the same thing. And  we're actually better when  we're different, you know. 31:47 So if you come up with any other good things, send them to me. Variety is the spice of life, my dear. That's one for you. Yeah, that's a good one too. All right. Sydney, this was a joy. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Where can people find you? Well, you can always contact me through the website, is greenbishtwins.com. 32:12 or you can email me at info, I N F O at greenbushtwins.com. And both of those come straight to me. Okay. Fantastic. And your green bush twins and company on Facebook as well. Right.  And Facebook, Instagram, and in LinkedIn, think we have LinkedIn too. All right. Fabulous.  Um, as always, people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast.com and 32:38 Sidney, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Oh, you too. And thank you for reaching out to me.  Thank you for having the time. I really appreciate it. All right. Thanks.  

Today I'm talking with Emily and Nathan at Small Scale Rebellion. 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 If you're a homesteader who wants to get paid for your content without living on social media, check out SteelSpoonFarm.com. Founder Jen Kibler teaches you how to build a real blog or your email list and use Pinterest for sustainable marketing. Inside her coaching group, Content Seeds Collective, you'll get weekly live coaching, a private community, and access to her Root Seller Resource Library full of tutorials and templates. Join today for just $37 a month and start building a business that doesn't depend on the algorithm. 00:26 A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Seals Spoon Farm. 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 Nathan and Emily at Small Scale Rebellion in Canada, and  Emily told me, where in Canada?  Where in Canada are you, Emily?  We're in the West Kootenays of BC. Okay, thank you.  Welcome, you guys. Good afternoon. How are you? 00:56 We're good. Thanks for having us. Thank you. I always start every podcast with how's the weather? How's the weather where you are? That's a little gloomy. Yeah, we're over winter. It's just dragging on. But the words are coming back and you can kind of tell that spring is just around the corner. So it's like the final stretch. Yeah, I stepped out on my porch about two hours ago, maybe three hours ago now. 01:25 and I could hear birds singing and I was like,  oh, the blackbirds are back. have a, um there's a word. Can't think of it.  We're in a flight pattern for these blackbirds.  They come back every spring. Migration pattern. There we go.  And this is the earliest they've come through in the five years that we've been here. So I think we're looking at an early spring.  Yeah, for sure. It was like a really mild winter,  all things considered here. 01:55 So we are looking forward to hopefully an early spring, but also a moderate fire season because normally if the snowpack isn't very good in the winter here, we have like horrible fires.  So fingers crossed that doesn't happen. I'll cross everything I have for you because wildfires are a terrible thing.  And that does not mean that burns are a terrible thing. 02:22 Burns are important for agriculture and for growing things, but they need to be  not taking down structures that people live in or killing people. So that's my caveat there.  All right. So I was very excited to stumble across you guys on Instagram. Tell me about yourselves and what you do at Small Scale Rebellion. So  we're farmers first and foremost. um Our farm is called Confluence Farms. 02:49 And we started Small Scale Rebellion as a way to teach other farmers how to have profitable farm hubs. a farm hub is composed of four components. It's online ordering, a, help me out here. Home delivery, a collaborative. 03:13 a full diet offering. we do local food aggregation. So we've become like a one-stop shop for all things local.  And then we also do free choice  ordering exclusively.  And so people can order what they want, when they want. And then we even have like a credit-based CSA. So people buy credits to our store. And then that way we get money upfront, very similar to  a CSA, except you don't have to commit to like a weekly CSA box for 20 weeks. You can just pay us. uh 03:43 for credits and then use them whenever you like. And what we discovered is that  when you make eating local easier, a lot more people will start doing it. Yes, because humans love convenience.  And instead of fighting that, I think it's important to,  you know, just embrace it  because if you don't, it's really hard to make it as a farmer. Oh. 04:11 Absolutely. And what you're doing is amazing. So  what made you decide to do this? 04:19 Um,  well, it kind of happened by accident.  We actually started, um, we had this  kind of goal of just growing all of our own food for a year.  And  when you start growing food, you always end up having too much food. And so you end up giving it away to friends and neighbors.  And we were doing that for a few years and then COVID happened  and  we didn't really have, uh, 04:48 That kind of affected our income.  And we were getting ready to grow like a half acre worth of food, which  thinking back now for two people is like an insane amount of food. Like it shouldn't have been growing that much, but we, didn't know what we were doing. We're just like, Oh, let's just grow a little bit of everything. And then COVID happened. And then we were kind of locked inside and thinking of ways to make money and we were already growing food. So we're like, Oh, why don't we just start selling the food that we grow? And so we decided to grow even more food. And then. 05:18 because of lockdowns, like, well, what if we do like online ordering and home delivery? And so we started doing that and then that started taking off.  And then we had an opportunity to move to the Kootenays where we are now and start a farm on  an elderly couple's  homestead who were looking for farmers to come in and kind of take over the farm and to help them with the property. So, and moving here was like our ultimate dream. Like our ultimate dream was to start a farm in the Kootenays. 05:45 And then we just kind of stumbled our way into it. And then, yeah, it's just been kind of growing ever since. we've been refining the model and making it better. And now it's at the point where it can support the two of us full time, full year round with just a half acre and the two of us. no, employees or volunteers. Wow. That's, that's amazing. Okay. I have two questions. First one is what, what are the Kootenays? Is it mountains? 06:13 Very mountainous. Yeah, it's like rural, very rural BC.  We're in the boreal forest. So it's like green mountains in every direction, lots of rivers, huge  freshwater lakes. It's a really, really beautiful and popular area. There's a lot of actually Americans that live here too. It's like an international kind of hub because there's lots of  snowboarding and things like that here too. So there's like Australians and New Zealanders and Americans. 06:42 people from all over the place kind of in this one little unique area.  Okay, thank you. Cause I didn't know what they were and that helps.  Um, and then  if you are growing more than a half an acre of food, you must have equipment. You must at least have like a bobcat tractor or something.  No. we're doing a half acre like exactly.  And it's all by hand. 07:10 That's one of the really like when we started our farm, we had no money like  negative amounts of money  and  we've just been very scrappy  at um Making it work  and  We don't have like a walk-behind tractor. We don't have anything with an engine except for our Delivery vehicle, so it's all no till um regenerative  ag 07:38 And we have permanent beds  and  you know, we just make it work.  Um, and you know, we would have, if we had money in the pat, in like the first couple of years, we definitely would have bought a lot more tools,  but not having the money  made us half to get creative.  so we like borrowed tools, we got tool donations.  Um, we traded neighbors for different services, like tilling. 08:06 And we just kept everything super duper lean  because we don't own our land  and we've had to move our farm three times,  four times  in the past five years.  we just, you know, having a bunch of equipment wasn't  an option.  And it actually turned out to be good because like, what we realized is that you don't actually need to spend a whole lot of money to  farm. 08:36 You just need like really good systems. And then if you do like things like local food aggregation, you can get your sales up by collaborating rather than trying to grow everything yourself. oh So it was a very interesting experiment that actually turned out to be a blessing because, um you know, we've been able to stay small and manageable and profitable with just a very, very simple setup. And very little overhead. And that's also because, you know, you can't really invest. 09:05 in leased land very much. So working within the constraints that we have has been kind of like the theme. Okay. So what do you guys grow? So we focus on growing all of our summer stuff, like everything that's perishable. So we grow kind of like most of the normal things you would see at a farmer's market, know, carrots, beets. 09:35 all the salad greens, the lettuce, cherry tomatoes,  the hits, cucumbers. We also grow flowers,  which we just started a couple of years ago  and  is something that I really love doing. ah So what we don't grow  is all of the storage crops.  And we actually have a very long winter here. So we actually  buy in enough storage vegetables to last us like seven months of sales. So we buy in. 10:04 potatoes, storage carrots, onions, garlic, rutavega. All the root vegetables. All the root vegetables  and those in general come from farms with tractors. So we're leveraging the equipment that other farms have instead of investing in our own.  That's  smart. That's a really great business plan. uh 10:34 Okay. So the other thing I wanted to touch on, as you mentioned, COVID.  I can't believe how many times COVID comes up on this podcast. I swear it should be a drinking game.  If you hear a COVID, take a shot, you know,  and don't do that. I'm joking, but that's how it feels.  And I feel like COVID  really kickstarted what was already a movement into a runaway train.  Yeah. 11:04 One concerning  thing that a pattern that we see and one of the reasons we started Small Scale Rebellion is that there was a lot of farms that started during COVID  and a lot of those farms end up failing, um which is not good for the local food movement  and  we don't want that to happen. So that's why we're sharing everything that we've learned with farmers so that 11:34 you know, we can make local eating mainstream and we can make sure that farmers are thriving instead of just surviving or going out of business.  Yep,  absolutely. And I'm going to say it again,  if you, for the listener, if you don't know your local growers and your local producers,  you should start getting to know them because the supply chain issues that happened during COVID, that's not necessarily a one-time thing. 12:03 It could happen again and again and again. Yeah. I mean, it's inevitable.  It has happened for us before too. It's not just COVID. It's like if there's a natural disaster, like a fire is like the trucks.  But there was another time where trucks, uh, the food trucks couldn't get to where we're at. And some of the shelves went bare again and people were freaking out and they were all,  you know, excited to eat local again and reaching out to local farms. then once,  once the food's back on the shelves, they just. 12:32 people forget and they go back to their normal routine and it's just like this cycle of, you know, fear and then back to normal.  Yeah. And it's so frustrating because I feel like the stuff you get local tastes so much better than what you get at the grocery store.  100%. And I mean, in our area, the price, like, I'm not even, I need to go and do like a more thorough price comparison, but like the prices really aren't 13:01 very different.  And that's probably because we're in a very isolated area  and  it costs a lot to get things to us. And so local things are, you know, naturally a little bit cheaper. But I don't think that the price difference is that big or as big as people think it is in their minds. And then when you add in the fact that 13:30 you know, it's more nutritious  and it's strengthening the local economy, which has like a huge beneficial ripple effect. I think that  local food is the way to go.  Yeah. think it's, um, it's too inconvenient for most people's lives. And so people would eat  local more if it was more convenient. And then that's kind of what we discovered and that's  kind of what we feel. And that's kind of what we're trying to convince other farmers. 14:00 to do because there's this mentality like, the customer needs to go out of their way to support local. Like, why don't they care enough to go out of their way? But what we're saying is like, they do care. They just need to be easier. And if it's easier, they'll do more of it. Mm-hmm.  Yeah. And what I would say the average American, but I think the average human  doesn't realize is that the longer the produce has to travel and has to sit and then is stocked at the grocery store. 14:29 the nutrient denseness of it drops by grand percentages. Yeah. And then you're getting even less value for your money.  Right. Yep. So  again, for the listener, if you want nutrient dense,  really fresh,  good food, find out who your local growers and producers are because you're going to get a lot more bang for your buck. Yeah. And I will, I will. 14:58 I will die on that hill, damn it. Go ahead, Emily, you were going to say. Support them all year round too. Not just during the peak season, like farmers need income year round. Like one of the big things that we have an issue with is like, we have lots of variety of winter crops, but people just lose interest like dramatically during the winter and then they come back in the summer. And like, that's just not a sustainable way to. 15:28 you know, keep farms alive. No, yeah. And it's, it's like a cultural thing. I think, you know, people are used to eating cherry tomatoes and cucumbers all year and they just don't really know how to cook with winter vegetables or they don't care to,  you know, so it's definitely like, we've done a lot of education with our farm around eating seasonally, particularly in the winter. And it's pretty hard to move the needle. Um, but it's something that we're, you know, committed to doing. 15:59 Yes, and I call winter soup season. Yeah. Would you believe that I have not made a single soup this winter because we've been eating a lot of hamburger based meals. I haven't made a single soup this winter and winter is almost over. That is like a sin in my house. I need to make some soup. Damn it. Yeah. Before it's too late. Yeah. And the other thing is I refuse. 16:28 to eat tomatoes from the store in the wintertime because we grow tomatoes here in the summer.  our garden fresh tomatoes are amazing.  And ever since we started doing it, tomatoes from the grocery store tastes like cardboard to me.  The reason I say this is I am really craving bruschetta. I don't know if you guys know what that is. Yeah, really craving it. And I have been debating. uh 16:55 picking up some vine-ripened tomatoes at the store.  Because really what I want it for is that kick you in the face balsamic vinegar and olive oil flavor.  And I suppose that I can spend $15 on crappy tomatoes to get the flavor hit that I want. But I was thinking that maybe I should just pick up some organic  zucchinis, know, the small ones. Cut. 17:22 those up into small pieces and do that instead of tomatoes because the tomatoes here in Minnesota in the winter time  are not great.  No, I mean, it really like  when you can't have something all the time, it makes it way more special when you can have it.  Yep. Yeah.  Yep. That's why we all  love Thanksgiving and Christmas. 17:49 Because there are things associated with Thanksgiving and Christmas that we eat that we don't eat any other time of the year. Mm-hmm. Yeah So I love summertime I We didn't have we didn't have any cucumbers last year because it was so wet and then it was so hot and then it was so wet and then it was so hot that they got blight  and they all died  So there was not  one single cucumber out of our garden last year 18:18 Usually we have great success with cucumbers and I eat a cucumber and tomato every day the minute they start coming in. Yeah. That's Christmas for me.  Yeah.  So I love the name that you chose, Small Scale Rebellion,  because I'm always joking that if you can grow something on your property that feeds you,  you're a rebel.  Yeah. 18:47 And it's true because I don't know what the government is like in Canada, but the government in the United States probably isn't thrilled that we're not spending our hard-earned money on stuff at the grocery store.  We're spending it on seeds so we can have food out of our garden. Yeah. It's,  you know, it's definitely an act of rebellion.  Yup. Be a rebel. Grow something you can eat. 19:17 I need to get t-shirts made.  a rebel. Grow your own food. 19:23 You guys should do that. Do you have t-shirts? Haven't got around to it yet. We haven't even made t-shirts for our personal farm business confluence and it's been like five years. Well, it costs money to get t-shirts printed. So, this food hub thing, is it, are you going to have a website and set it up so that people can find where they can get locally grown food or what's the plan? 19:51 No, the plan is to teach farmers to become  farm hubs on their own. Okay.  And so it's kind of like a franchise model where we teach farmers the business model and then they use their own farm name and their own branding to promote it. Okay.  But it's like a full business model. we build them a website, we teach them how to work with other farms, we teach them marketing, which is lacking uh greatly in the farming community. 20:20 And we just teach them how to manage their money and how to become profitable so that  they can become  this convenient hub for  customers and then also a reliable sales channel for the farmers that they work with in their community. Cause a lot of farmers, like wholesale accounts are kind of dwindling year by year as supermarkets get bigger.  so farmers need wholesale accounts  and  customers need more convenience. So we're trying to kind of promote that whole model. 20:50 But it's all based off of our own  farm hub, which we do have a website for and you know, all of our sales come in through the website. So it's, it's all online ordering with free home delivery  and all of the systems that we teach we've perfected over the last five years  in our own business. What's your delivery radius?  It's like an  hour. 21:19 And a half at most.  So we live in a weird area. It's a very rural  and everywhere is like  minimum 30 minute drive away to go anywhere or do anything. So it's, go to the two  towns that are near us. So one of them is a 40 minute drive and it's a town of like 10,000 people,  maybe a little more. And then the other one is a  20 minute drive and it's like 8,000 people. And then there's like, 21:49 you know, some people in between there. So we basically drive to the town and then we stay within the city limits and then come back home.  OK, so it's not it's not like you're driving eight hours  on way. That would be. Yeah, we've actually been shrinking our delivery zone over the years because,  you know, there's enough people to support us. So at this point, we just need to be more efficient. um And it sucks to kind of like turn people away. But, um you know, your deliveries have to be quick. 22:17 Otherwise you'll spend your whole day driving around. Yeah, so this is a no to lot of people who just like live in the country. You know what I mean? Like we drive straight to town. We stay inside town pretty much. If somebody wanted to get produce from you and they were willing to drive further than that, could they come to your place and pick up produce? 22:40 No, we don't do any pickups. It's only home delivery. also don't have any meetup spots  or any pickups in town. And that's for two reasons.  One, to streamline our process because it just adds a lot of complexity, believe it or not. Communicating with people, arranging a time, making sure that they remember, et cetera, et cetera. Like  it's just not worth it. 23:07 And then also they can't come to the farm because we lease land and our land holder doesn't want people showing up at his house.  That makes sense. I completely forgot that was leased. I know you told me, but I wasn't thinking about that.  Yeah. again, constraints.  Yeah. We stopped doing our CSA because  it  was fine, but we only had a few people who signed up every year. 23:35 And sometimes they would forget and they would have to make a different time to come get stuff and My husband really enjoys going to the farmers market. Nice. Yeah farmers market is on Saturday morning from 8 until noon  That was when we used to have people come pick up the CSA stuff He can make more money on a weekly basis at the farmers market than we ever made through the CSA So we had to make a choice. Yep 24:03 Yeah, it's kind of tough like cutting things out. mean, what do you guys, what are you guys doing now? um Just the farmer's market and we have a farm stand on our property. Okay, nice. Yeah. Yeah. And are you, so are you growing vegetables?  Yes. Yes, we are. And  my husband is the gardener. I always give him all the credit because I am not the one out there in the dirt.  I used to be.  I don't love it as much as he does. So that's his Zen. 24:29 That's what he wants to do and I'm like go play in the dirt. Have fun.  But he grows tomatoes, grows cucumbers, he grows summer squash, he grows winter squash.  He has gotten into growing cabbages. He grew the most beautiful cabbages last spring. Nice. And people loved them. Like he did 50 I think  and when they were done people would be asking him if he had any cabbages. 24:57 And he would say, no, I only planted 50. They're gone. And people, people would be crestfallen on their faces. There were no more cabbages. Yeah.  That's the power of food when it tastes really good. Yeah, it was really sweet. I don't know what variety it was, but it was  really good.  Um, I also found a short season, personal size watermelon variety. Nice. 25:26 that we're gonna try this year.  It's a 60 day watermelon. What's it called? I don't know. I would have to look it up.  And I know exactly where the seed packet is downstairs. We haven't even opened the envelope that they came in yet. So when I open it, I will find out and I will message the variety to you. Cool. Sounds good. I'm sure you guys would love a 60 day watermelon. Oh yeah. I mean, we haven't grown watermelons um since we first started just because of space. 25:55 We're at the point where a half an acre is not really enough space, but we don't have other, we don't have anywhere to expand into. our climate is our growing season so short. Like you can, you can barely even grow a buttermoth here cause it won't ripen in time. I'm so sorry. It pretty much shows like the worst place to start a farm. Well, Canada has a short growing season. 26:25 over much of the country,  Yeah. And it's also very snowy here. Yeah. mean, I'm in Minnesota. I'm right over the border from you. I mean, I'm not. I'm like eight, 10 hours from the border. But  we have  a shorter growing season and we don't plant anything  usually until Mother's Day  because by Mother's Day, we're pretty sure the last frost has happened. Yeah. 26:56 Yeah, we had one year where we had a frost on June 15th and it killed all of our tomatoes. They frosted back down to the ground, but then they bounced back and they were fine. And we actually had tomatoes only like one or two weeks later than normal. It  was quite the experience. Huh, I didn't know they'd bounce back. They had established enough where 27:23 They did. They sprouted from the base of the plant. They were very, very, um,  branched that year, but they were fine.  Huh?  I did not know that. I will have to let my husband know we may have to do an experiment. Yeah, just give them a few weeks to see what happens. if they're, if they got roots, you know, they'll bounce back. So if you think about how many like runners they, they, they give out, right? Yeah. They'll just do that from the base. Okay. 27:53 Well, we have a hard-sided greenhouse that we're going to be starting seeds in here. I think he said this weekend. I'm not sure. It might be next weekend. But we've never started seeds in there before. We've had it up for two seasons now. A lot of people are writing. I asked him the other day, said, are you going to bring in the seed trays and do them on the kitchen table? And he said, no, we're starting them in the greenhouse this year. Nice. 28:20 And I said, are you sure you want to do that?  And he said, yes, I do. He said, because I've been keeping track of how much. OK, little tiny backstory. Most people who listen to the podcast have heard this before, but you guys probably have not. um We have IBC totes that we painted black filled with water  in the greenhouse.  as the sunlight comes in the greenhouse, heats up the water and it disperses the heat at night when it cools off outside. 28:49 And so usually by mid-March, it's not gonna get below, it's not even gonna get near 32 degrees Fahrenheit in there overnight. It's gonna stay at like 50, 55. And for seedlings, that's perfect. So this is the first year we're starting the seeds in the greenhouse. And I am nervous. I am very nervous that this is not gonna work and he's gonna be really, really disappointed. 29:17 As I keep saying to everybody, keep your fingers crossed that this works. For sure.  Well, know,  the ceilings are, they're very cold hardy when they're started cold. Like we don't have a nursery.  We've never used a nursery.  And I start my seeds and I put them outside way before you're supposed to with some cover, but they, you know, seem to do fine. As long as you're  very, um, 29:45 careful about starting them cold and not like giving them a huge shock.  Plants  hate, hate shock from temperature changes. Yeah. They do not enjoy it and they may survive it, but I'm, I'm just praying and I'm not a praying girl, but I am praying that this, this goes well because if it does, it means that  two springs from now we can really do a whole lot more. 30:15 Yes. Because the greenhouse is over 15 feet by 25 feet.  So it's a good size greenhouse. Yeah, nice. Yep. Very, very excited about all the things that it opens up for us. anyway, I try to keep these to half an hour and we're almost there. Where can people find you?  You can find us on Instagram. 30:42 Small scale rebellion or also our farm account is called Confluence Farms Kootenays. Okay.  Awesome. I hope that people go and look at your stuff because I think what you're doing is amazing. Thanks, Mary. We appreciate that. All the best, you guys. Thank you. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Nathan and Emily, thank you so much for your time. I hope you have a good rest of your day. Thank you. Thanks. You too.  

Today I'm talking with Kody at Homestead Education. You can also follow on Facebook. Save 15% off on the quail incubation for profit course!  Code "QUAIL15"    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 Mary talks with Cody Hanner from The Homestead Education in Idaho about homeschooling through agriculture, raising heritage pigs, and building a life centered around food, family, and practical skills. Cody shares how a life changing health diagnosis in her family led them to move to Idaho, embrace homesteading, and rethink how children learn. They discuss how agriculture can teach real world math, science, history, and problem solving while helping kids understand where their food comes from. Cody also explains how she turned her family’s farm learning experiences into a widely used homeschool agriculture curriculum now used in multiple countries. The conversation explores the importance of applied learning, the lost knowledge around food production, and how rebuilding those skills can strengthen families and communities. They also dive into homestead topics like raising quail, food preservation traditions, and why character and rural etiquette matter when building strong communities. Topics Covered How a health crisis led Cody’s family to homesteading Teaching math, science, and history through farm life Creating an agriculture based homeschool curriculum Why applied learning helps kids retain knowledge The connection between food, history, and holidays Raising heritage pigs and supporting local 4 H programs Why more people are returning to homesteading skills Raising quail for eggs, meat, and income Teaching character, responsibility, and rural traditions Resources Mentioned The Homestead Education curriculum and resources Homestead business and food safety coaching Holiday based agriculture lessons for homeschoolers Where to Find Cody Website: TheHomesteadEducation.com Podcast: The Homestead Education Podcast Social: The Homestead Education on Facebook and Instagram