A Tiny Homestead

Steel Spoon Farm

Today I'm talking with Jen at Steel Spoon Farm. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00You'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 Jen Kibler  at Steel Spoon Farm  in Ohio.  And good morning, Jen. How are you? Good morning. Good. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather in Ohio this morning? Oh, it is beautiful. I think we're on fake spring round two already. It's going to go back to winter again this weekend, but I'll take it.
00:29Yeah, they were saying this weekend on the news that we would be getting snow this week, but I'm looking at the forecast and I'm like, I think LaSore, Minnesota is going to get rain. I don't think we're going to get snow. Yeah. We had 16 inches dump on us about three weeks ago now. So I'm glad to see the snow piles gone. We actually have grass again. So that's nice, but now it's mud season straight into mud season. So yeah, God love mud season. We have a, we have a dog and
00:59She freaking loves spring because she can go out and roll in the grass again. But she has these cute little feet and the cute little feet leave cute little dirty footprints all over my floor downstairs. And I'm just like, you know what? I'm not mopping the floor until the weekend. I'm going to it all at once. And then she's going to come in and walk on it again and I'll do it the following weekend because I am not mopping that floor every two hours. We have four.
01:25and two of them are great Pyrenees, then the other two are black labs. And the Pyrenees, of course, are like horse size.  And they just clobbed in so much mud into the kitchen this morning to eat breakfast. Oh my gosh. Yeah, Maggie's a 35 pound, well, maybe pushing 40 pound um Australian shepherd. So she's got these adorable little footprints, but they're not adorable when they're mud on my floor. tell me what tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do at Steel Spoon Farm.
01:55So we have kind of everything here. I've had horses my whole life. So I've got my three big old horses that are all retired now. And then we have two little  feral mini mules. And I say feral because I've literally never touched the one in the two years she's been here.  We'll just take her time. She knickers at me now. She does her little mule money. So we're making progress, but mules and everything has to be on their time.  And then we have a little mini pony too named Apple for my daughter. So she's so sweet.
02:24So we've got them and we have Angora goats  and then a bunch of just miscellaneous Nigerian dwarf goats too that are just, you know, they're pets. to sell some of the mohair off the Angoras. Haven't had time to even process it lately because I've been so busy with all my other business things. ah But I do really love spinning when I have the time. I've spun my own yarn, did a bunch of crochet with it.  Actually made the shawl that I wore in like our maternity pictures with
02:54hand spun mohair from our own goats. So that was really neat. um That's a needle felting with it, all kinds of stuff. I've sold it to all kinds of different people online on Etsy and then on my own site too.  Everything from fly  lure creators, they use the mohair for their fly lures, which was really odd. um To of course the reborn dolls, which is amazing to see how realistic those are, but they've used mohair for those.
03:22mask makers for theater mass in New York City, all kinds of stuff. So it's amazing to see how far that can stretch just from my little farm to all across the world.  is one of the reasons I love this podcast so much because  I hadn't even considered the fact that  that mohair would be used on the dolls. Yeah, they use it.  It was a local lady actually, and she  literally plucks one single hair at a time into these silicone doll.
03:51It's the patience I do not have  for that, but she does.  And if they have really fine hair, like if she's doing a memorial doll, she actually paints the hair on and uses a paintbrush that's one hair width and paints these tiny little baby hairs on these dolls. It's incredible. And then the mask maker in New York City. This is a crazy crossover, but my husband is a lifetime wrestling fan and
04:19this guy actually made the masks for mankind, for Mick Foley, mankind, and Undertaker, which are two of his favorites. And here he is buying mohair from my goats to make these theater masks. I thought, what a crazy small world that is. That's not small, that's miniscule world. Yeah, that was very niche. that was super cool. Wow. Wow. I just, every time I talk to somebody new, I find out something either
04:49I either learn something new that actually can be used in my life, or I find out something that has  nothing to do with anything that I do, but it's a really neat trivia fact.  So thank you. I now have a new trivia fact. oh I've never actually pet a mohair goat and I've never touched mohair in my life.  What does it feel like? hear it's really, really soft. Oh, it's so soft. And everybody thinks they're sheep.
05:18which  just because they're so fuzzy. uh But so I have to correct people all the time that they are actually goats.  They're in full fleece right now. We still call it fleece. Like there, if you take it the whole thing off, still collectively, it's called their fleece.  But it is  mohair. It's not fur. It's not wool. It's its own material. uh It's extremely fine  and quite slippery. Now that's that's kind of like a spinner term for like the slip or the feel of
05:47the material that you're spinning, it's so super fine. So a lot of the times people will blend it with wool  or some other material to make it a little bit more grabby for when they're spinning. But the Kidmo hair especially, so on the babies that are usually under a year, um have the finest, finest hair. It is like a cloud in your hands. It's so thin. That's the stuff that you're gonna use for knitting like your close to skin wear.
06:15kind of a thing. It's so fine and so high quality. As they get older, the hair quality sometimes goes down a little bit, but I have one of my oldest does, Patsy,  for everybody out there who knows Patsy.  She has  like  no grease  to her hair and  they have grease called a yolk. It's kind of like lanolin in wool where it has like a little bit of a greasy texture. That's what protects their skin, protects their hair. So goats have the same thing.
06:43but hers is so clean and so fine. She has hardly any curl. She's just like this big white cloud.  And her hair is my favorite to spin because I can spin it literally straight off of her. It's so clean and so nice.  But then I've got some of my goats that have  really, really tight curls. ah I've made like Santa ornaments, especially with those ones,  with the needle felting I've done. I needle felt their.
07:09curly little white locks on for Santa beards on the ornaments and things. So that's really fun. um Personality wise, they're very calm and quiet. um So if you're somebody that's used to the dairy goats, like especially Nubians are really loud. ah Even my Nigerians are pretty loud and friendly. uh The angoras are so super calm and quiet. They're just peaceful. They're really, really nice animals to have. And I'm glad that we got them.  Are they
07:36probably a weird question, but are they more expensive than any other goat? They are, but the same with any other breed. ah Depends on where you buy them from, what their bloodline is. We have all colored angora goats, which is a different breed set. Then there's also like the American white angoras, which is  the ones that you typically find like running in the herds by the thousands down in Texas. Those are the ones that are bred like for  commercial mohair. I actually have two of those.
08:05ah Their hair is totally different too. Those are the ones that have like they're really really tight curls their whole face is covered in it their legs They've got the pom-pom tails whereas the colored angoras because back in the day the colored angora used to actually be uh a Defect because if you had a hundred white angora goats, then you had one black one come through You can't put that black mohair in the same bundles as the white hair. So
08:31they kind of bred the color out of them for a long time. And then a couple breeders started breeding the color back in and grabbing those colored ones. So now there's all kinds of different colors of colored Angoras.  So it just depends on the breeder, where you find them,  the quality of the mohair too, body size, everything. But same with any other breed of goat, any other breed of animal, it just depends on where you get them from. ah Mine, I'd say mine are all pretty pet quality. We got a couple from breeders.
09:00And, I'd say now there,  I didn't breed specifically for like this goat needs to pair with this goat because of this bloodline cross and all these things. We just did it for part of our hobby farm and just to have the babies. Cause there's nothing cuter than a baby goat other than a kitten. Yeah.  Yep. Just had this conversation with another person for the podcast a couple of days ago and
09:26I  literally said there's nothing cuter than a baby goat and I was like, eh, kittens are pretty cute too. Yeah, kittens and baby goats, we had those at the same time too. That was pretty ridiculous.  So are uh Angora goats any good for milk as well or not?  Technically, no.
09:45Because they put so much energy into growing that mohair. They grow an inch per month. So they're putting, yeah, they're a high production breed. They put a lot into just growing that mohair. Most of them typically only even have singles when they're bred. All of mine have had at least twins.  We got the four  in summer of 2020. I  bred three of the four that fall, cause the one was still too young.
10:15And all three of them had twins right out the gate. So we doubled our herd in like overnight. They all had their babies within 24 hours of each other. And then the one year I had triplets too. And she actually did raise all of them herself. She had enough milk and she's a great mom. So she actually did raise all of them herself. And then two of them.
10:37The first year they had boy-girl twins. So when I pulled the boys off to put them in, because they were too young to castrate yet. So I just pulled them off, weaned them early and put them in their own pen.  So I was milking those two Angora moms for a little bit just to keep their utter balance and everything with going to the single twin.  And they actually milked out pretty well. ah I was kind of impressed with it because I had a Nigerian that I was milking at the time too. And honestly, the quantity was about the same.
11:07Um, I did breed then  a couple of them back to a Nigerian dwarf buck and made some Niagara's, which is just a half and half cross of that.  Um, and the two girls that I had, they, actually sold them to a lady in Arkansas and they just had their first babies just this past week. So I'm excited to see how they milk out because their mom was one of my angoras that I was milking and she had pretty decent teat size and pretty decent capacity.
11:35So, and then plus with the Nigerian then coming in too,  the one had triplets. So, and she said that their udders look really nice. So I'm curious to see how well they milk out,  cause they have the fiber then in the milk.  Yeah. That's what I was wondering about because how great would it be to be able to have the fiber and the milk cause you can make, you have a double income off one animal. Yeah. That would definitely, that's what the Niagara's are more for. And I liked them too, because they had.
12:02Like everybody with the angoras, they want the big fluffy face and the fluffy bell bottom legs and then the fluffy poof tails. But all of that stuff is what you usually skirt off anyway, when you're cleaning the fleece to process the hair. So  I like them. The niagoras that I had, they had a totally clean face, clean legs, and even their belly was pretty naked. They looked like little Nigerians with puff.
12:26They were so cute. So all of those areas that you would normally skirt off the fleece anyway were already just normal Nigerian hair and then they kind of shed also So you didn't even really have to shear them if you got them early enough They would shed that hair instead of needing sheared. So that's a nice dual purpose. There's those nigoras  Yeah, and  I'm sitting here listening to you completely captivated
12:51And in the back of my head, I'm thinking never in my life did I think I would be having a conversation like this. And it's all because I started a podcast about homesteading. It's so funny. Yep. And never in my life did I think that I would be so entertained talking about genetics. We have, we had, she's gone now. We don't know what happened to her. We had a calico cat show up on our farm a couple of years ago.
13:19longest haired cat I've ever seen in my life.  Black, bright orange and white.  Gorgeous, gorgeous animal.  And she ended up getting bred by a stray  and apparently that stray had the dilute gene  and one of her kittens ended up being like silvery gray  and beige and a little bit of white, like hardly any white.
13:49And I could not figure out why this kitten came out looking like that. So I actually looked up genetics  on calico cats and why some of them are end up being gray and beige  and learned about the dilute gene. And I was like, Oh my God, genetics are so freaking cool. Yeah. It's like she ran out of printer ink. Yeah. And I was like, God, I think I missed my calling on another thing. Science is really fun too. Yeah. The pun of doing the pun at squares for  color codes. Yeah.
14:19Yeah, it's crazy. And so, so entertained and captivated with these conversations because I find out things that I did not have any concept of. just tickles me. So how did you get into raising goats and critters? Well, I've had horses my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid, we've had these horses. We moved down here to this farm.
14:47when I was just starting high school, we had them boarded somewhere else earlier when I was a kid, and then we moved down here to bring the horses home. So they've kind of always been here. um But that's like its own brand of having a farm, right? Like not everybody has those. We never even had chickens or goats or anything before that until me and my husband then moved back here. We bought, we had our own house with our first chickens and everything, like the perfect little backyard homestead, right? The half acre with my favorite coop ever.  It was such a gorgeous coop that he built me in.
15:16our little raised beds and we had my perennial landscaping I put in everywhere. It was a gorgeous little first house for us. And then we moved back here. We bought my farm, my family farm then back from my mom. And so brought the chickens with us then. And I had been a farrier to roll back way to the horses. I had been a farrier years ago, a barefoot trimmer specifically. So working with owners that want to keep their horses more holistically. And
15:45I had trimmed a couple goats hooves too. Some of them had them just as pets with their horses. And I always thought, I am never getting goats. Like, this is not my thing. I am never getting these goats, right? Well, fast forward to 2020 and this artist that I followed on Facebook for a long time, she makes these amazing dolls with their hair, like these just crazy, like Tim Burton looking kind of dolls and uses their hair to make their, the mohair to make this hand spun yarn for their, the doll hair.
16:14And she was posting it, she was liquidating some of her herd. And I thought, you know what? I had written in my phone notes a couple years prior that  I wanted to at some point get fiber animals, either Angora goats or Angora bunnies. And I looked back on that note and thought, well, I think now's the time then. So we drove up there  and I told my husband we were getting three and we ended up bringing home four because the one was a baby  of one of the moms.
16:43So we ended up with four goats because you never go and just get what you wanted. You're always going to find something else. So we got those  and honestly, we brought them home and then I just kind of looked at them like,  Oh boy, now what?  Like  we had kind of set up fence for them because we have a ton of round pen fence from the horses. And I tell everybody that when they're starting a new property, get yourself some round pen panels and use that as for any like large animal. And even the goats can't really get through it.
17:12And then we have added welded wire, just rolled welded wire to it for some of the go pens. But that is the most flexible fencing option that you can get when you're trying to figure out a new property because you can move it. You know, so we had set up a pen for them and a little shed, little run and shed in the field. But I just kind of looked at them because they weren't super friendly. The ones that we had picked, were so they were handled enough that you could like catch them and to shear them and trim their hobs and things, but they weren't like in your pocket friendly.
17:40And so we just kind of all looked at each other like, okay, now what?  Like  we kind of had planned ahead, but didn't really plan. And so that was kind of just, that's how I learned to is just kind of get thrown into it.  actually did the same thing, the exact same experience then. I didn't learn from it ah with a baby goat. Then the following year, I thought, okay, I've got these goats that I'm going to breed. Anyway, I had found some Nigerian dwarfs.
18:07And cause I thought, okay, I've already got the place set up for goats now a year later. Let's go ahead and get some dairy goats. Like what's the, what's another goat  added to this herd anyway. So then I found a little Nigerian dwarf buck, just a tiny buckling.  And so we went and drove him, got him. was like, Oh, I'll just put him out with the moms and all the other baby goats and they'll take care of them, right? Wrong.  The mom goats of course, wanted nothing to do with this little baby. This is Ozzy, Ozzy Ago. He was part of the Cheesier. So this is baby Ozzy.
18:37So I put him out with them and of course the other mom goats hated him because he wasn't their baby. So we had a house goat for about six weeks. He lived in the house. He literally was sleeping in my bed. This was prior to having a human kid. So I had my little goat kid in the bed because he would not stay in the bathroom. I had a little baby gate up for him to keep him in the bathroom in his own little pen and he was screaming all night about it.  you know, as a parent.
19:05sleep deprived does, you just grab the baby and put him in the bed. And then he slept all night. So that was kind of how that worked. But  he went out to potty with the dogs. He thought he was a dog. It was the cutest thing ever. So, and he's still one of the most friendly ones, but yeah, it's like you learn these lessons and then you don't learn.  So we did the same thing. Like didn't really plan ahead to what we're going to do with the baby goat, but we got it. So that was fun.  The thing is baby animals will train you before you train them.
19:35Oh, for sure.  Our dog that I mentioned, we got her when she was a day short of eight weeks old. And she had, she was born into a home with seven children  and I think six siblings, six, six litter mates. So she was never alone and it was never quiet.  Uh-huh.  And uh friends of ours had the mom and the dad. And when we went to pick her up,
20:03My friend said, do you have a crate for her? And I said, of course we do. Cause I've done all the research on getting a puppy. Cause I thought I was smart. And she said, okay. She said, she said, I, I, um, have a, was a piece of cloth that was with mom.  She said, and I'm sending this home, put it in the crate and that way Maggie will, will smell mom and hopefully she'll settle down for you.  Um, that dog, our dog.
20:33barked and whined  and screamed  all night every night for five nights in a row in the crate.  On day six, I was like, I cannot do this.  Cannot do this. And my husband was like, what are we going to do? And I said, we're going to bring that cute little six pound puppy to bed with us.  he said, she's going to be in our bed for the next however many years. And I said, she's only going to be about 30 pounds. It's fine.  Right.
21:02I said, because we're both going to die from sleep deprivation if we don't do something. And we even got her the heartbeat puppy.  Didn't do any good. I mean, she loved it. She loved to play with it, but it did not help.  Finally, she was old enough to have the run of the house. And finally she learned that she could sleep downstairs if we were sleeping upstairs.  Now, now she's five and a half  and she sleeps on the stair landing outside the bedroom doors.  And so.
21:32So if you can just get through that first year  with a puppy  or that first couple of weeks with a house goat, you're good. Yep. We just got a Black Lab puppy this past fall because I lost my heart dog. He was an Aussie doodle. He's Bloomer, Aussie doodle chief. I lost him.  He's 13, but still it was very unexpected ah back in June. And my husband had always grown up with Black Labs and he told me forever, like we had plenty of dogs. We didn't need another one.
22:01But he's like, you know, we should really get a black lab. And so finally it was, we had, you know, kind of an opening in the pack.  And so I found this guy and he has been the biggest I told you so ever  because  like from the second we brought this guy home, he's just so good. And I'm used to the Pyrenees, right? Who are bred for their entire lifeline to not listen to humans and to make their own decisions and to be stubborn.
22:30And you know, they're smarter than you. They know more than you do. And so then to get a dog that is just so purely a dog and just wants to do whatever you want him to do.  It is such a breath of fresh air.  But he was the same way. Like the first couple days, I put him straight in the bed. I was like, there is no way any of us are sleeping. And now he sleeps in his crate. He loves his crate. He goes in there and it's because it's a nice break for him, you know, to go and that's his spot. Get away from the other big dogs too. But those first couple days, man.
23:00But it's funny though,  when we got, I think it was the second Pyrenees is when my husband said this. It was like just a random Tuesday and we're driving three hours to go get a dog. And he said,  you know, for most people, this is like kind of a big life event to get a dog, like, you know, 15 year commitment. And for you, it's just a Tuesday. m it's, it is a big thing and we, we love them all the same, but we're, I'm so much calmer about it. uh
23:28So like even adding the puppy in this fall, like I'm plenty busy. Like I did not need the extra busy of a puppy and potty training and chasing my kid around, like all this stuff. But he just melted into the half the routines here so nicely. So just another Tuesday.  a new puppy.  Yeah. It was not just another Tuesday when we got Maggie, because we had been wanting a puppy forever and we did not have a yard to have a dog.  And so the first thing we did when we moved to our homestead.
23:57five years ago  was see this post from my friend that they had puppies coming.  I was like, do you want a Daisy and Diesel puppy? Cause that's her parents name.  And my husband was like, how much are they? And I said, I don't know. wanted to ask you if you would consider it before I even asked him anything.  And he was like, find out how much they are. So I messaged my friend and I said, how much? And she said, 500 bucks. And I was like, cool.
24:25didn't know puppies cost that much money in my head. And I said, we'd like one of Daisy and Diesel's pups. I said, we just moved to the new house and 3.1 acres. I think maybe we can have a puppy now.  And she was like, okay. And they weren't born yet. And it was the first litter from Daisy. Daisy is my friend's heart dog and Daisy's still around. Daisy's only like nine months older than Maggie. I guess she's my first litter.  And, uh
24:52Jean posted when the puppies were born and I was like, oh my God, they're little potatoes. Yeah. And from that minute I was just like, okay, I have to learn everything I can about how you handle a puppy. Cause I had no idea.  So it was not another Tuesday when I went, when we went to get Maggie  and it wasn't another Tuesday for Jean either. She had already given up like three or four of the seven to their new owners. And she's standing there just holding Maggie and petting her and
25:21not letting go. And I said, are you going to cry when you hand her to me? And she's like, probably. She said, I cried the first four. And I said, yeah, I'm probably going to cry when you put her in my hand. So we might as well just start crying now. literally laughed and then started tearing up. So it was not another Tuesday for me. But the thing that I have learned is that my husband and I are both in our mid fifties and
25:48When Maggie gives up the ghost, we probably won't get another puppy. We might get a dog,  but we probably won't go through the puppy stage again because it's just so much.  It's a lot. Yeah.  But it's the same with anything like same with kids, same with any kind of farming, like new farm animals that you bring on. It's so much in the front end  of training them and it's so intensive. But then once you get that groundwork laid,  oh,
26:16then you've got a buddy for life. And then you've got that foundation in place and then everything just runs so much smoother. Yeah, that's the sweet spot that you're hoping for when you're going through the terrible tantrums of a puppy, yes. Right.  Okay, so um I usually keep these to half an hour, but I really want to hear about the other part of your business. So do you have 15 more minutes? Oh yeah, I got time. Okay, so you have your farm, but you also have a business. So tell me about the business part.
26:45Yeah, so I've been in some version of online business in that realm for closer to 15 years now, but I say over 10. So I've always had my own website, my own blog, done all of that kind of backend thing. And the past two years now, especially, I really got into teaching other people how to do that. Because what I see a lot now, it's like my clients and my coaching group members,
27:14They have these audiences on Facebook or on Instagram or what are on Tik Tok or wherever, but they have no website. They have no email lists. They have no way to contact people if like Tik Tok shuts down every other day. I don't even do Tik Tok, but I know, you know, it's  gone every other day. Um, Facebook limits your reach so bad. So, and even if these people have already been monetized on these platforms, like they've got a heap, like huge audiences, some, some in the hundreds of thousands  and
27:42they'll still get shadow banned. Like they'll have one video do really well and go viral, you know, and then they get paid a bunch from Facebook for the ads on it. And then the whole next week, Facebook doesn't show their content to anybody.  And that's frustrating for a lot of people because they're spending a lot of time creating this content and then it's gone in 24 hours. It just disappears. So what I teach people, have, do this one-on-one for clients directly where I'm doing the work and setting up the foundation for you. And then I also have my coaching group is content seeds collective.
28:11where I teach you how to do all this.  And this month, especially in February, we're doing a business roots challenge where every week we're going through these setup phases. So the first week we already did business foundations. Like, do you need an LLC to be legit? Do you need an EIN? Do you need a PO box?  This is the funniest thing that stops so many people because when you go to send emails for anti-spam laws, you have to have an address posted at the bottom of your email footer.
28:41And a lot of people, they have a farm or farm stand, they want people to know their address, right? It's another just marketing piece. But a lot of people  are just running this from their home and they don't want people to know their home address. So you need to go have a PO box. When I tell you that these people have had to go back to the post office three or four times because they don't have the right amount of IDs or they need their name on something and everything's in their husband's name on the farm, like all of these things. So this is what we set up the first week of Business Foundation Week because
29:11People run into this and they didn't even know it was a thing. Well, I've been there, done that. So I can help steer you and get you past those roadblocks before they even stop you up. So that was week one. Week two, then we got into websites. You have to have a home on the internet. If you're writing these big, long captions for Instagram, that probably should be a blog post. So now you can drive traffic to your website. You can monetize the site with ads there that are more consistent.
29:40And then you have somewhere that you can actually drive Pinterest traffic to that you own and you can track that traffic. Then you can make a social post that ties back to the blog post, take a piece of that post out for your caption and drive them back there instead of everything living on ground that you don't own. You're just posting everything on rendered ground on socials. So then  this week now, third week, we're into email.
30:05And I use flow desk in particular, but I can set you up on, you know, whichever different email platform, but the concept is the same. need to get people off of wherever they're coming from, whether it's Google SEO, and they're landing on your website from a search, they're coming from Pinterest, or they're coming from your socials.  I want you to have their email. So you own that line of communication to them. So that's what we're setting up this week. And then next week, we bring it all together with Pinterest. So this is where.
30:34everything starts to really get to be automated. Especially coming into spring, everybody's gonna be outside being busy with the garden and know, baby goats if you've got them bred, all the things in spring. And you don't wanna be stuck to your computer. You don't wanna be with your face and your phone making another reel for Instagram.  You wanna be out enjoying that. So you can have content going out on Pinterest, schedule a month or two months out even if you're using a different scheduling app, because Pinterest only goes out 30 days on the
31:03native scheduler, you can schedule a month's worth of content so that you can go then be outside the whole rest of the month. You can take that two hours that you would have spent making one day's worth of content for socials and instead put that into an entire month and schedule it to go out automatically so that that whole system is working in the background for you around the clock without your input, setting up all of these kinds of things. But it all comes down to is your business set up correctly with that foundation?
31:32Do you have a website and a home for them to actually go and to drive this traffic to? Can you capture their email so that you can talk to them? And then do you have a way to market that doesn't rely on you constantly being on your phone? So that's what I do one-on-one for clients. And I work with all kinds of people. I've got a couple right now with literally hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook and they had no website, no email, anything. And so now we're getting them up to speed to have all of these things.
31:58to add those extra income streams. Cause now they'll have ads on their websites. Now they've just launched digital products too. So their own product that people are buying and it's just releasing that constant reliance on social media and being on your phone all the time. And then I teach people how to do it themselves in the Content Seeds Collective. We have a coaching call every Thursday at one o'clock Eastern time and everybody gets in there. We can screen share and I can walk everybody through it.
32:26The group's still really small right now. So a lot of the time it's like a one-on-one session. Like last week, one of my members got basically a one-on-one session for the whole call because she shows up every single week since she's joined the group. And so we were working through a couple of changes on her website, how to optimize the WordPress theme so that it's faster and the pictures load better and it lays out the information better for her people that land on her website to actually go do what she needs them to do on the site, which would be
32:55subscribe to the email list and buy her products. So she got like a one-on-one  with that coaching goal. And then all of my resources are in the Root Seller Resource Library where I've got my Canva templates for pins. I've got all of these checklists to go literally step-by-step. The exact same thing that I do myself for clients. This is how I set everything up and in what order. Random things too, like you need a Gravatar for your author bio on a WordPress website. What is a Gravatar?
33:25So stuff like that that I help  set up so that you're not wasting any time trying to learn how to do this stuff. I just tell you the exact steps to do it in the exact right order.  Wow. That is a lot of stuff. um So do you assume that somebody who comes to you  knows nothing and you talk them through it from scratch or do you assume that they know a little and then you just go from where they're at?
33:54It can be for both. So the way that I have Content Seeds  Collective set up  is if you are completely beginner, you can go through it step by step  and build out your business the right way  from the first time  and set everything up in the right order. Or if you're somebody that has a couple pieces in place, you've got a following on socials, you've maybe got even a website, maybe even have a Pinterest and email list, you're maybe just not even using it.
34:24you can go through these same steps and treat it like a checklist to find any gaps  and then, you know, fix those pieces so that we're building that foundation correctly. So it works both ways for if you're a complete beginner or if you've already got some stuff in place.  Okay, cool. Cause when I started the first podcast, this podcast, I'm sorry,  get confused between the two.  When I started at Honey Homestead podcast,  I had no idea what I was doing.
34:53at all, like huge learning curve. And I was talking to my mom about all the stuff I'm learning. And you need to understand my mom was 78 at the time.  And she's like, what's that? How does that work? I've never heard of that. And I said, well, no, of course you haven't heard of it because you don't do this.  And she was like, I can't believe you're learning this at 54. And I was like, I'm not dead.  You can learn something new anytime.
35:23I said, 54 is not as old as it used to be. Right. And she said, you're just so smart. And I love it when my mom tells me that I'm smart because my mom has spent her life thinking that she's not smart and she is, she's brilliant. She has no idea how smart she is, but she's really smart. And I said, I get it from you. And she's like, now you get it from your dad.
35:49I just, every time I try to talk to my mom about how much I appreciate how brilliant she is, she always deflects. And so as I've been talking with her and my dad about this project and friends,  when people are like, you're so smart, I'm like, thank you. I don't deflect because I saw my mom do it my whole life. Yeah, own it.  Yep. So it's really, really fun.
36:18learning all of the marketing. if you want to do a podcast listener, you should do it because you will gain a whole lot of knowledge and understanding about how people react to marketing, how they understand how they're being marketed to how they're being sold to. uh blogs are really good too, because people who don't want to have earbuds in blogs are great because you can sit down and read them.
36:48Yeah. And you can transcribe the podcast episode into a blog post  and then you can pin both of those on Pinterest. Yeah. And for people who don't know Pinterest is not a social network. It is a search engine. Yeah. It is a search engine. So you can comment and interact and stuff on post. There's a little bit of a social aspect to it, but it is a search engine.
37:14So you're going on Pinterest. It's almost always a completely cold audience of people who've never seen you before. They're not searching like for you in particular, they're searching for, like I have a lot of uh recipe bloggers that I work with. do canning recipes and  baking and all that. So they're going to Pinterest and typing in beef canning recipes or how to pressure can potatoes, you know, like that's what they're searching for. And then the goal there is for them to find your pin.
37:44and click over to your website. Pinterest is also the only platform that's designed to take people off of it.  All the other social platforms, they don't want you to get to leave that platform. They knock your views. If you post a link in stories,  if you post a link in the caption or the comments, they don't show that post to anybody because they want to keep you there and keep you scrolling. But Pinterest is literally designed to take people off of Pinterest and to land them to where you're trying to take them, which should be to your own website. Yep.
38:14Absolutely. All right, Jen, I would love to talk to you for like three hours about all this because I'm so entertained, but I try to give you half an hour and we're already at 38 minutes. So where can people find you? can find me on all socials and all Pinterest and my website, SteelSpoonFarm.com or at SteelSpoonFarm and then all of my business content is at Jen Kibler online. Okay. And what's the name of the
38:44the program that you mentioned? Content Seeds Collective, because we're planting our content seeds. Okay. That's on your website. Yeah. Everything's linked on my website. Okay, great. And can we say how much it costs for that? Yeah. Content Seeds Collective is $37 a month. You can cancel anytime. I do have an affiliate program for it also. So you can get in and get an affiliate link and then you get paid before I get paid actually.
39:14When you join that  so you can it gets paid on every month to that people join using your link Fantastic, that's great  All right.  Um, was really really fun Jen. Thank you so much for your time  Thanks for having me  as always you can find me at a tiny homestead podcast calm  Have a great day
 

Silo Springs Farm

Today I'm talking with Tricia at Silo Springs Farm.
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00:00You'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.
00:11Today I'm talking with Trisha at Silo Springs Farm in Tennessee. Good morning Trisha, how are you? Good morning, I'm good. How are you?  I'm good. I'm just going to be honest. The first part, we tried recording this and it didn't work. So we're starting over from scratch. So I'm going to ask the same questions over again. um How is the weather in Tennessee? It is beautiful today.  Sun is shining and the ground is drying up. We had a really wet rainy day yesterday and today is looking really pretty.
00:41I'm actually really glad to hear that you guys got rain because I have a friend that I co-host another podcast with. She lives in Nebraska  and they've been under fire danger for oh most of the winter time so far. And she's always lamenting the fact that they really haven't gotten any snow or any rain. And I'm like, oh, if I could just send you some from Minnesota, I would do it.
01:05It is a gorgeous, sparkly, sunny, warm day in Minnesota today. And it was so cold three weeks ago that I have nothing to complain about. Exactly. It's so pretty. I'm like Mother Nature, stop teasing me because I know we have snow in the forecast later this week. Oh, really? Just a little bit, yeah. Whether we actually get snow or not remains to be seen. I suspect it might be rain because I don't think it's going to get cold enough to snow, but we'll see what happens.
01:34Yeah.  All right. So tell me a little bit about yourself and how you ended up raising Highland cows and High Park cows. um Well, it kind of started, it's kind of funny how it got started. My husband  was offered a job in Nashville, Tennessee, and we're  from the city. We're actually from Alabama and have lived in subdivisions all our lives. And when he uh
02:03said that he had to move if he accepted this position. I was like, okay, well, we're going to get land and we're going to get us some mini cows.  And so that's what we did. We  moved to a little uh old farmhouse that had 12 acres and remodeled the farmhouse and got us some cows and  just kind of going from there. nice.  Your husband is a canine police officer. Is that what you're saying? Yes. uh Okay. have a quick
02:33offside's question. When you're a canine police officer, does the canine come home with the officer that it works with or how does that work? Yes. He's actually had two dogs  and uh one  got sick and had to be retired. And so we adopted him and still have him, but  his other one  comes home with him every day. it's em not really
03:00good for farm life. He's a  GSP and he  doesn't get along well with the chickens. He wants to point them and eat them. ah I imagine. So  the reason I'm asking is because I know with service dogs that you're not supposed to go up and pet a service dog at the mall.  And I'm assuming it's the same thing with a canine officer. You don't just walk up to a canine dog and, you know, an officer dog and pet it.
03:27Yeah. Well,  it's always better to ask, but like  his dogs are explosive dogs.  Um, and so like they're not on duty. They know when they're sniffing an area that that's when they're working.  Um, his old dog, anybody could just walk up and pet him, but this dog, he just gets too ramped up and gets kind of hard to hold onto when people start giving him attention.  But yeah, yeah. He lets people pet his.  Nice. Okay. I was just curious because I've never known anybody who had, who had that
03:57job and never never known a  canine that was working with police. So I thought I would ask while I had the opportunity.  Okay, so your cows you raise them so that you can have babies so you can sell the babies. Is that right? That is right. Yes. Okay. So when is when is calving season for you? Is it coming right up? Well, we usually um have in the spring and then some will have in the fall, we try our best to avoid
04:26summer calving  just because of the flies and the bacteria that's rampant in the summer.  So we just actually delivered um our last 2025 calve yesterday and  really hoping that we start having some babies in March or April this year. Okay. Wow. The last one for that you that you were expecting in 2025 was just born. Yeah. Well, no, it was we sold it yesterday. Oh, okay. It was born in October, but it went to its
04:56home in Alabama  yesterday. oh I misunderstood. Sorry.  All right. So when you,  like I said, I don't know anything about how this all works. When you sell the babies,  do you know what those babies are going to be used for? Whether they're going to be used for breeding stock or meat or milk or do you have any idea? Well, with the, um, with the Holland breed.
05:24They're really popular right now for just pets or yard ornaments,  people wanting to breed their own.  They're so expensive. I  really doubt anybody would be eating them. uh I don't know anything about them and I know they're not, they don't get as big as say, you know, an Angus. Right. I wasn't sure whether people actually use them for food or not. And I don't know about their milk. Is their milk worth?
05:53using or is it just for the babies?  I haven't ever actually milked these, but I have read that they're really good beef  and uh milk cows.  And I do know people that like have huge massive farms of highlands  and you know, lot of their bulls they'll steer and eat those, but  we're so small. don't, we can't do that. Yeah. Yep. We have a three and a half, sorry, 3.1 acre property here ourselves and
06:23Somebody asked me if we were going to get a mini cow and I just laughed. was like, number one, cows are herd animals. That one critter would be so lonely it would die. Yeah. Yeah. They need a friend. Yeah. And number two, we don't have enough room or any place for them to graze. That's an expensive, expensive hobby. Oh yeah. So the answer was no, but I just laughed before I said anything. I was like, no, we are not getting cows.
06:51Nope, chickens. Chickens in a big garden is about the extent that we're going to commit to farming here.  Yeah, I love our chickens. That was one of the first things we got was chickens. They're great. Do you have one specific breed or did you go crazy and get all kinds of different breeds? Well, I went crazy and got all  different breeds according to like the pretty ones and the colorful eggs.
07:15which was probably a mistake because they're not real good layers. So we go a good portion of the year without eggs, but they're getting started back now. But we do have a lot of pretty eggs when we get them. You have the different colored ones? We do, yeah. Rainbow eggs. That's what my daughter would call it when she was little. She'd see the blue and the, I don't know what they're called, the Marin eggs that are dark. Yes, yes.
07:42We'd be somewhere and somebody would have all different colored eggs and she'd be like, Oh mom, they have the rainbow eggs. And I'm like,  uh-huh. They sure do.  She was very disappointed when she found out that the blue ones didn't taste like blue raspberry. Yeah.  They all taste the same. That's cute. Yep. An egg is an egg is an egg. Just like a rose is a rose is a rose. That's correct.  Okay. Um, do you have lots of chickens? We have 18 so.
08:12I don't think that we have lots of chickens, but I tell people we have 18 and they're like, oh, that's a lot of birds. Yeah, that's probably about how many we have. um I have two coops, the ones that lay and then I have some silkies um and another coop. And so probably all together  20, 25, something like that.  I was just talking with somebody that raises silkies and she was like, they are so pretty, but they're the dumbest birds ever known to man.
08:40They really are. I have to go and collect some of them at night because they just can't seem to make it back to the coop. that's what she was saying too. She was like, I don't know what it is, but they just will not go in the coop on their own. like, they're dumb. She's like, they're dumber than dumb.
09:00They do struggle. Dumb as a stump as my dad would say.  Okay, so do you  incubate any of the eggs from your chickens and sell the babies or not? I did at one point. I  have,  well actually the last two years I sold  silkies,  but I'm probably not going to this year.
09:27But they're really good mamas. They're not real bright, but they're excellent mamas.  They're not so bright.  No one but a lady from the South can say they're not very bright in the nicest, lightest way ever.
09:43God bless their hearts. They're not very bright. That's right. Love it. Okay. Um, are you guys parents or you just have your animals? Um, we have children. Um, I have a daughter, uh, that she, uh, just will be 19 this year. And then my husband has two sons and, um, they're grown. Okay. So you're, you're pretty much empty nesters at this point.
10:11Very, very close. uh Yep. I understand. just, I'm going through it now and I raised four kids and I'm like, wow, the house got really, really quiet. I know.  So hard. Yup. um did,  did your daughter,  I don't know, was she younger when you guys moved to the farm?  No, she wasn't. And I wish she had been. When she was growing up, she was a little tomboy.
10:39But when we moved here, she was like middle school age. And so she was um more into  doing video games and  she just, she would have been more into it if we could have uh moved here when she was a lot younger. she didn't, she didn't embrace the farm life. What like you would have hoped that she would have. No, she didn't. She was at the point where she was like, Oh, that's so gross. Ooh, they smell.
11:09Oh, fine. Yeah. Huh. Did she love the babies though? Oh, yeah. She likes the babies.  Yeah. See, I'm a sucker for a baby. It doesn't matter what it is. I always say even baby alligators are cute.  She says that her, the goats are probably her favorite of all the animals. They're mine too. Other than a baby kitten. Baby kittens are my favorite, but baby goats are my next favorite.
11:36They're totally different things. A kitten is going to be a pet. A goat, probably not a pet. Love it like a pet, but probably not a pet.  Yes, baby goats are the most adorable farm animal ever, ever created. I've had a thing for them since I was young. I've talked about it a lot on the podcast because my friend's parents used to raise goats and every spring  she would call me and say,  can your mom bring you over those baby goats? were born last night.
12:04Every year she would call me and be like come now while they're brand new.  Oh, they're so funny. They're the funniest animal I loved them when they were anywhere from  18 hours to 36 hours old because they weren't quite Crazy bouncy yet and they would let you hold them. Yeah  Yeah
12:28Once they got past that 36 hour mark, she's like, nah, don't even bother because they're already running around and climbing on stuff. I'm like, okay. Yes, they are love wars. Yeah. But oh, when they're brand new, they're so sweet and they're so soft. Yes. I love them so much. I do. It's ridiculous. My husband thinks that I have some kind of affliction or illness when it comes to baby goats.
12:53Boring, they don't do anything. I'm like, that's the whole point They don't do anything they let you hold them and they'll get you like they love you whether they do or not  Ours are really um clingy like they'll just if you let them out of the gate They just follow you around the whole day Uh-huh. em I get the impression that sheep are kind of like that too We have friends and we went over to pick up we went to get chickens from them  and her son was
13:24walking up the path from the barn and behind him was a probably four or five day old lamb. And it was a good 20 feet behind him following him and just doing that meh noise at him. And I said, you got a puppy back there? And he's like, that's not a puppy, that's a sheep. And I was like, I know it's a sheep. I said, does it follow you around like a puppy?
13:54And  he said, yeah, said the only thing missing is it doesn't bark. And I was just like, kid, I can't figure out if you are being rude or if you're just playing my game. I don't know.  Have you ever seen the Valleys sheep?  I have. Yes, they're beautiful. They are. I'm begging my husband for some of those, but so far no luck.  Huh. Okay. Well,  um,  Christmas maybe? Asking for Christmas.
14:23Well, the lady that I have been talking to, actually, said, do you want me to message your husband about Valentine's day? And I was like, yes, please.  But it still didn't work. Why doesn't he want them? They're so expensive. um They're like more than the Holland cows. They're, they're really up there.  Well, I know just enough to be dangerous on some of this stuff, but um I think the reason they're so expensive is because they're not common in the United States. Right.
14:53Right. Yup. Anything that isn't common is going to cost much more than something you can get anywhere. Always.  Yep.  Which sucks because I would love for you to have a relationship because they're really, really cute. They are adorable. So I'm trying to figure out how to ask this without sounding rude because I don't want to be rude on my podcast.
15:19Why are you  raising the cows? Why do you have chickens? Is it because you love them? Is it an income? Is it both? Well, it's not an income yet.  That's our goal is to have it as an income, but um it's just different. um it's something that me and my husband are doing together that neither one of us has ever done. And so we're trying to build like this business. um
15:48together and it's just so much fun working together. Not that we always get along, but  there are days that we butt heads, but  at the end of the day, it's like, look what all we accomplished today. Look what we've done. Yeah. And you would butt heads no matter what you're doing, because that's what husbands and wives do.  Exactly.  Okay. um God, I don't know what is wrong with me today. No questions are coming to mind.
16:16Uh, are you,  are there people around you who are doing things like you're doing so that you have a community?  Um,  we have a lot  of, uh, old time farmers around us, uh, that,  and by that, just mean like they've been doing this generational,  um, they, know, they're on their daddy's land, um, still raising  cattle, mostly Angus.  but
16:44There's not really a whole lot of hollown.  I can think of maybe one or two that might be fairly close to us. um
16:54We have some people that are on the hill right behind us and they're raising their cows um just to eat, but not doing kind of what we're doing as far as just raising them to  sell. And although we do, I mean, we have goals that we would like to be able to be self-sufficient and  do our meat. And  I've bought a milker.  I have one Jersey that I plan on milking, but working a full-time job and then doing farm life is kind of...
17:22A little difficult at times. So the farm is like a very expensive side gig sometimes.  Yes, exactly it is.  But if you're like a lot of the people that I talk to, it pays for itself in joy and satisfaction. It is. It's really odd that you can get out there and work yourself to death  and you've enjoyed it, you know. Yes,  I do know.
17:48I'm going to say this again. say this all the time. I am not the grunt worker at our place. My husband is. He  loves being outside. He loves gardening. He loves all the manual hard work.  I am, I'm kind of over it. I really worked hard raising my kids like in the trenches, playing with them, shuttling them, feeding them the whole bit.  And in my mid fifties, I'm kind of like, you know, I really don't want to be Holland wood.
18:19And I'm not in the shape I used to be in. And he's like, that's okay. You don't have to, you do what you do best, which is cook and do the podcast. said, cause you love the podcast. You're good at it. I'm like, okay, cool. So yesterday he was outside cutting up a tree that he took down last weekend, cause it's a huge ash tree. And he came in after two hours, just his T-shirt was just wet with sweat. Cause it was so warm here yesterday.
18:47I said, were you out there with no jacket? He's like, honey. He said, I've been out there without a jacket for the last two hours. He said, I am dying.  I need water. I was like, oh, let me get you some water.  And he loves it. He loves being outside. That's my husband too. He jokingly says he's the hired hand. I'm the one that comes up with the ideas and he's the one that brings them to fruition. um But it's funny that you mentioned cutting wood because he, um
19:17installed  a Cast-orange stove and that's what he's been doing this winter is chopping wood to burn in the stove  Uh-huh best form of heat ever I grew up in a house where my parents had a wood stove in the house and we used it all the time in the wintertime loved how it smelled and Now we have a wood burning boiler system so the wood stove itself is outside and then there's a tube that brings water to the furnace and then
19:46the furnace somehow takes the heat from the hot water and blows it into the house. And I really miss having a wood stove in the house because of the way that it smelled. Yeah. It's so pretty at night too. Yeah. And we just don't have a good place to put one in because otherwise there'd probably be one by now. That's how much I love that. So is right now through, I don't know, June, your favorite time of year because you're going to be calving and
20:16The chickens are starting to lay and the light is changing and everything just feels full of promise. Yes.  Especially the day's getting longer. just, I hated the daylight savings time, but  yes, I love spring.  March 8th, we turned the clocks ahead just so you know.  I looked the other day. was like, Hey, it's staying later. Later, later. When do we change the clocks ahead?
20:42And my husband was like, I don't know, they keep changing it. And I was like, okay. So I went and looked and I said, March 8th, we get an extra hour in late in the evening. He's like, yes. Yes. Cause then he can be outside longer when he gets home from work. So that'll make him really, really happy. yeah. He's so excited right now anyway, cause it's getting to be the time when we plant seeds. So I figure this weekend he's going to bring in the seedling trays and be like, we're going to plant. And be like, okay, I'll lose my kitchen table for two months.
21:11but that's fine.  It'll pay for it later. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's really ugly the first week  and then as those little babies start popping out  three weeks from this weekend, I'll be like, Oh, look at all the green babies. It's so pretty.
21:28We have tried and tried to get an uh orchard going, but everything we plant dies.  We have to regroup every year and try something different. ah What's your soil like there? Well, the soil looks really good. It's a little bit rocky,  but aside from that,  the dirt's good. It's not red clay or anything like that. What have you tried to plant? We've done blueberry bushes. um
21:56My daughter loves pomegranates and so we tried to plant a pomegranate tree. em We've done lavender,  but  it may be just us.  We're having to learn all of this stuff. em Well, uh blueberries, is that what you said? Yes.  Blueberries really need sandy soil and they really need acidic soil.
22:24Well, that may be the problem because we definitely do not have sandy soil up here. We'll have to work on that. Yeah, I grew up in Maine and that's where wild blueberries grow and the best wild blueberries grow right by the edge of the driveway or where it's sandy.  Yeah, and they really like being near or underneath pine trees because of the acid in the pine needles.
22:47Well that's good to know. Yep, so that's probably why your blueberry plants aren't doing very well. And also you need to have two different varieties to pollinate each other.
22:58Well, that could be part of it we've only been planting like we'll plant one,  it'll die. Yeah. And we'll plant another and it'll die. Yeah. They don't have the right growing. They don't have the right soil conditions and you have to have two different varieties. That's part of what's going on there.  And the only reason I know this is we tried to grow them at the house that we lived at before this one in Minnesota and it wasn't sandy soil and they just didn't do well.  They had blueberries for a couple of years in a row.
23:26but there just wasn't enough acid in the soil and they didn't do well.
23:31So that might help you.  And if you can find pine trees, or if somebody has pine trees, you can literally go and get pine needles in the fall that have fallen off the tree  and work them into your soil and add some sand. And then you might be able to get them to go.  We'll try that. Yep.  And  like I said, I know just enough to be dangerous and your mileage may vary, but you could try that.  And if you have good black dirt, good soil,
24:01Try apple trees. Oh, we do actually have an apple tree. It was here when we moved and we've gotten some good apples off of it. Yeah, get some more apple trees if you want an orchard because we have 20 apple trees here that we've put in and this past fall was the first time we've gotten over a hundred apples from two trees. So it takes a while. We've been here five years. So were you baking lots of apple?
24:31desserts and  jellies. We made apple crisp, but these are the  honey gold apples. They're like a golden delicious apple.  And they weren't very good in apple crisp. And I was like, you can sell them at the farmer's market. I don't love these apples at all.  So they got sold and people ate them and loved them. I like the really nice Regents and Harrelsons and um Cortland apples. Those are my favorites.
25:01And those are really great for baking. So hopefully our Regent and our  Harrelson and our Honeycrisp trees will produce this year, hopefully. Oh, yeah.  And just so you know, if you have, I think it's eight apple trees, you have a small orchard. Oh, really? Yep. I had to look it up.  Yep. And um
25:28I don't know if plum trees would grow where you are, but we have plum trees. have peached. have a couple of peach trees.  We've got some wild  plum trees, but I think our goats have just about  eaten them down.  I bet they have because I bet goats really love plum trees because they tend to be a shorter bushier tree. So I bet they can reach it. Yup. uh
25:54Don't give up on trying to have an orchard because I'm sure there's stuff that will grow for you. You just got to figure out what it is. And in Tennessee, do you guys have, what are the little orange fruits? Not oranges. uh Persimmons? Oh yeah. Yeah?  There's some wild persimmons growing around here too. Yeah, we don't have those here. It doesn't stay warm enough, long enough for them to grow.
26:22they would never produce. They might grow, but they wouldn't produce any fruit.  Okay. Well, I don't know. I would suggest trying out amending your soil for blueberries and putting in some more apple trees if the apple tree does well. Yeah. I'm to have to tell my husband about that.  Yup.
26:43Again, the only reason I know about blueberries is because I grew up in the land of blueberries. I can't even look at a blueberry pie anymore without my stomach flipping over because I ate so many blueberries as a kid.  I can't eat blueberry anything anymore. My grandparents had  blueberry bushes on their land in Alabama and oh my goodness, those are the best blueberries ever. Yeah, it's really funny when I talk to people about the things that they grew up eating.
27:12My mom grew up eating black raspberries because she lived in Illinois when she was a kid. And black raspberries don't grow wild in Maine anywhere. And she really misses black raspberries. And she was like, it must be like that for you with blueberries. And I'm like, no, I can't stand blueberries. And she's like, why? I said, because we picked so many blueberries when I was growing up. And we had blueberry muffins and blueberry pie and blueberry cake.
27:41you know, during blueberry season.  I said, I can't even stand the thought of eating anything blueberry flavored at this point in my life.  She's like, you're weird. said, yep, I, what was your first clue? But yes, I am. can't do it.  She's like, what about blackberries? Cause we picked a lot of blackberries too. I said, I love blackberry jam. Other than that, I don't really do blackberries either. We did have some blackberry,  wild blackberry bushes,  but.
28:11Our goats ate those as well. Those darn goats.  I know it. How many goats do you have? I have, um, four, five does  and  a weather and then about four bucks. I need to get rid of some bucks, but you kind of get attached to them.  Yeah. Do you, um, do you have babies with the goats and then sell the baby goats too? Yes, we do.
28:38Do people just lose their minds when they get their baby goats? Are they like, yes, I finally have goats.  They do. um They're fairly easy to sell because they're so cute. uh How old are they when you actually sell them?  I believe they're  eight weeks old when I can either have to look this up.
29:02Every year. think it's either six or eight weeks old when I can wean them. And then, um, once they're eating really good, um, then they can go to their new homes. Yeah. Um, fun fact about goats, goats don't have top teeth. They just have bottom teeth. Right.  Do they have top molars though, in the back?  I've not seen any, but I,  uh, have not really looked either. So.
29:30I for the life of me cannot figure out how in the heck they chew hay without top front teeth.
29:38I don't know, but they chew on it forever. maybe  it's  a combination. There's. Yeah. I don't know. I read this a couple of months ago about goats and I was like, how do they eat? How do they crunch anything?
29:55You know, how do they masticate it, I guess is the word I'm looking for. But they definitely do enjoy eating. They eat everything.  Yes,  I've heard  two different sides of the fence on this.  One lady said that her goats were the best behaved goats ever. They weren't mischievous and they did not eat tin cans and paper. And then another lady was like, oh my God, my goats are terrible. They're everywhere that they're not supposed to be. They eat everything.
30:24Including me if they're not supposed to eat so it make them sick  and I was like hmm sounds like kids to me Yeah, mine has not ever uh
30:36Eating things like things that they're not supposed to, but like they'll get into the calf feed or some other animals feed and  go to town on it. But as far as like eating paper or things like that, I've never had that issue. And mine are the Nigerian dwarf.  Um, so they're not jumping fences or anything like that. As long as I have the wire at the bottom of the fence, they're, really no problem to keep in. Nice.  Yeah. My husband and I keep  sort of.
31:05revisiting the idea of getting a couple of goats, know, youngins. And every time we talk about it, I said, I think I'm more in love with the idea than I am the reality.  And he's like, yeah, me too. He said, every time this comes up, we're like, we should get goats. And then we both come to the conclusion that we're not ready for goats.  hardest part to me about goats is that they're wormy,  the worms  and
31:34Part of that's probably my fault because I don't have enough space to rotate their fields.  Yep. So  that does make it a little bit more challenging. Yeah. Well, we're lucky enough to have friends that have goats. So if I really, really, really need a baby goat fix in April, May, June, whenever they're due,  can hike my cute little hiney over there and visit a baby goat.  So I'm good.
32:00I really, I think the garden and the chickens and the barn cats and the dogs are probably more than enough for us at this point in our lives. I've never given up that dog. The only way that dog is going away is if she dies. I am so in love with Maggie. It's ridiculous. And I've been remiss. I haven't been talking about Maggie as much as I did when I started the podcast two and a half years ago. So what kind of dog is Maggie? She is a mini Australian shepherd. Oh,
32:29And she is the loviest, leasiest mini Australian shepherd you will ever meet. She,  you know how they talk about,  um, cattle dogs being very high energy and,  crazy.  She's like a lab. Oh, wow. She's very, very calm and  she's very athletic. If we take her outside and run her with the frisbee, she hauls  ass and she's jumping in the air to catch it. And she's just all go, go, go.
32:58But when she's in the house, she's just a loaf.
33:03We have a golden doodle  and talk about being wired up and crazy.  is, he actually, um, last week got bit on the head by a Brown recluse. Oh no.  Yeah. So,  um, he's  been getting a little TLC here, but he's all better now.  Good. Good. I hate it when dogs are sad or hurt.
33:30I was never a dog person, Trisha, until we got Maggie. And now I'm a sucker for all of them. I see stories about dogs and if they're sad, I cry. And if they're funny, I laugh myself stupid. It's so dumb. To the point that I will see dogs that are being walked when my husband and I are out running around doing errands and I'm like, oh, who's a good doggo? And my husband's like, you are a sick woman. He said, you never used to be like this.
33:59I said, but look at the pupper. And he's like, don't push it. Cause he thinks it's really weird that I am so a dog person now. Cause I used to be a cat person, way before I was a So she has, she has assimilated and ruined me for my love of cats. I'm now a dog person. Oh, cats are so funny too though. We made my husband was crack up at the little cat videos of them doing different things.
34:26Yeah, my husband really likes the YouTube videos where the cats or they knock things off on purpose of  the surface they're on  or they get startled and fall over.  thinks that's pretty funny too.  Yeah.  But anyway, we could talk about things that aren't necessarily  farming or homesteading related all day, but that's not what this podcast is about.  So oh you would like to get Valet sheep. Right.  And is there anything else that you would like to add to your farm?
34:57We have  a couple of donkeys. would like to get,  we have a mini Jack and I'd like to get a uh don't, uh, Jenny. Uh-huh.  Um, but other than that, just  the Valleys sheep and, and another donkey would be awesome. So then you could have baby donkeys too.  Yes. But they take like a year, I think. Yep.
35:24Yep. It's a very long gestation period for equines and donkeys fall under equines.  So yeah, it's a long wait  and, it's,  oh, I don't want to burst your bubble. do not want to this out loud because I want to discourage anybody, but  I will  never have a horse or a donkey, mostly because I would want to have that horse or donkey have a baby.  And  it's really nerve wracking.
35:52when they have their babies because you don't know whether that baby is going to come out good  or if it's going to come out not alive.  And I don't do so well with the second option there. m We had a calf this year that was stillborn. It was  very sad. oh Again, I don't want to discourage anybody from this lifestyle.  Farming, homesteading, ranching is  an amazing choice to make for your life.
36:22But you've got to get comfortable with things not being alive when you expect them to be. Oh no, it's so hard.
36:33I heard somebody say one time, if you've got livestock, you will eventually have dead stock.  Uh huh. Yeah. And you will. Whether it's a barn cat or a chicken or a foal,  it's going to happen  and it will break your heart.  yeah. So, you know,  I think that the joy that comes with farming, ranching and homesteading far outweighs the sad.
37:01But boy, that saddle kick you in the teeth when it happens.  Oh, it really will. There is more good, there's more exciting things  that does happen, but not nearly as often.  So,  all right, Trisha, I try to keep this to half an hour. Where can people find you? Oh, we are on Facebook and Instagram at Silo Springs  Farm. Okay. And you have a blog, right?
37:30Well, I do, but it has  not been updated in a couple of years. Life got kind of busy and I  quit  writing, but. Okay. Nevermind.  All right. I really appreciate your time so much. People can find me at a tinyhomesteadpodcast.com. I hope you have a great day, Trisha. Thank you. You too. Thank you.
 

New Beginnings with Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom

Today I'm talking with Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom.
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In this episode of A Tiny Homestead, Mary welcomes back returning guest Leah from Clear Creek Ranch Mom in Nebraska. Leah has previously appeared on the podcast four times since March 2024, and today’s conversation brings exciting updates.
They begin with a little seasonal appreciation, talking about frosty mornings, baby pink sunrises, and the beauty of unobstructed rural views. From there, the conversation turns to what is new.
Introducing a New Podcast
Mary and Leah recently launched a brand new podcast together:
Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women in Agriculture
After thoughtful consideration, Leah said yes to co hosting, and the two have been recording weekly conversations that highlight the voices and stories of women in agriculture.
They talk about:
Why so many podcasts stop around episode seven and why they are determined to keep going
The joy of unscripted, authentic conversation
Creating space for women to be heard
The power of storytelling in building connection and courage
The importance of real human connection in a world increasingly shaped by technology
Leah shares how her background in communications and her love of asking questions have shaped her passion for elevating other people’s stories.
Why Women’s Voices Matter
Grit and Grace in the Heartland focuses on women in agriculture and the many roles they hold. The podcast explores:
Identity and authenticity
Wearing multiple hats in rural life
Leadership, business, ranching, and family
Financial literacy and independence for women
The deep and often unseen emotional labor of rural women
Mary and Leah discuss how meaningful it is to go beyond surface level conversations and create a space where women can share their real stories, including the hard parts.
They also reflect on the courage it takes to put yourself out there publicly and the importance of community support, especially in small towns.
The Power of Asking and Listening
Leah shares stories about the impact of simply noticing people and saying thank you. From fast food employees to store clerks, she talks about how powerful it can be to acknowledge hard work and offer genuine appreciation.
The takeaway is simple:
If you see something, say something.And not just when it is negative.
Kind words and curiosity can change someone’s day, and sometimes even more than that.
Stories That Shape Us
Mary and Leah also reflect on the women who shaped them, especially their grandmothers. They talk about unconventional women, loneliness, resilience, and the importance of preserving family stories.
Every woman has a story worth telling.Every family holds stories that matter.
That belief sits at the heart of both podcasts.
A Nebraska Favorite
The episode wraps up with a lighthearted discussion about Runza, the beloved Nebraska sandwich filled with beef, cabbage, and onions baked inside bread dough. They even share tips for making them at home.
Where to Find Leah and the New Podcast
You can find Leah at Clear Creek Ranch Mom on Facebook.
Listen to Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women in Agriculture at:gritandgraceintheheartland.com
Find Mary and A Tiny Homestead at:atinyhomesteadpodcast.com
Thank you for listening to A Tiny Homestead. If you enjoy the show, please share it with a friend and leave a review. Your support helps more people discover these meaningful rural stories.
 
 

Grounded In Maine Podcast

Today I'm talking with Amy at Grounded In Maine Podcast.
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00:00You'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 Amy Bolduc at Grounded in Maine in Virginia. I know that's weird, but that's how it falls.  Good morning, Amy. How are you?  I am doing fine. Thanks. I know it's such a funny thing. People are like, where are you? Like I'm in Virginia,  but why is your podcast Grounded in Maine? Well, because you'll always be.
00:29Your heart will always be grounded in Maine. That's why. mean, 49 years, not like that's nothing. That's not nothing. Yeah, exactly.  Well, what's the weather doing in Virginia this morning? Oh, geez.  It's so cold this morning. Like, I'm sure it's not Minnesota cold, but it's still cold. mean, it was 15 degrees when we were walking this morning. um And yesterday,  yesterday, it was so yesterday we had 45 mile per hour winds. um And  it was not much warmer.
00:59So but then two weeks ago, I mean, if you're asking about weather, the weather here is so weird. I mean, all of like November, December, it was beautiful, like 40s, probably. And I know I, you know, everyone was like, oh, my gosh, it's so cold. It's snowing, snowing, snowing. And I'm like, well, you know, don't want to say anything because I'm in the south, blah, blah, blah. But then two weeks ago, the weather forecast was looking like we were.
01:27My weather app was telling me we were going to get up to 21 inches of snow.  And I was like, what  is this about? ah And then when it actually came, it was like a dusting of snow, but then an inch and a half of freezing rain, ah which I would so I would prefer 21 inches of snow a million times over freezing rain and ice. ah Anyone who's dealt with freezing rain would agree a thousand percent freezing rain is so dangerous.
01:57Yeah. it's, you know, it just is like, but since then, so last weekend,  I, my, my trusty weather app that I've been using for years lied to me and said, you know, maybe, maybe one between one to three inches of snow. I'm like, okay, you know, that's no big deal. But then we got 10 ish inches of snow  and it was fluffy snow, which was cool. But then like, when I moved here, I did not get a snow shovel because I was
02:26You know, last winter we had four inches total, like  all winter long, two, two inch storms.  And I was like, that is no big deal. And then this year,  you know, and then the ice, I was like, I'm not I'm not even shoveling. I literally can't shovel that. But so I have a travel trunk shovel, which  it's in two pieces and it's rickety and plastic. I've had it for probably 20 years uh and.
02:54I ever used it, only when I was working and I got stuck in a snowstorm.  But so that's what I've been using. I actually went out yesterday to try to get a real shovel and they were out. Of course.  Of course.  Because we just got 10 inches of snow.  yeah, I mean, the weather is great. And then, know, Tuesday is supposed to be like 60. I  like,  there's no,  I don't think there's like Virginia weather. I think it's just whatever.
03:23happens, like what it just feels like.
03:28Yeah, Mother Nature has become extremely bipolar over the last two years. That's a great way to say it. Maybe she's going through menopause too. I don't want to make you jealous, but it's seven, it's, what is it right now? I'm looking at my weather app. It's 27 degrees here in Minnesota in Lesor right now. And it's supposed to be 38 for the high. Tomorrow 45 for the high, Tuesday 38, Wednesday 38.
03:57Thursday 40, Friday 40. Well, that's like making up for the last two weeks when it was below zero. That's exactly what I was going to say. We had, we had 14 or 15 days in a row where we never got close to freezing to 32 degrees.  And it was the longest stretch I've seen in years and it sucked. No question.  So anyway,  um, that's the weather update. I would do weather update.  Um, start with a weather update folks.
04:26Oh, always do. In case you need to know. Every podcast opens with how's the weather because we're all doing stuff that weather impacts and I figure it's a good way to do it.  We're all experiencing weather. We sure are. And when we're trying to grow stuff or, um you know,  if we have chickens. Raise animals. Yeah. Yeah.  It's  kind of important to know what we're walking out into.  So that leads me to my first question. I saw that your  chickens are starting to lay again, beautiful eggs.
04:55How are the chickens doing and how many do you have? The chickens are good. I have five. I've actually, so I've had one. Miss Lacey never stopped laying. Like every so often she'll skip a day, but then the next day she's like, before I even get there, she's already laid her egg.  She has not taken a break.  Jason, however, has not laid an egg for at least two months. uh Jason is a hen.  She came to me with that name. don't,  Jason Kelsey. I don't know.
05:24I think that's football. Yes. I don't know. It's football. That's the name that she came with. That's so funny. And she's very nice and she's very pretty, but she had a really, really rough molt and she was really funny looking. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jason. I know you can't hear this, but she was funny looking. But it's always the worst timing when they molt. Do you have chickens, Mary? I have 18. You have 18. Okay.
05:52How many kittens do you have now? um Well, technically we have three kittens, but they're about five months old now. Oh, well, they're still kittens. um Okay. So  I have, yeah, five still. I have not lost a single chicken in a year. Good job. They barely see the light of day, but  I feel like that's a good trade off. mean, they do. They get out. um
06:17like an hour at the end of the day, because that's when I am not working and I can actually be out there with them. And even if I'm not out there with them, like usually when I get out of work, so now because the time, because with the time change and the light, longer darkness, whatever. So I get out of work at 4.30, my dog and I walk at 4.30 and I let the chickens out at 4.30 because 5.30 it's going to be dark.
06:44So I let them out at 430 and I leave my phone while we're walking  with music playing so that the critters don't feel like the predators don't feel like they're alone.  I just looked at my farmer's almanac wall calendar and daylight savings time is March 8th.  So we only have a few more weeks until literally a month, literally a month from today.  Yep. So
07:10Yeah, I know me too. I was like, yay, more light in the evening. It's so sad that we have to wait until March. like really winter is just, I know winter is a season of rest, but some of us don't get to do that. And then it's just miserable. Absolutely. I just had a thought and it went bye bye. Cause that's what happens. Um, I'm very excited to know that, uh,
07:39daylight savings time switch is only a month away because that means that good,  spring weather is only two months away.  Yeah. It's just, you know, it's like  there are no holidays. So we're like March 8th, come on, come on, come on, March 8th.  You know, never push the  time to move as quickly as this last month for sure. Yes. And I figure
08:04In Minnesota, we have March Madness, which is the hockey tournaments, I think. oh is it? It's not  baseball? Baseball? I can't remember. It's hockey or basketball.  It might be both. Who knows? I'm not a girl. Don't take sports information from us, peeps. Yeah, I am not a sports fanatic at all.
08:25What I do know is that March, because of the tournaments that are going on, is always terrible for weather because of course it would be because people are traveling in for the tournament. Well, it's like that in between, right?  You're waiting for spring and you're so anxious for spring, but winter's like, eh, I'm just going to hang out a little bit longer. Just going to throw a little crap your way. Yeah, yeah. And it's always March. It's always the worst month. February's okay. I can deal with February, but March is the worst.
08:55Cause everybody's so excited about this tournament thing.  And I'm like, yeah, good luck driving in that three feet of snow we're probably going to get.
09:05Oh,  it's so  yeah, it's like going out with a bang. The last hurrah.  Yes, it is. then I'm like, okay, it's going to be peonies season soon. So I'm all for it.  let's get back to the whole grounded in Maine and you live in Virginia now.  When I first interviewed you two years ago, I think it was you were in Maine. I was in Maine. And then you got divorced and then you moved to Virginia.  Yeah.
09:36It's for the people who don't know it is kind of a pain in the butt  to change the name of a podcast. Yeah.  So  I don't blame you for not changing it. Plus I  know when we last talked, you had mentioned that you were trying to get back to New England. So how is that? Is that anywhere on the horizon?  Um,  well, I mean, I would love it to be on the horizon. I really don't want to do another summer here in Virginia. Yeah.  Um,
10:04So my goal is to get back there in some form by like May. I don't have any big things happening though. My house has been on the, on the real estate market since July and no one, no one has even like looked at it, which is sad. But, um, you know, my realtor says it's just really expensive, but at the, at the same time, like I put $25,000 in solar panels on this house. And so.
10:34the electric bill,  except for this month because we got 10 inches of snow, uh has been literally $10. Like 11 months of the year, it's $10. Okay, I forget the nearest big city to you in Virginia.  So I am about an hour from Greensboro, North Carolina. I'm about an hour from Danville, Virginia, and I'm about an hour from Roanoke, Virginia.
11:03Okay. What's the next biggest town from you though?  I mean,  like how far?  Uh, Martinsville is right next door. It's just like 10 minutes, but it's not, it's not like bustling by any means.  Everything is about an hour. Let's use the, the, American definition of how far away you are from stuff. How far is the nearest Walmart from you or Home Depot? Oh,  uh, Home Depot. don't, I think.
11:32is like an hour. Walmart is like 10 minutes. So if somebody wants to move to Virginia, Amy's house is on the market. You should go check it out. Cute little house. Very simple, but you $10 electric bill, man. And it's on an acre, a little bit over an acre.
11:52Well, maybe somebody will hear the podcast. you can have chickens.  Yeah. Maybe somebody will hear the podcast episode and be like, I would like to check out Amy's house. Maybe it's somewhere I would like to live. I would not be mad at that. Yeah, exactly. And then you can go find your house where you want to be.  I did though. mean, just yesterday I got, so Saturdays I get an email from the New England Farm Finder website,  which is really fun. I don't know if you subscribe to that, Mary, but it's really fun if you're dreaming.
12:21Well, I'm not dreaming and putting that in front of me would probably be a bad plan. So  I would get nothing done.  But so a new one came out yesterday and I actually sent a letter of interest to two different properties.  Good.  And they were not selling. They were like leasing  per se.  I actually I got an email back just like an hour ago from one of them.
12:49So that's like, that feels like progress, even though  it might not become anything, it's progress. uh I also,  have my actually next week's podcast  episode, the guest hooked me up with this guy who's also a podcaster and Mary, you might be interested in speaking with him.  His name is Ting, Tim Ang.  I have already talked to him. did? Okay. His wife actually. Okay. Sophia. Yes. Super, super nice. Fabulous. Yes.
13:19They both are very, very nice. And so I got hooked up with Tim and he's a homesteader realtor banker. And so I paid him to help market my house to homesteaders. And he's put it on a list of off market homes, properties, which I've never heard of, I'm like, I'll take whatever.
13:48Anything to get the word out at this point.  And so we took new pictures. We changed the wording and the listing. I changed the wording in the listing because it was too  sterile and it did not highlight the solar panels quite enough and the great things that are around here.  Well, fingers are still crossed. Love and light to get your house moved because I know how much you want to get back to New England. I totally understand.
14:17I don't want to go back to New England. I am really, really happy with where we ended up.  I feel like a traitor saying that, but I am assimilated. Minnesota is pretty similar to Maine. It is.  is. It's just But that's where your people are. Yeah. It's just missing the ocean half an hour away and mountains the other half an hour away, but I can live without those things. It's okay. Yeah. I mean, a funny little...
14:43I mean, it's not really a complication, just like literally yesterday,  my sister,  so my sister's been in Greensboro, North Carolina. She took a job transfer a month ago. She started in December. then uh just yesterday, she and her spouse  and their dogs drove from Cincinnati where they've been living for the last like eight years  to North Carolina. So now they're living an hour away from me.
15:12God, I can't imagine  moving  again.  I know. I can't either, but I also can't imagine staying. Yeah. If I didn't love where we are so much, it would be a different story. But my God, trying to move a 20 years worth of stuff out of a small house into a bigger house, you would have thought that we  would have had lots of room.  And  after five years,  we're starting to...
15:39starting to be like, okay, it's time to really deep clean the house and get stuff out of here again. Right. Well, I think you and I are similar in that we don't, we're thoughtful about what we let go of.  Um, my sister was like, I don't want to move this. I don't want to move this. And so they had a dumpster  and she was showing me,  she showed me the pictures of her new place, which has this beautiful deck. And  she was like, I'm not sure if I'm going to bring  the grill or not. And I'm like, but you have that deck. And she was like, well, but you know,
16:08It doesn't work that great. guess,  you know, they  also move a lot. mean, eight years is a long time for them to be in the same place.  I think they don't have... um
16:26What's the word that I need? um Like nostalgia for stuff. uh Stuff doesn't hold their emotions  like it does me.  doesn't hold their hearts, Travel does. So  here they are again.  Yeah, I hate travel. I hate it.  I have done so many road trips between New England and the Midwest in my life because my grandparents lived in Illinois when I was a kid.
16:56um That I'm just I'm kind of over it being stuck in a car or an airplane or train just does not do it for me anymore  Yeah, I would rather have people come visit me at this point then then go you know  For sure uh So I we're gonna totally jump tracks here  I saw that your your cats maybe one of them got sprayed by a skunk. Is that right? Yeah a couple months ago uh Maybe a month ago
17:26And you mentioned that you had a trick to get rid of the stinkiness. So what's the trick? Right. Well, I mean, I just Googled it because I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this actually happened. I never thought that it would actually happen. Google said,  what was it? A quart  of hydrogen peroxide. um I forget how much baking soda,  but I can get that to you. Yeah. So
17:55Hydro and peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. Was it specifically Dawn dish soap or is it any dish soap? Well, I don't have Dawn dish soap, em it might've said Dawn.  Okay. Well, Dawn's just really good at  really, really good. I mean, I'm not sponsored by Dawn dish soap,  don't take it that way, but Dawn dish soap is really good at cutting oils. But Dawn, if you're interested, uh Mary's looking for sponsors.
18:25Well, I always am, but I'm not sure Dawn would be the one, but we'll see what happens.  But it's really, really good at cutting oils.  It's fantastic. They  use it after oil spills.  Yeah, exactly. And so I'm assuming that  the skunk spray probably has natural oils from the skunk in it. And maybe, maybe that would help.  don't know. Well, I mean, what I did worked great. mean,  I, was, I was very, very happy and I was like,
18:55Oh my gosh, I can't let her inside. Because I don't want that in my house. But then it was cold enough that I was like, we're just going to take this into the entryway. I gave her the little bath in the entryway and then it was, you know, better. My parents dog when I was a teenager got sprayed by a skunk and he was a Samoyed. So much hair. Holy moly.
19:24My dad tried using tomato sauce. Well, that's what we grew up learning, right? Tomato juice cuts it. But then it stains a white dog. Well, that was fine, but he was still stinky for months.  And the worst part was that he took a full-on hit  of skunk. of course, my dad let him in the house to try to clean him up, and my clothes smelled like skunk for months.
19:54And I was in high school. Can you imagine how that went over?  mean, somebody told me that cats and skunks usually get along pretty well. And I was like, what? But then  as I was thinking about that, somebody said, really, is that true? And then it clicked with me that  Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes  was in love with a cat. uh
20:20So, mean, I think they don't necessarily not get along, but I think that my male cat was hissing and probably freaked it out. and skunks are finicky. There are times where you think they're going to spray and then it's like, no, I'm good. And then there's times where you think they're fine and nope, they're going to spray. But so this skunk came around. So it was like, it was 715 in the morning. I felt so bad because I was like, get away, you know, screaming.
20:47and slamming, like I have a galvanized uh bucket that I keep my bird food in and I was just slamming it on anything just to scare it away and it wasn't moving. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like,  I wonder if it's rabid. And someone eventually said that  it's mating season for skunks.  Oh gosh.  But it was like, it was around all day and I haven't seen it since.  But that day,  like it was, it was circling my house.
21:16And it creeped me out so much. Uh huh. Yeah. The joys of living in  an area where there's wildlife that can just come visit anytime they want. Yeah. But I've seen, this is probably the fifth time that I've encountered this skunk. I assume it's the same one because this is the, I'm guessing that this is the same one that I caught last year in a trap thinking that I was getting a possum. Oh no. So I put the trap, the have a heart trap in my
21:46chicken pen, which is where one of my chickens was killed.  And I saw the possum. So I'm like, I'm going to catch that bugger.  I caught a skunk. Yeah. And I got sprayed when I tried to move it, of course.  And  then I found out that it's illegal to um to move it  from where it was living. So it's not like you can just  move it seven miles away or something like that. They said it's illegal. So
22:16The options are kill it, which there's no reason to kill it. It's doing it's skunk thing. Yeah. Or release it.  Oh my God. I had a trapper come and he released it back into the woods and.  No, and it keeps coming back. I mean, I've seen it in my chicken coop a couple of times and I've just like, the chickens now are barricaded so that no one can get into their coop. They have a safe space and then usually  all the critters are gone.
22:44when the light turns on at 430  and the light starts to come in. uh You know, most of them are  nocturnal. So they, they bail and I just leave the chickens in until it's light.  Your chickens have a safe room. I know it's so, I can't believe that this is, it's taken me this long,  but I mean safe as in like they are barricaded by with  cinder blocks.  I've got them all around the outside of their.
23:12the inside and the outside of their coop and um their door, which was, it used to be just like a pillowcase,  a pretty pillowcase with a tree heart uh that they could just push in and out. Now it's blocked.  Not only do your chickens have a safe room, they have a fortress. That is true.  That is true. sure this is the love that you have for your chickens.
23:41for not wanting a skunk to get in there. Heck yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's, think that that's,  it's actually  part of homesteading ish, isn't it, Mary? Like  you, you learn as you go  how much,  know, if you're, if what you're doing is not safe enough, you need to  add to, right? Or like be innovative and  figure out how to make everyone safe and get everything done right.
24:10absolutely is part of being homesteadish. had I, did I tell you about the raccoons that showed up this past spring here?  Yeah, mama. have a raccoon story. Yeah. A raccoon showed up, a big raccoon showed up  and my husband tried to dispatch it and missed.  And then about a week and a half. No, I'm sorry.  Couldn't have been that shortly. Couldn't have been that short of amount of time. Like a month later.
24:39I got up in the morning and was going out on the porch, drink my coffee, and I opened the door to the porch  and I heard all these little scritchy noises and it was a mama raccoon.  had  like four or five babies and they had all come up on  the cement pad that's outside the porch. It was their little feet scritching to run away.  That would have been fine except that they proceeded to find the weak
25:08heart in the fence for the chicken run  and they killed like four or five of our chickens. my husband and my son went out and  and fortified uh the fence. And it was really weird because I never saw the raccoon or the babies again.
25:30And I know that my husband shot  the shotgun off a couple of times after they fixed the fence.  He didn't shoot it at anything. He just discharged the rifle or shotgun.  And I think maybe the gun  going off a couple of times scared them and left. Maybe. But uh raccoons will rip, literally rip chickens apart just for the fun of it.  Yeah. They don't even eat.
25:55And what a waste. I mean, I wasn't I wasn't crying upset, but I was just like, you know, those freaking chickens cost us twenty three dollars apiece. Oh. Five of them. Are they fancy chickens? No, it's just that laying hens that that are old enough to lay or just getting to be old enough to lay were expensive last year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What do you call them? Pullets. Thank you. Yeah. So we lost like.
26:23almost $125 in one go. And I was just like, this is not okay. And my husband said, this is homesteading. I went, mm-hmm, sure is honey. Speaking of homesteading, have you seen the Homestead Living magazine yet? I haven't. Oh my goodness. If you have an extra $30 burning a hole in your pocket for a subscription for the year.
26:51you might want to subscribe to it because it's really beautiful. started over two years ago  and it used to be monthly. Now it's bimonthly. So  one um issue, not episode, one issue every two months now.  And it's gorgeous. And I get it because I was one of the founding people that subscribed  and I am not willing to give up my subscription yet. But I...
27:18had an article that was supposed to be published in the, I don't know, December issue. And it might, my article got bumped because of the gift guide and I was very sad. my editor said, how about we put the article on the blog? And I was like, yes, please. em So it was published on the blog on like December 17th, I think. And  it was just really cool to see it. Cause I spent time writing that thing. It was nice to see it get out in the world.
27:48Absolutely, but it's it's a gorgeous magazine and their blog has all kinds of information for people who want to look into getting into homesteading or who are homesteaders and want new ideas.  I need I need outlets where people are supportive. That's good. That's good to know. Yeah, it's very very fun. um I really want to interview Melissa Canora. She's the lady that started the magazine.
28:17But she's  really busy. This woman has her hands in everything.  I just, can't, I can't get her attention. I'm like, Melissa, please come talk to me. That I just can't, I can't get her.  So, um, we have a few minutes left. wanna, I wanna tell you, I'm very impressed with your podcast. You have had some fantastic guests lately.  I feel the same way.
28:47Yeah. And your podcast is really about sustainability, right? Yes.  Although I take some poetic license with that. Everybody does with podcasts. There are no rules. That's right.
29:04sustainability and then some.  Yeah, I just, I love it. I see,  I see your little snippets or whatever they're called  on your Instagram account.  And I'm like, Ooh, that's going to be a good one.  Yeah.  I've got a really interesting one coming up in a few weeks. mean, I've got, I've, so I don't, I don't know if you're on pod match.  I am. Okay. You are.
29:34Why am I not seeing you? Maybe I'm not. I'll have to look. I'm on a whole bunch of pod things, but that may be not be one of them. don't remember.  So a lot of the guests recently have come from there, but also some of them  I've just found on Instagram and some of them are just chance. Like I think um if you  happen to listen to the one with Tia's prom  closet.  I did.  She just, and there are people that
30:03that just follow people because my podcast is grounded in Maine and she's in Maine. So I think that she was just following me because of that. And then I saw what she was about and I was like, oh, heck yeah. Getting prom dresses and formal dresses back into circulation is so, so cool instead of being wasted. But then the story behind it was just like...
30:30you make makes you cry to listen to but you know, in the most inspiring and  and happy way, right?  Yeah, it's always the stories behind it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love to be able to bring those out. And then I just think that, you know, she was totally chance like  I was looking at her profile and I was like, Oh, I want to hear more about that.  And then as I you know, when she filled out her guest form, she was talking about pain and to purpose and I'm like, Whoa,
31:00This is going to be so good because it's so much, you know, I don't know what happened, but I'm, I'm here for the, you know, the, the stories I'm here for the stories. And I, I love when they have a good story. It's a stories are a hook. and  I, I personally hate the word hook cause  it's like tricking somebody, but, but in this case, it's not a trick. It's a gift. Yeah.  Well, yeah. I mean, it definitely was for me.
31:30But then it also,  it just makes them, it makes it relatable because people,  know, everyone's lost a friend. Well, not everyone, but you can imagine what it would be like to lose a friend and  to be able to make, create something so powerful from that friend's  memory.  And to honor that friend. Yep.  Yeah. And I just thought, you know, she's got,
31:58the girl that I interviewed, think she said she has three kids, three young kids. her youngest is just months old  and she's also running this place. I was like, you know, that just says so much about their friendship. Yeah. And about her, about, about the girl that, you  interviewed. Yep. Yeah. I just, mean, there, there are some really cool people there, you know, and I just,  I find them, I find them everywhere. I mean, I,  I do a lot of, I scour
32:27Instagram, not, not like in a creepy way, but just, you know, there are so many cool people out there and I'm,  I'm out there to find them. It's a lot of work, but it is always worth it when I get a really good conversation. Yeah. It's a ton of work. mean, I used to do,  I used to release an episode every day, Monday through Friday in the morning. And now I'm down to  at least one a week because right now I'm having trouble finding people to talk with me because people are really busy.
32:57Yeah. So anybody listening who knows somebody  they want to, if they want to chat with me, you can get ahold of me through  the, through the podcast information in the show notes. ah Amy, did you know that I started another podcast? know the, the last time we talked to you were, oh well you had interviewed me for this potential podcast. Did you start a podcast about podcasting?  I did not. Oh, okay. Then what is the second podcast?  It is called.
33:26What is it called? oh I do this every time. Like I read it every day in front of my eyeballs. But every time I go to say it, I completely forget  grit and grease in the heartland women in agriculture.  And I have a cohost. Her name is Leah. She's clear Creek ranch mom on Facebook and on Instagram.  And I had interviewed her a whole bunch of times for a tiny homestead. She's a cattle rancher in Nebraska  and
33:56I just off the cuff was like, do you want to do a podcast together with me? And she's actually, is 2026 is Leah's year.  She, she just got invited to do her first paid speaking gig,  um, at the end of 2025. Like she was invited then and she just did it, did it yesterday, day before yesterday. don't remember this past week, Friday, it was Friday.  And, um, she said,
34:25She said, can I have a week to think about it? And I was like, absolutely. And so I,  I messaged her a week to the day and said, did you have time to think about it? And she came back with, I absolutely want to do a podcast with you. ah And so basically I didn't know,  but 2026 is the international year of the woman farmer. I didn't know that when I asked her and I found out about it afterwards. So.
34:53Our whole mission for this year is to find women  who are doing big things in agriculture or little things in agriculture or women who have had to leave agriculture and have turned that into promoting  or advocating for agriculture.  I think we have eight episodes out now since the very end of December. Tell me the name of it again, Grace.  In the Heartland. In the Heartland. Women in agriculture, colon, women in agriculture.
35:23But the podcast is actually called Great Grace in the Heartland.
35:28Okay. So yeah, you might want to. Gotcha.  I have some people that I can recommend.  Awesome. Fantastic. We,  we just interviewed Carol from the old farmers' Almanac.  we. Oh, Carol Conair.  Yes. And I had interviewed her for the tiny homestead for this one.  And I messaged her marketing person.
35:51I was like, a friend of mine started a new one, this is what it is. Could Carol come back and talk with us? And she was like, absolutely. And Carol has the most gorgeous laugh. And when she's talking and she's happy and she's animated, her voice completely changes into this other register of sound. And I love it when she's tickled. It just, makes me giggle.
36:18Right. Well, I think it's also part of something that excites you, if you're talking about homesteading as opposed to, not that the almanac is not exciting, but it's something that you're doing, something that you are very involved in, something that just makes you really happy. hear that a lot.
36:46I mean, I think I do that too sometimes, but it's, uh
36:53Yeah.  It was, it was just, it was so fun to have her on. of course,  with Leo being a cattle rancher, she is a D a devotee  of the old farmer's almanac. And  there was a rumor going around that the old farmer's almanac was going out of print. was not, was the farmer's almanac. The farmer's almanac was going out of print. So we had to talk about that. It was just really, really fun. Yeah. It's very confusing. I didn't, I never knew that they were two.  I did.
37:21And I always knew the difference was that it was the old  Farmer's Almanac that my dad used to buy. So I would just get that one.  But anyway, so where can people find you, Amy? Are you just on Instagram?  I am  just on Instagram. I've deleted everything else except for LinkedIn.  So Instagram is grounded in Maine podcast. Okay, cool.
37:47And you guys should go listen to Amy's podcast if you want to learn about new ways to be sustainable and all the amazing things that people are doing, like the woman she talked to who is recycling prom dresses, because that is amazing.  All right. As always, you can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com. If you want to support the show, can find that at AtinyHolmstead.com  slash support, because I'm original like that.
38:16And please go listen to the other podcast again. is written grace in the heartland Yes, exactly. Thank you because I was gonna call it again women in agriculture Yes,  yes It needed a tagline because grit and grace in the heartland apparently could mean anything and I was like, okay Well women in agriculture pretty much says it all.  Yeah So  Amy, thank you for coming back and chatting with me. I appreciate it. It's always fun Mary
38:43It's a joy. love you so much and I wish you all the luck in the world with your home search.  Thank you.  All right. We'll talk again soon. Okie dokie.  Bye. Bye.
 

Open Road Ranch

Today I'm talking with Julie at Open Road Ranch. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00You'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 Julie at Open Road Ranch in Wisconsin. Good morning, Julie. How are you? Good morning, Mary. I'm wonderful. Thank you. How are you? I'm good. How's the weather there?  Sunny and beautiful. It's so nice to see the sun.  Oh, we had that  yesterday and the day before. Right now it is inco...
00:28incredibly overcast in Minnesota, but it's warm. Yes. It's nice, isn't it?  Oh my God. This last two weeks of  like living in the Arctic tundra.  Yeah. I had forgotten how terrible a more than a couple days stint of those temperatures is. Yes. I woke up on like the 13th day and thought to myself, if this doesn't break soon, I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:56Yes, we just need like a day of sun to remind us or just a windless day or something just to hang on. Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast and I remember the song, the  song Oklahoma, where the wind comes rolling off the prairie. Yeah. And I had no concept of that because my house was surrounded by trees. The wind didn't roll across the prairie because there was no prairie. I moved to Minnesota and I learned real quick about wind rolling off the prairie.
01:25Oh yeah, I just saw the other day  someone said the quote, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the wind, said every farmer ever.  Yeah, absolutely.  It's just crazy. And I open every podcast with How's the Weather? Because I just feel like we're all in ag and it's important to talk about the weather. Oh yeah. I used to work office jobs and I worked in a basement office with no windows and weather was just, I'd never even thought about it. It could be light out, could be
01:54night, could be raining. It just didn't really have any effect on my life whatsoever. Now it's everything. Yeah, absolutely. It literally is everything. okay, I don't do a lot of the outside work. My husband is the outside guy. I do a lot of the cooking and the cleaning inside. And even I pay really close attention to the weather because I'm like, I saw it's going to snow tomorrow. Are you set to plow the driveway?
02:22Or I saw it's going to be minus 40 windchill three nights from now. Are the chickens going to survive in their coop?  And he's like, you never really paid attention to this before we moved to Homestead. I said, no, I didn't because I had no reason to pay attention to it. Yeah, you're so into your lives, you know, your animals.  It totally changes your perspective and the way that you live your life. And I kind of love it.  Yes.
02:50All right, so tell me all about yourself and what you do. um I  am a first generation farmer. I'm a very new farmer. This is our second year in farming. um So all very new, um very new small business owner. um Just learning as I go.  We have a small farm in Greenbush, Wisconsin, um is five rented acres of family land. So Tony's folks live up the road and
03:19our crop farmers corn, soybeans and wheat  and they very generously um are renting us five acres to start our farm here and they're very helpful with their farming knowledge and experience just up the road and so it's because of them that we're able to farm and so we have five acres here  and looking at right out the window in our backyard we have pasture raised hogs, uh have uh pasture raised sheep and we have some chickens that aren't  doing much of anything right now it's mostly for us m
03:48but I did get three eggs the other day, so that's exciting.  we sell our pasture-raised um pork and lamb.  And  I also make lard products with lard from our pasture-raised hogs  because one of my missions when I first began was uh education and also to use as much of the animal as possible. So I dabbled in  trying to  tan sheepskin hides that didn't go very far,  make dog treats out of the organ meats, just different creative ways  because these animals give us such a gift.
04:17you know I hate to see you go in the trash when especially our ancestors you know  would be you know grateful for the whole gift and use as much of it as possible and they needed to use as much of it as possible  but I hope to still  tap into a little bit of that so ah we use the lard from our pasture raised hogs to create um bombs, dish soap, shampoo bars,  things like that because lard is just incredible for us and  so I also feel strongly about educating people about  the wonder of  those
04:46what are often considered waste products that are so wonderful for us and such a gift. Awesome. Tell me about lard dish soap, because I have not heard those words in the same sentence before. Yeah,  me neither until recently. And I had been making lard bombs for about a year and I thought, well, what else can I do  with this lard?  Because the bombs were going really well and I thought there must be some other things um that our ancestors used lard for that we can use it for. Because it's just full of vitamins and minerals and such healing properties.
05:16uh You would not think that lard would clean dishes. You're often trying get lard off of your dishes, so I didn't really believe it either. ah We mix the  lard with lye and  some lemon. That's your degreaser. It's really pure and simple. ah It's just a uh dish soap bar, so it takes some getting used to, but you just use a sponge or a scrub.
05:41You just get it wet and then you use it like you'd use  dish soap and it works wonderfully and it's clean and pure. It's not full of... um One of the reasons I started this is because laundry soap and  lotions and  shampoo bars and all those things, they're just full of so many chemicals. And I know people, myself included, are looking for clean things to put on their body and use in their homes.  And so it's just pure and simple, non-toxic.  So that's another reason I started making them.
06:10Nice. Okay.  The reason I was so confused is because I always think of liquid dish soap. I didn't think of a soap bar dish soap. So  I didn't know you could use lard for dish soap. I am going to have to look up a recipe and maybe try that. Because we make, we make cold process lye soap here for  baths and showers and  love it.  Like all of our kids grew up using these bars of soap since we started making  them 15 years ago.  And, uh,
06:39My youngest asked me the other day, said, can I have like four bars of that soap? I said, yes, you can.  Well, they last so long and they're so versatile.  And yeah, they're just wonderful. Yeah.  I have a daughter and three sons. The daughter is the oldest.  The oldest of the boys lives in Nebraska. And he also had asked for some soaps to take home with them a couple of years ago when he visited.
07:05And he and his wife are now making their own cold processed Lysol. That's wonderful. It's such a good feeling to be able to do that. It's such a skill. So excited that the things that we tried to teach them really did sink in and sunk in enough that they want to do it too. Yeah. It does work. It does work. If you model good things for your kids and you make it fun, they'll probably want to do it too.
07:32Yes, it's quite different than just telling someone to do something when they see you doing it and enjoying it and what can come from it. Then it's quite different than just telling someone very much so. Yeah. And I always say this when I bring up the soaps. The reason we started making cold process lye soap is because store bought soap makes my skin itch like crazy.  And I had bought a beautiful um honey oat bar soap.
08:00from a lady that has been making them for years. And I just loved it so much, the way it smelled, that I was like, oh, I can't wait to take a shower with this. And I used that entire bar, went back to store, bought soap, and my skin was itchy, but the whole time I used the bar I from her, my skin was really nice. And I said to my husband, I said, can we please try making cold processed lye soap? Because I can't afford to spend $7 a bar.
08:29uh It's a stretch for the budget back then.  And he said, let's look up how to make it. And we did, and he made a batch and it was unscented and we loved it. And we gave a couple bars to people to try to see what they thought. And they were like, can you make a lemon scented one?  Can you make a lavender scented one?  And then we got into the essential oils and it was just, it was so fun.
08:53to learn all the things and all the properties and why lavender is so good,  why lemon is so good.  And we still do it now. So I just, always rave about the cold process Lysol because yes, it has some things to be careful of,  but  once you've made a couple of batches and you know your process, it's one of the simplest ways  to improve your life. Yes. You get so many out of a batch.
09:22You get like eight or 10 bars and so much more cost effective. And um yeah, you have to be careful with the lie, but like anything, it's a skill that you learn. then, you you use safety and you get the hang of it. And then, you know, you get this cost effective product that, you know, saves you money. You can share with family and friends. It's really wonderful. And it's  satisfying, you know, you.
09:46You make that soap, you use that soap, and I don't know about you, but I just get this bubble of happiness in my chest that we can do this, that we did this, that we use it, that it's good for us. Yeah, my first bar of soap, I couldn't believe it. There was no soap there, and then I made soap. It's something that you think you can only get in stores, and I made it. It's such a neat thing to know that you can do those kinds of things. There's such a sense of...
10:13Accomplishment and pride when you create something with your own hands and it has like a different feel to it  Because you had a hand in it and you created it and it's just yeah Really nice. Humans are really skilled really special creatures. We are very good once we set our minds to things. Yes. Yeah  Okay, so uh I'm gonna bring up the fact that your place is called open road ranch not open road farm. Oh,
10:40I have been told by a few people that typically a ranch is a property to the west of the Mississippi and a farm uh is a place to the east of the Mississippi.  So is there a reason that you named it ranch?  We like alliteration. Okay. So it just sounded nice. And actually we looked up ranch versus farm just to make sure we were being technically accurate because I didn't quite know the difference either. And I actually had not heard that.
11:09ah But  my understanding was that  a ranch was primarily  livestock based uh and a farm could be produce or uh livestock. So  a farm could be a ranch, but a ranch couldn't be a farm kind of  thing. And I don't know if that's right. This is probably just on Google. uh But we are  livestock only and it  sounded nice.
11:36Yes, we went with ranch, but I often call us a farm too. feel like  in a lot of ways they're interchangeable and in a lot of ways I'm sure they're quite different. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I don't have an opinion on this at all,  but my thought before a couple of people told me about the West versus East of the Mississippi thing, my thought has always been if it's a farm, it's more produce. If it's a ranch, it's more livestock. So I'm in the same boat as you. Yeah.  Interesting.
12:05So do you have lots of pigs?  I wish I had more. um Well, it's always changing as  some go to the butcher and then we get new piglets. last  couple of weeks ago, we took five of our big pigs in and so now we have five um left. So usually I do batches of about 10 at a time. um And then once the  littles start getting big, then we'll get some more littles in so we can kind of.
12:32face it out so we're  quite a small farm um and so we're still growing our avenues for selling and we're still getting freezers and things like that so that felt like a really manageable uh amount to be able to have enough to sell um without gaps and to be able to manage here from our little farm and our little farm store um but we do hope to grow  and I've just absolutely fallen in love with pigs so I love  tons of pigs and um
13:02The sheep we rotationally graze  as well, so that takes  some thought with  how many acres we have and how many can  rotationally graze on the pasture and have enough to eat and  have that be beneficial for the land and the soil um to not stretch that. uh And so it's just kind of working out um between the sheep and the pigs  what's best for the animals and the land and how much we can feed and how we can grow.
13:29So right now we have five um red wattle Berkshire crosses  for hogs and we have  seven  sheep. Some are south down and some are heritage breed called Jacobs.  I'm 19 Langhans. I just kind of hang out.  Are the sheep the hair sheep or are they the wool sheep?  They are wool sheep. Okay.  I don't know the names of the breeds well enough to go, oh yeah, that's a hair sheep or oh yeah, that's a wool sheep. I'm  not up to date on my.
13:59My shape breeds.  We have 18 or 19 chickens. Last I was told we have 19, but there may have been one that decided to on alive itself. I'm not sure. Oh no. Are you getting eggs? Are they layers or? Yeah. They're the  ISA brown breed. Yep. And we have a light in their coop. So they  lay during the winter. Oh good. There's nothing like a farm fresh egg.
14:26So I missed them during their sabbatical. Yeah, we're actually swimming in eggs right now because the weather's been so cold. People haven't been making the journey out to our place to pick up eggs from the farm stand.  And I'm glad we're talking about this because after I'm done talking with you, I need to post on Facebook and be like, there's eggs and it's warming up outside. Please come buy eggs. Please. Yeah.  We need you to take our eggs. Yeah, exactly.
14:53um My husband brought in, think,  eight dozen from the farm stand a week or so ago  because  they  were getting to the point where we need to get them eaten up.  And I was so excited because as anyone who raises chickens for laying eggs knows,  you can't really, well, you can hard boil a fresh egg, but it doesn't peel very easily. You lose about a quarter of the egg white.
15:19And he brought in all these eggs and I was like, yes, I can make egg salad again. Yeah. Oh yum, that sounds good. We made that in a while. Yeah. So I've had, I've had egg salad like three times in last two weeks. I'm probably going to do it again today because I really like egg salad. And I hadn't had an egg salad sandwich in a year because people were just buying the eggs before there was any time for them to be over two weeks old. Yeah. Yep. Eggs are like gold.
15:47Yep. I love having chickens mostly because I feel like we're helping our community. sell our eggs for $5 a dozen. I don't know what eggs cost at the store now because I haven't bought eggs at the store in almost a year, but there for a while eggs were really freaking expensive and we were still selling our eggs at $5 a dozen. So we were trying to help and I'm a big believer in help where you can. Uh, yeah.
16:17Yeah, yeah. That little touch point, that little access to food,  even if it's just a dozen eggs,  well, you know, connect someone to the farm and the farmer and kind of open doors, I hope. Yes. And the other thing that's  interesting, and I don't mean to make the interview about me, but we're talking about stuff I actually know about. Usually I'm talking to people and they're like, we're raising horses. And I'm like, I don't know anything about horses. Let me ask you a ton of questions. In the spring and summer and fall,
16:46when people come by to get eggs and they've never been here before.  I watch them get out of their vehicle  and they're kind of tight in the shoulders when they step out of the vehicle.  And then they kind of stop and look around and I watch their shoulders just relax.  And I'm like, oh my God, our property, just being on the property helps people. And it just makes me so happy. Yeah. A lot of people don't have access to, of course, like
17:13you know, being around pigs or sheep or chickens or anything like that.  I just, or just even out, you know, in the quiet and the fresh air and green grass and all that stuff. So it's just, it's a really nice, I absolutely know what you mean. Yeah. It's really fun when you get to observe people quietly, like they don't know what you're noticing.  Because if I said to them, did you have a rough day?  They would look at me like I was crazy. Yeah.
17:42But you can see on someone that they've had a very stressful day and you can just watch it kind of melt from their shoulders down to their fingertips when they are  able to take that long deep breath of fresh air. Yes. I try not to take that for granted. because I grew up in the city and I've only been living out in the country and on the farm for a little bit.  I mean, when I see the sunrise or sunset or, you know, the pigs are running around as God intended and...
18:07all of that, like I just try to pause and think like what a gift it is to be able to see pigs out our window and you know, sheep and  these sunrises and sunsets and you know, this fresh air and all these things that like some people might not  be able to have every day and how much that, how good that might feel and yeah. So what,  what pushed you to do this because you said you're, you're not, this is two years in.
18:35So  what made you decide to do this?  I read a lot of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin  and was just really moved by their works. I think it was just  a curiosity about where my food came from, which can, you know, uh results in all sorts of things like either just, you know, buying  organic or going to a farmer's market. And for me, it manifested in  becoming a farmer. ah
19:05I just, yeah, I started to really think about and care about where my food came from. I was a vegetarian for 20 years and a vegan for three years. And now I raise animals and take them to the butcher. And so it's quite the leap, but I feel like there's a lot of fear of propaganda when it comes to veganisms and a lot of food choices. And I think it's because we are so disconnected from our food.
19:34today that when you hear things or see these videos or see these things on social media, um if you don't have experience with it yourself, it's easy  to believe those things or to not understand.  so I think it just sometimes it takes, it's maybe over simplistic, but it's a simple act of like knowing your farmer or coming onto the farm and seeing how their animals are raised um to make that connection back. um
20:01And with vegetarianism and veganism a lot, uh it's  fear-based. um And  I had gone the route of, I don't want anything to do with this.  And so I just cut it out of my diet and out of my life.  But then it was a little bit later on in life when I started reading  Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin.
20:21that I started to see that there's a different way. Like you can have meat and it can be ethical and responsible and actually good for you and good for the earth.  And I feel like a lot of times that wasn't always portrayed, at least in what I was seeing uh with that sort of diet and lifestyle choice. so,  yeah,  I feel like  if people only  knew that or were able to have access to their farm or to their food, they could see that there's a different way um
20:50to eat meat and ethically  and good for the land and good for the animals and good for us. And so part of why I love to do this is the education around that. I invite people come to our farm, see how we raise our animals, see the good lives that they live. And that makes me feel good about eating our meat is because I know how it was raised. know the life it had.  And I feel very proud of being a part of that. And I hope to educate people about that and share that with people. I love it. I love it, Julie. oh
21:20Are you a reader of the Old Farmer's Almanac? Oh, I have one. found it in the thrift store and I have not read it. Okay, well, it's not an it. It's a publication and they come out every year. Yes. And there was a rumor going around that the Old Farmer's Almanac was going out of print. It is not the Farmer's Almanac. There are two different Almanacs. The Farmer's Almanac went out of print with this year's
21:50last one.  The old farmer's almanac is still alive and kicking and doing really well. And  if you want to,  you will learn a whole lot of things about farming and ranching and growing produce and growing animals. It's only like  $10 to buy a copy and it's for the entire year.  Like it's one  little publication for the entire year. And the thing that I love about it is that
22:21It has like days for everything like this is a good day to wean calves or this is a good day to plant seedlings and  It will take you all year to get through it. It's over 100 pages
22:36But anyway, I was just curious if you were a devotee, because a lot of the people I talk to, they're like, oh yeah, I read the farmer's almanac every spring and I mark down what the days are for the things I'm going to be doing, blah, blah, blah. OK, it sounds like I would love it. I am going to open it up. Yeah, it's very fun. I can't remember the name of the website. I think it's just farmer's almanac, but I would have to look it up. It'll be in the show notes.
23:05Hi, what else can I ask you?  You said that your pigs are red wattle and what?  Berkshire crosses. So those are both  heritage breeds.  A red wattle is a lard breed,  which I'm still learning about. um But  I believe it just has that really good  fatty marbling and really good taste.  Yeah, and they're like furry, right?
23:34Oh yes, so our hogs have actually been sleeping outside. If it's above 10 degrees, I would say, and you know, windless night, I'll come out in the morning and we have a big brown hay bale out there for them to grab hay from and they can stuff their huts or they can hang out there. And they'll just be laying outside under the, you know, under the moonlight  in  their hay pile all night. They're very tough  because they you know, raised outside and they have thick fur. So  yeah.
24:04Yeah, people think that pigs don't have fur, but a lot of them do. Yes. And it's interesting to depend on the breed we've had, like durochs and yorks and, all different kinds. And the Berkshire breeds will have, yeah, quite a lot of hair and  it does help them, you know, be pasture animals. Yeah. I know just a little bit about the red waddles because I knew people who had them and they're, aren't they kind of friendly? Aren't they pretty nicely demeanored as it were?
24:34Yes, they are. mean, and I think that's too,  most of the pigs we've had have been really friendly demeanor just because we have so much contact with them. You know, we're out there  two, three times a day.  Um, you know, they have that one-on-one interaction and, and I sit and talk to them and, know, I'm friendly with them. So I think you get out of them, what you put into them. And so I think like the more contact you have with them,  um, they'll, they'll be friendly, but all the breeds we've had, we've had durochs and Yorks and a hundred percent Berkshires. We've had a ham.
25:02Hampshire and they've all been, you know, so friendly. em Yeah, I think pigs are just very quite social and curious and friendly creatures um in general. yeah. And the sheep, are they, I don't know anything about sheep. Are sheep friendly or they just kind of aloof? uh Not compared to the pigs. They're quite aloof.  So they're just more skittish around. And again, it's what you put into them. So, um you know, we've had sheep
25:29where, you know, we're out there, they do need less, um I would say, day-to-day care than  the pigs, especially in the summer. ah You know, you're not feeding them like you are twice a day with the hogs, and they're just rotating on the pastures, and you just need to make sure they have water.  So there's a little bit less contact there,  but we have had sheep.
25:50where we're around them often and they get to know us. But even still, even when they know us quite well and we spend a lot of time with them, they're just generally tend to be a little bit more skittish. And the pigs, they're just so curious. They'll run out to the road when people walk by or a tractor goes by. They're just very, very curious and social animals. So I'm very smart. Okay, cool. So what would you say if you made a new friend at
26:19the feed mill or the library or some place where people actually talk to each other. And that new friend said, I really would like to buy a couple acres. How should I start my homestead or my little tiny farm? What would you say to them? Oh boy, that's a million dollar question. It sure is. It almost reminds me of that joke. If you're a farmer, how do you get a million dollars start with 2 million? Yes. It's because I
26:49I uh there can be oftentimes this romantic idea, which absolutely, this is like incredibly romantic  way of living, but there's also hard realities too, especially, I feel like there's not a lot of conversations around  maybe finance all the times and how much it costs uh to start a farm, to run a farm. um And uh there's those realities. uh
27:12And I would say  too that you don't need to own land to  start a farm  because I was looking to buy land for quite a while  before I had this opportunity to rent land here. And so I know a lot of successful farms that start small and you can just rent land and kind of get your feet wet.  I would also say that  farmers are by far the friendliest, most um sharing folks with their knowledge and with their time.
27:39So before I began farming, I spent a couple of years just emailing and reaching out to farmers coming out to their farm and they would stop their busy days and take time to walk me around and answer my questions.  And I would happily do that for anyone now. So  if you're curious about farming, reach out to someone who is uh already doing it  and ask them questions. And  I'm sure there'll be an open book and farmers wanna help other farmers and...
28:06Um, because they know how important it is for farms to keep going and how important it is for people to have access to real fresh food. Um, so I would say talk to a farmer for sure. Yeah, me too. I, I would, I really kind of wished before we moved here in 2020 that I had had someone who knew more than I did about what we were doing. I love what we're doing. are a 3.1 acre property.
28:36And we have our big old garden and we have our chickens and we have our barn cats and we have our dog. That is, that is it.  But I didn't, I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I didn't realize we were going to have to buy a small tractor because our driveway is long.  at the least we needed to be able to plow our driveway.  Didn't, didn't think about that. That a new tractor is not inexpensive.
29:03And it took us three and a half years to pay it off.  So  we didn't know that we would need that. And we didn't realize that we had, I mean, we realized we were buying a place with a humongous pole barn,  but  we didn't think about the fact that there might be something wrong with something in the pole barn. there is, there is one support  beam, but it's not on in the ceiling. It's along the wall that is starting to buckle.
29:32And we're going to have to have somebody come in and help us fix that because if that barn goes down, that takes out all of our vehicles, our tractor.  My husband's  as we call it workshop, but really it's a  bench with a bunch of tools on it. We can't have the pole barn buckle because of the pole barn buckles, we lose a lot of important things.  So there are,  there are all kinds of small things, but they're humongous things if they go wrong. Yeah.
30:02that you don't  know  to ask about or think about because you don't know. Yes, exactly. There's so many things in a day that you are responsible for, like that you can't possibly, you know,  imagine like an animal gets sick or something happens with your fencing or, you know,  your trailer pops a tire, things like that, you know, that you're all  responsible for and that all adds up and it's all.
30:29needs to be working for the farm to work. And so you have to be role with those things. And  yeah,  is an everyday education for at least the first five years. Oh, yeah. That's one of my favorite things about farming is I always say like, feel like I learned something new or multiple things. Like every single day. I'm just  and I love learning. And so I just  there and I feel like it will be endless my whole life.  I feel like I will be learning something new every day. Well,
30:57The dumbest thing I've learned so far in the last 15 years because we were actually growing food on the city lot we lived on before we moved here  is Brussels sprout plants are very finicky. If you throw them, if you throw the seeds somewhere and basically forget about them, you might actually get really good Brussels sprouts. But if you throw Brussels sprout seeds  in a spot and baby them and tend to them and nurture them,  you don't get any Brussels sprouts.
31:26I have been trying to grow Brussels sprouts for oh,  15, 20 years now. And the one year that we just kind of threw a couple of seeds down and forgot where we put them, we had the most beautiful, huge Brussels sprouts  for eating. Since then cannot grow Brussels sprouts to save my life.  So the dumbest things can be the most impactful on you because I really like roasted Brussels sprouts, but I only like the ones I grew.  So that has been.
31:54That has been terribly frustrating for me. And my husband asked me the other day, he do you want me to throw in some Brussels sprouts plants? And I was like, no.  No, I do not because I don't want to be disappointed in August when there's no Brussels sprouts to eat, but there's some really pretty leaves on it.  Yes. You have to have a lot of grace with yourself.  You know, it's easy to focus on the things that you messed up or you did wrong. um Cause it's also important, but then it's,  it's nice to remember the things that just.
32:22worked out that you didn't think would or the things that you did right and the things you are learning.  Yeah. Like I said, dumbest thing ever. Cause it's no skin off my nose that we can't seem to grow a good Brussels sprout here. I don't know why I have looked up all the things and I'm like, I don't know what we're doing wrong, but I give up.  no  big deal. As long as the chickens survive the winter and we have eggs, am  all good.  right, Julie, this was so much fun. And I feel like I talked a lot, but
32:51It was really fun to actually talk about this place too. I don't do it very often.  Where can people find you? uh They can find us at  our website  is um www.openroadranch.com. And I'm actually working um on a little revamp right now of our website. So that'll change one day. And then um also  we have Facebook and Instagram, but this is relationship I really struggle with and, and, uh
33:19but I'm trying to  be present on social media and see it for the good. uh So we're at Open Road Ranch um on  Facebook and Instagram.  And then, yeah, we're in Greenbush, so if anyone is local,  they are welcome to stop by our farm store  or just call or email if they wanna come get anything from us, and  we're here. Fabulous.  As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.
33:48And if you like this podcast, you should go listen to grit and grace and the heartland women in agriculture.  Cause that's my second podcast. started a little over a month ago  with a cohost Leah. She's clear Creek ranch mom on Facebook. And we are having such a good time  with the fact that 2026 is the year, the international year of the  woman farmer.  thank you again, Julie. I appreciate your time so much.
34:18Thank you, I really enjoyed talking to you and I appreciate your time as well. Have a great day. You too, thank you.
 

Ranch Wife Marketing

Today I'm talking with Alisha at Ranch Wife Marketing. You can also follow on Facebook.
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00:00You'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 Alicia at Ranch Wife Marketing in North Dakota. Good afternoon.  How are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing?  I'm good. How's the weather in South Dakota this afternoon?
00:22North Dakota, um but it is getting better. We did have a negative 50 wind chills just a day or two ago, but now we're at least above zero. So for us, we can finally go back out in a sweatshirt. Nice. Did I say South Dakota? I swear my brain is not working today. You did. It's okay.  Oh, North Dakota, the one above South Dakota. Jeez. uh In Minnesota today, it is really cold.
00:50I am looking out my bedroom window at uh the tin roof of the bedroom next to me  and the snow is all sparkly in the sunshine. It's really beautiful, but it's too cold.  Oh yes, I get it. We don't get a ton of snow, not as much as Minnesota.  I was born and raised there, so I know how much snow falls there. We're a little drier,  so we don't have em as much snow, but we do have a little dusting currently.
01:17Just out of curiosity, where are you in North Dakota? I'm actually on the  North Dakota-South Dakota border. I live about 20 miles from South Dakota. um We live on the Standing Rock  Sioux Reservation um in a small, tiny town called Selfridge. Okay, cool.  Well, for the people who are following along on the podcast about my barn cats, um
01:46We had a stray barn cat show up here a month ago maybe, and she has been kind of hiding out. She'll come and eat every other day.  And we have three kittens that we got a couple months ago. They're about five months old.  And  today is the first day that I have seen her, seen the stray hanging out with the other kittens in the dog house in the sunshine on the hay bales. And I think she's probably around the same age as the three kittens.  So,
02:14That was the banner moment of my day was seeing this beautiful tortoiseshell stray cat hanging out with the kittens.  Oh, that's amazing. We have plenty of cats around here, um both indoor and outdoor. I love seeing all the kittens as they grow up in the summer. Yeah, it's really fun. And this cat showed up out of nowhere. I was like, why is there another cat? We don't have six cats.  We have five.
02:42and my husband happened to get a photo of her and I was like, Oh, I hope she sticks around because she's beautiful. And from my local listeners, we have tons of chicken eggs in our farm stand. Farm stand is heated so the eggs don't freeze and we have lots of eggs in the farm stand for sale every day. So if anybody needs eggs, come on by. And that's it for my updates for my house, my homestead. Alicia, you are
03:11farmer, but you're also a marketer. So can we talk about both? Yeah. So if my husband listens in, he's going to cringe because we're actually ranchers. worries. Some people call it cattle farming. Some people call it ranching. It's all about where you are in the world. But yeah, so we have a cow-calf ranch. We run about 500 mama cows.
03:37about 200 heifers. We breed some bulls and sell some bulls as well. And we also have a quarter horse operation. So we have about a hundred horses. We run about a 65 to 75 mare brood band and have about six stallions. So that's kind of our ranch side. Wow. That's a lot.
04:02Yes. Yeah, it is a larger  ranch. as much as I'd love to do the homesteading thing and like have the garden and all the other little animals,  we have plenty going on that my husband's always like, no,  you don't need to add more to our plate.  Yeah, I wish that my husband understood that concept. He's always like, I want to try this. I want to try that. And I'm like,  I think we need to get good at the first couple of things before we add more in.
04:30I know. I really want chickens because I love fresh chicken eggs. And he's just like, just go across to our cousins. They have chickens. Honestly, it's easier if you just get them from somebody else. It really is. um We have 18 chickens  and  keeping chickens is not hard. I'm not saying don't get chickens. I'm not telling anyone to not ever get chickens because it's not that hard, but you have to make sure that you have bedding in the wintertime. If you live in a winter state, a Northern tier state,
05:00And you have to clean out their coop at least once a month, if not twice a month in the warmer months because it gets stinky and that's not a fun environment for them to live in. So if you don't want to deal with chicken poop, don't get chickens.  Yeah, that's definitely a thing. I have had to babysit the chickens across the  way a few times and they are a little bit of work. I think they'd be so fun and my sons, they love the chickens.
05:30Yeah,  I love watching the chickens. I just don't love going in the coop in August when it's been a really hot day and the coop needs to be cleaned.  And I have to hold my breath for the whole time and they're getting eggs, you know, it's very stinky.  But they are they are gorgeous. Even the most, I don't know, plain Jane chicken like we have, we have the ISA Browns. They're just a reddish brown chicken.  They're really pretty, too. So  I don't know. Chickens are great, but
06:00I think that you probably have a very nice setup with your cousins across the way to get eggs from. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely does work.  And there's other people in our community that do eggs as well. m I hear one of your kitties in the background.  Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I'm at my desk, she has to be right here with me and she is a old girl. So she likes to complain. Does she help you type?
06:26She would love to sit right on the laptop the entire time if I let her. Something about the warmth of it. Yeah, we don't have any indoor cats anymore, but we have a dog and she barks in the background. Probably  one out of every three recordings I do.  And sometimes I edit her out and other times just leave her in because we live on a homestead. There's going to be animal noises. Oh no. Yeah, exactly. I have my dogs right beside me too. And if she heard a noise that sounded like a knock,
06:54She would be extremely loud.  huh. Yeah. Maggie's like that too. The trash truck pulls in the driveway and she loses her mind for the entire time.  I'm like, you know, even if you caught the truck, there was, there's not anything you could do about it. So just stop  and she won't until it pulls out of the driveway. She will not stop barking. And as it's pulling out of the driveway, she does this raw, raw, raw, like, yeah, get out of here. Exactly. sounds. m
07:24It's very, very funny.  So, um tell me how you got into this marketing thing, because I looked at your website and I know the story, but the listener doesn't know the story. Okay. So, um I originally got into it by doing it for  the ranch. So, my husband is a fourth generation rancher and  we have the Quarter Horse Program, which is where it mainly started and
07:51They always sold locally and by word of mouth, they got it out and kind of were selling their horses for the last,  they started in like  the mid 1900s. So it's been a long  family operation. And in, you know, 2012, 2014 ish when  Facebook came out,  we started using Facebook to market the horses. And that's kind of when the program blew up.
08:20We don't do any  modern day bloodlines. We don't show our quarter horses. They're just ranch bred horses.  And when we were able to show them off online using social media and the internet and a website and all the things, um we started selling them all across the U S and now we have even started selling them overseas.
08:45And when I was working for the farm service agency, before I had my, well, up until right after I had my son, I was always talking with the farmers, the ranchers, the stay at home ranch wives that had smaller businesses or the little businesses in town. And they always struggled to market their stuff.
09:11like further than just going to the local elevator or the local sale barn or just farmers markets and things like that, especially in such a small rural community where we live. And it was hard to, for them to make side hustles or side businesses really work in such a small community. And they just, you know, always were at awe. Like, how do you guys sell your horses? You know, so
09:39to so many states and now you've even shipped them overseas or how are you getting your cattle to be hitting the top of the sale barns every time you guys bring them to the  sale barn and most of the time we sell right off the ranch private treaty  because we're able to market and get a good deal where we don't need to take them to a sale barn and give up that commission.  so  kind of, yeah, questions kept coming up and people asking advice and that kind of
10:09made me want to help people do it  the way that we're doing it. So  I built the business, quit my full-time corporate job with the Farm  Service Agency and started doing this full-time alongside moming and ranching. Yeah, and that moming job is the most important one of the three. Yes. Now we have two boys and it's been uh such a blessing to  not worry about going back to work with my second.
10:39Yeah,  I imagine it probably has been. I did not ever have a job when my babies were babies, like from the minute they were born until they were at least two and a half.  having the privilege to be a full-time focused mother  is one of the joys of my life. raised three that I birthed and one bonus child. have a stepson.  And that first couple of months home with those babies are my favorite memories.
11:10Oh yeah, I know. I was so burnt out and just drowning. I went back to work part time at six weeks because I got 12 weeks of maternity leave, but I knew that if I spent three whole months at home that I was not wanting to go back. And we didn't really want to give up the health benefits and all the things yet. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to do this slowly and went back part time at six weeks. And I ended up
11:39quitting when he was 13 months old because I was just like, no,  I'm going to find something else and do something else. during that time from about, I probably started,  I started Ranch Wife Marketing  when I was eight months pregnant with him officially. And then I really,  you know, got into it and got it to where I felt comfortable leaving my job by that time that he was a year old. um
12:09And so it's just kind of worked out to just leave and come home full time. And I, it was the best thing I've ever done.  Awesome. I'm so glad you found something  that you love and that works for you and your family.  So do you consider yourself a coach or how does, how does farm wife marketing work? So it started as coaching as a one person team. I didn't have, you know,  the, um,
12:38capacity to run enough social media accounts while still ranching and being a mom  to bring in the kind of income I wanted to. So I started as a coach and more of a do it with you. um That way I could kind of have a  more,  at that time I could do  more with my time. I could set up, you know, three hours a day where I did client calls.
13:05That way I could have multiple clients throughout the week and then um able to just assist them. We would just sit down in that hour and we'd go through what their marketing plan was  that week, um what goals they wanted to hit and kind of just work on their marketing strategy and get them all set up um for whatever the retainer was, whether that was three months, six months. um But it had then...
13:32Um, this summer I had expanded it into a marketing agency and we're starting with social media. So we're doing social medias for businesses that just don't want to do it themselves. I also created courses and guides and books. So I have all kinds of little, um, low ticket or, um, medium ticket. can have like things that you can, uh, buy and do it yourself and.
14:01kind of have your own education without having the coaching side or me do it for you. Okay, that makes sense. So I don't want your secret sauce because your secret sauce is the reason that you have a business and you're making money at it. But what would you tell someone who knows nothing about marketing their homestead or their little farm or their small ranch? I don't know there's such a thing as a small ranch, but we're going to call it that.
14:29What is the first thing that you would tell them to do as their first step in marketing? The first thing is just visibility. You just need to be able to get yourself out there. um it's probably the biggest thing that, biggest hurdle that people have to get, especially in rural communities over is like  putting themselves out there for people to see them. um And
14:56Showing up on social media, even if you don't have a plan, telling the world what you have, what you offer, that is  by far the first step. If you can get  started doing that, the rest will fall so much more naturally when you can start implementing strategies and plans.  Yeah, that's what I would say too. And I am not a marketer, but I worked for a PR and marketing company for about five years and started out just helping my friend who owned it.
15:25do filing because she had a brand new baby boy at home and she needed some help. I learned so many things working for her  as an office assistant in the five, six years that I worked for her. And  it has helped me  so much with what we do here because we have a farm to market garden and we have the eggs.  And I'm always in the summertime when my husband's taking stuff to the farmer's market. Every morning he sets up the booth and he sends me a photo.
15:53And I write a little blurb and put it on Facebook.  Kyle's at the farmer's market. Here's what we have for today. Stop by and say hi. He would like to, he'd like to say hello to you or whatever I say. And he always comes home and says, somebody stopped by and said, they saw that I was at the farmer's market because you posted on Facebook. So it does work.  Oh, definitely. It is such an asset. If you can just post on social media. um
16:19A lot of people, especially probably my older clientele are so against it. But once I show them that it can be simple and easy and um you don't have to spend all day on it, just literally get a post out there  and it will even a little bit, even a couple of times  whenever you got something going on is going to help so much. Yeah. And once I feel like once people get past the, don't know what to say  thing.
16:48They find out that it's fun. Yes. Oh yeah, it's  so much fun interacting with people  on social media. I've met so many people through social media that I would have never met if I hadn't started this business or  hadn't marketed our horses in the conversations that we've had with people over the years just from finding us online on social media.
17:13Whichever business it was that I was working for, um it's just incredible the relationships we've built. Yes, and it is all about community and relationships and it needs to be right now.  I don't want to get into it, but it's been rough living in Minnesota for the last couple of weeks and we need more people talking with each other instead of at each other.  Exactly. Yeah, we don't need to get in it, but I do have an immigrant stepmother  who's living in
17:43suburb of Minneapolis. So I do understand the struggle. Yeah, it has been a very, very  long  January and we're not even,  what is today? The 27th? We have a few more days of January and I don't see February being any, any faster. It's been a very rough start to the year here in Minnesota. uh So  I need to pick your brain for a second on email lists because I keep hearing and I keep reading.
18:11that it's important to have an email list because that keeps you in contact with your customers.  Even if Facebook or Instagram or whatever social media platform you use goes down.  Do you think that an email list is really important?  Absolutely. It is one of the things I get people set up with  right away uh is how they're going to collect emails and how they're going to nurture that  email sequence because
18:39I'm actually a great example.  So when I first started Ranch Wife Marketing, I had an Instagram page where I focused on helping burnt out moms  in the rural community, the ones that were like me working 40 hours a week, trying to start a business, trying to be a mom, trying to help their husband on the ranch,  um, find a way to  make that side income a full-time thing. And I had over 10,000 followers and my Instagram was hacked.
19:09and taken away. I lost all my leads,  all my customers, all my potential from that um Instagram. And now the one I have now, which I know I'm not sad about,  followers don't mean sales,  but having a nice large follower amount. Some people are like, oh, she knows what she's doing. And now my current one is only around 1300.  But you have an email list now.
19:38but I have an email list  and I was able to email all of my  email lists and tell them, know,  you can find me at this  Instagram now instead,  or I was able just to keep in communication with them.  own, once someone gives you their email, you own it. Like that is your information, that is your data. They have consented you to contact them through email  and it doesn't,  it's like,
20:07on an Excel file or wherever you keep it, you have it to reach out to them.  Where social media,  you can lose that lead easily, they can easily change their username and you can't find them. ah You could get your account taken down. ah They could easily block you by accident even sometimes. ah So there's just a lot of things with social media that a email list helps  navigate if you can
20:37collect those emails from your following. Okay, so here's where I get stuck because I just built a new website for the other podcasts I'm doing now. It's called Grit and Grease and the Heartland  Women in Agriculture and I  just set up the email list thing and I haven't sent out the first email because I'm going to do it in February because then I have all of January to draw from.  So
21:03My thing about email lists is that I never know what to say in an email if I'm not actually selling something. I'm just promoting the podcast. So my plan  is to email people  a synopsis of  what the things are that we talked about in January  and do a little teaser at the end of the guests that we're having in February. Is that  a
21:30good thing to do for an email list? Yeah, that sounds great. I honestly believe in one of like my foundation  beliefs in my business is that you shouldn't be selling every single time you post something, send something, whatever it is. It should be 80 % nurture and value and education driven  and 20 % selling because if we're not giving ourselves to our customers, why should they
22:00open their pocketbooks to us. Right. Yeah, exactly. So  if someone is  selling their produce in the summertime and they have an email list, should their email they send out  once a month or every two weeks or however they're timing it,  should the first like 60 % of the email be about what they've been growing, what they've been seeing?
22:29the cute garden spider that they found in the middle of the garden and it scared them to death. And then what they're going to be selling and where they're going to be selling. Oh, yes. And even if like, especially in that niche, if you can throw in gardening tips or certain varieties you came across or new things to try, throwing in any kind of little bit of knowledge or entertainment.
22:55it before you actually lead to the sale is going to up your conversion rates so much.  That's what I figured. We have a beautiful photo that my husband took uh of an orb weaver garden spider. And it is orange and sorry, it's yellow and black and it's a beautiful spider, but lots of people are really scared of spiders.  he said, he said, I took this for you. He said, cause you're not scared of spiders. He said, but do you think that it'll get
23:24attention on Facebook or an email and I was like probably because people are  arachnophobia is a real thing eh
23:35Yes.  No, and uh I actually,  I'll even  use my husband as an example. So he's scared of snakes, but you know, he'll sit there and watch  a  TikTok or any real video about snakes and just be like  grossed out the whole time, but just interested because  I don't know what it is about it. But um yeah, they just are drawn to watching them even if they're scared of them.
24:03It's like Gawker's in a bad car accident. I swear that's how the brain works. um So I have one more question about a marketing tactic and then we can, I actually have questions about your quarter horses too. Art, do you think that podcasts are a good way to market? Yes, if you can market, well,  so podcasts.
24:27You have to be able to also mark the podcast, but then the podcast itself is a great way to nurture your audience. It's a great way for them to learn, know, and trust you and lead them to your offers by providing value, entertainment, and things like that. I have considered even myself starting a podcast. The only thing holding me back from starting a podcast is my time. I have
24:56two under two and like I said a lot of livestock to take care of but I think once my boys get a little older it's something I even want to do so that I can teach on my podcast and then market my services through it. So definitely it is a great place to do that. And I want to tell the listener it is really easy. It will probably cost you anywhere from 25 to 100 dollars a month to do it.
25:25because it does cost money to have a host  for the files. you have to have a way to record if you're doing guests. there there are expenses around having a podcast, but it's not  exorbitant. It's not a ton of money. And you can pick up a headset like I wear and the sound is fine. You don't have to have a fancy boom mic and the big fat earphones that don't stay on my head. Well, that's why I don't use them.
25:54don't love them.  It's fairly easy. is  not hard to do. it  is my podcast, this one,  and the one I just started, it's a joy of my life right now because I get to talk to people  who are helping me educate people in the world about agriculture and about food and about cooking and about animals. And it just tickles me to no end when I get up in the morning and I know I'm going to do an interview with someone. It just makes my heart.
26:25first, you know? Yeah, they are. I love listening to them too. And I've been on a few and they're always just a pleasure to be a part of and also listen to. And I always get little  golden nuggets from every single podcast I ever listened to.  Yes. And the best part about podcasts is that you can put your earbuds in and you can do dishes or you can cook dinner or you can muck stalls or you can brush a horse.
26:54You know, it's something that you can learn from without having to focus completely on the thing that you're learning. can be doing something else in the process. Oh, definitely. I love them. I think they're great. And I would say that because I have to. And Alicia, your voice is beautiful. You would be great at a podcast. Oh, thank you. It's actually one of the things I'm insecure about. I feel like it's high and whiny. Oh, no, you would be great. You would sound
27:23perfectly fine for a podcast.  the other podcast that I do is with a cattle rancher and she's in Nebraska. And so we talk a lot about her livestock, but we don't talk about quarter horses because they don't have quarter horses.  tell me about quarter horses. What are quarter horses for?  What's their purpose?
27:47Quarter horses were bred to be very versatile. um So  there's not really a true purpose to them. They are so versatile, they're used almost in every uh equitation out there.  Originally, they were kind of  raised to...
28:10have a little more strength than a thoroughbred  and um some endurance and be able to kind of go all day on a ranch chasing cattle and things like that  instead of breaking down like thoroughbreds  and then having a little more strength than Arabians  to be able to rope and pull cattle.  They're kind of  built through
28:36those breeds and even crossed with some draft to bring in that strength. um So that's kind of what they were built for just to be your all around do anything and everything horse. They're  going to excel in those Western cattle  areas, but they're definitely,  they can be quick. They're used for racing and endurance. can climb mountains  and yeah, that's just kind of where they came from was.
29:03a breed that could withstand that rugged American terrain that we have. they a smaller horse? Are they like 14, 15 hands or are they a bigger horse? So because they come from so many other breeds originally, they are anywhere from pony size. Like some of them even fall under 14. I think one of our mares is right at 14 hands.
29:31And then they can be, I mean, we have 16, 16, two hand horses as well. I've seen quarter horses get as tall as 17 hands. Wow. Okay. All right. So they're, I'm going to use a bad word. My, the best dog that my parents ever had was a mutt. He was, he was not a purebred anything. And they only had him for about a year because he got hit by a car and he was the loviest, most healthy.
30:01most uh athletic dog and his name was Lucky, which was  unfortunate because he was not lucky.  And we love that dog.  definitely were a mutt in the beginning. that is a great ex- now to the now they're just so old that it's now a purebred themselves. But yeah, that's where it came from was just that hybrid vigor of  combining a bunch of different things together. Yeah, I was a rare uh
30:29I was afraid if I said the word mutt, you're going to be offended.  think a lot of quarter horse people probably would be,  but I completely understand where it comes from. um So  though we, all of ours are purebred, they're American quarter horse registered.  But yeah, if you trace any quarter horse back far enough,  you're not going to find a quarter horse at the end of the trail.  Exactly. I think that's what I was trying to get at.
30:57I don't know enough about horses to talk to it  smartly  and that wasn't really smart either, but you know what I'm saying. I don't know enough about horses because I've never had any. um So I guess my last question, because I try to keep these to half an hour,  is are  some horses still used for work, like for hauling a cart  or for pulling a plow or any of the things that horses were used for 150 years ago? Yeah.
31:25Yeah, there's a lot of people that still use horses for work. um Amish is a great example. um There's a lot of Amish communities still um in the United States. We have a lot of Amish customers  that uh use their horses still to  pull  carts and plow and work on them. So  yeah, it's definitely still a thing.
31:54Okay, because a lot of the horse Facebook pages that I follow, I follow a couple,  they're more for racing or for showing. oh Or just for having because they're great. Horses are amazing animals. And I was thinking about the other day, and I knew that the Amish still use horses for actual farm work. But the average person who owns a horse, they don't typically use them for farm work. They race them or they show them.
32:23Yeah, I would say we use ours for work, but not for farm work. have tractors and plows and all that stuff, but  we use ours to  herd our cattle. We to rope the cows and treat them out in pasture to round them up just because,  you know, a four wheeler or a dirt bike or whatever. lot of people use, especially where we live in North Dakota, we have a lot of rugged country. Can't get to where the cows can get, but a horse can. Yep.
32:52Yep, that makes all the sense in the world.  All right, Alicia,  I appreciate your time so much as I do everybody who talks with me on the podcast.  Where can people find you?  You can find me by Googling Ranch Wife Marketing. That will bring you to my website. You can find me on Facebook, oh Instagram, TikTok, all with Ranch Wife Marketing.
33:16Um, the actual at is ranchwife underscore marketing on both Tik TOK and Facebook. Um, and I love chatting and I'm always just a DM away or an email away if anyone wants to learn anything about marketing, your rural businesses. Or if they want to buy a quarter horse. Yeah. We, yeah. you want that's Freilich legacy quarter horses. If you want to look into our quarter horse program. Okay. Awesome.
33:46You can find me as always at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, you can go to atinyhomestead.com slash support.  And if you like this podcast, check out  Grit and Grace in the Heartland, Women in Agriculture. That's my other podcast.  Alicia, thank you again for your time. I appreciate it. Yes. I had a great time talking with you, Mary.  Have a great day. You too.
 

Santa's Crew LLC

Today I'm talking with Sara at Santa's Crew LLC. Sara and her dad raise reindeer!
 
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00:00You'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 Sarah at Santa's Crew LLC in Wisconsin. Good morning, Sarah. How are you? Good and good morning.  How's the weather in Wisconsin this morning? Because it's damn cold in Minnesota.  It's very cold here as well.  Getting through it.  Yeah. um
00:29I know we shouldn't complain because we had a very long, extended, beautiful fall, but spring can't come soon enough, honestly. Yeah, I don't mind cold weather, but when it's like way, way in the negatives and it causes things to break or have issues, then it's like, okay, now it's maybe a little too cold. Yeah, I am prone to migraines. It runs in my family, and when the temperature drops like this and the air gets dry,
00:56My head tries to hurt every morning when I get up and I'm like, spring's only a couple months away. I will survive it. Yeah. I would definitely be looking forward to it as well if I were you. Yeah. It's no fun getting up in the morning and you get that little twinge and you're like, okay, so am I going to be down for three days or is this just a few seconds of dry air bothering my nose causing sinus headache?
01:22It's very frustrating, minor. There are worse things in the world. I'm not worried about it. I just don't enjoy it.  So um Sarah talked with me a week or so ago about their dairy farm  and she let it slip that she and her dad have a reindeer raising endeavor as well. And I was like,  oh, will you come back and talk to me about the reindeer? And she's back. So  how in the heck did you guys get involved in raising reindeer?
01:51Right? It's not something you're, you know, not very common. uh But our neighbor used to have them.  And  I did go to one of these events one time and, know, it was a lot of fun. I did grow up on a dairy farm. So I grew up around animals and training animals  at, you know, going to the fair. So I was familiar with that.  And
02:12we found out he was selling and my dad and I kind of talked. It was kind of spontaneous. It wasn't something like we planned. It was just kind of like the opportunity was there  and we're like, let's do it. So we kind of went in partnership. I was 17 at the time.  Um,  and  we started with  two baby calves  and kind of expand from there was a male and female. So they were calves. We showed them that first year.
02:40And the following year they would be a breeding pair. So then we had to get another female, um, because during the holiday season is when the males are in rut. So you don't want to bring them out because they're very aggressive. So usually people will bring like females or steers. So then we kind of started with three animals within our first two years. And then, um, the third degree added another one. So then we had three females and kinda, oh um,
03:07went with that and then we had three breeding females. But yeah,  we slowly built it. was, uh yeah, it's very fun. m Reindeer are different than  cattle in some ways. They have their similarities but their differences.  And growing up with dairy cattle, when I got the reindeer, I'm like, oh, reindeer are much quicker and  more nimble than  cows. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
03:34And now we've been doing it since 2016, which is crazy to think that time's flying by that fast. do you have a big herd now? We're at eight right now,  which is a good size. I don't think we'll get  bigger than that um at all. We're pretty with the amount of space we have for them. It seems to work well.  It's enough  animals for like the holiday season. And then we do have some breeding females.
04:04So we can kind of get calves. We'll keep a few every once in a while and sometimes we'll sell some to people who don't breed or want, you know, new genetics kind of thing. So other people who have reindeer or want to get into it. we had, let's see, last year we had two, but we were expecting four. We're hoping to have four. We had four breeding females. This year we have five that were in breeding.
04:34with breeding bulls.  And we think the youngest one isn't bred because during the holiday season, we think she was in heat because the steer was kind of trying to jump on her. like,  oh, I think she's having a heat. I don't think that one's pregnant. So maybe we'll have four calves. Like, we'll see. um We'll just have to wait and see. How long is gestation for the babies?  Oh, two.
05:02Why am I blanking on the exact? uh Let's see, October is typically when hours are bred and then they calve in springtime around April or May. Why? I'm blanking on the number of days right now though.  So like eight, nine months.  Yeah, yes. Yep. Around that. Okay. Awesome. And is it set in stone? They only have babies in the spring? Yes. Yep. Because rut.
05:32For the males, always, usually the end of August is when it kind of starts.  So it kind of starts around there.  And then they drop their antlers in December or January, which means rut season is done. But we pull the females out of the breeding pen in October because if they get bred any later than that, then they're calving.
05:55into like late spring and summer and it's really, you know, warm for the baby calves. They usually don't do as well  when it's that warm.  Once they get older, they're really good with like the warmer weather, but it's just the baby calves seem to take it harder, you know, in their first few weeks. So we just don't want to have any late late calves. So we just pull them in October. oh Okay.  I have so many questions for you because I out and did some reading on reindeer this morning and
06:24Reindeer and caribou are not the same animal. They are cousins. Yes. And reindeer come from Siberia area, right? Yes. Yep. Across seas. They're native over there where caribou are native to North America. Okay. So how did reindeer get to the United States? Do you know? Yes. So, I guess I'll kind of go back and kind of tell people that
06:53I go to so many events and people say that they're the same thing and they will argue with me and that they think that I'm just  lying, I guess, at like Chris said, that I'm like, am not. are completely like, they're separate animals, but they are close cousins.  They are the same species, but different subspecies. um Because even like national geographic or prominent zoos in the US will wrongly classify these animals, which is kind of why I think.
07:20people get confused because you can research it and get different things. But they have done research  on the migration patterns of the two of them. they are close cousins, but they are different animals. And reindeer domesticated  have been domesticated where caribou aren't. So  some people will kind of make the comparison.
07:44to kind of make it a little easier to kind of understand it as like wolves and dogs, like they're close related, one's domesticated. I guess it's kind of a way to put it in perspective in that way. yeah, so reindeer first arrived in Alaska in 1892 by a boat, obviously, because they weren't.
08:10Unlike Caribou, they were already here because Caribou basically used the land bridge to kind of come over here and then you know, that's how that worked and they were shipped from Siberia. So you're right there. And they ended up having their peak population here for 640,000 of them around the 1930s, but they say there's only roughly 20,000 of them that are in Alaska today.
08:38I'm not sure we're in Canada. I know there's some hers in Canada, but I don't know exactly what the numbers are over there. Okay.  And  I'm going to be bouncing all over the place because stuff's going to pop in from what I read this morning.  You and your dad raise reindeer to  take them to Christmas things or have people come see them at Christmas, right? Yeah. We travel with them  to all different places. We're in Wisconsin, so we...
09:06basically stay in Wisconsin because there's enough events to fill the mid November through Christmas. It's a very short window to kind of get to all these places and jam pack it all in. So we do a lot of traveling with them and we do two teams. We started with one trailer and we travel with two at a time because they're herd animals.  they like to be with another one, seem to do better that way. And so we travel with two of them. We bring a whole display pen. We set it all up.
09:34get, you know,  I'm in there with the, with the reindeer on a, uh, with a lead rope and, know, I'm able to kind of, you know, talk to people, educate them, and they can kind of take photos with the reindeer as well.  Um, and then we just, we added a second team a few years ago because there was just so many  people wanting the same dates.  And so now we travel with two teams on some of the days. So, um
10:00four animals out at once and my dad will take one team and I'll take the other if we happen to have like double bookings that way. Um, but we will not add a third team. That would be really chaotic and a lot. we're, we're going to kind of two teams is good enough. Okay. And have you guys trained the reindeer to pull a sleigh yet? Not yet, but we have one that we are  hoping  to or working with. Um, it's a steer.
10:27So he doesn't have the testosterone like an intact bowl, so he won't go into rut or anything like that. And he's like a big puppy.  Your steer is kind of like, you know, even in cattle, your steers are very, very calm, nonchalant.  And he's  bigger than two in size.  And I think he'll be, you know, a really good sleigh puller where the females are usually they should be pregnant during the holiday season. We don't want to have them, you know, being a sleigh puller during that or anything. But we're working with him. He's young.
10:58He's going to be two this spring and we're working on that. So we'll see how that goes. But that is a goal to have a sleep holder. Fun. So much fun. So I don't want to, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but do people raise reindeer for meat as well or not? Not around here. There's not really a market for that around here, but like in Alaska or like, uh, Norway, Siberia, Siberia over there, it's you.
11:26They can, or there's a market for it, but down in the lower 48, it's mainly to just kind of have them for either just to have them or to go to events or some people will have um their own farm where people come to them. Kind of like tree farms, some tree farms have them or they just want to have an experience  on their own property with them. Okay. I was really curious because we have.
11:53We eat venison here. I don't love venison. My husband and my kids do.  And so we've had venison in the house off and on for years.  And I didn't, I really didn't think that reindeer were for that because  it's an expensive animal to raise, would assume.  Yeah.  So it's like where they're more like in Alaska where they have like more herds or
12:19You know, they raise them more for meat up there.  I haven't had any,  so I can't speak on how it tastes. Yeah.  Haven't had any personal experience tasting it. oh But yeah, we, there's really no market down here for it. Otherwise you probably see it more on menus or in stores.  Yeah. Yeah. That's what I figured. Okay.  And are they,  I don't know how to ask this.  Are the reindeer friendly?
12:49Yes. Well, the bulls when they're in rut, they're not, they're  all full  of testosterone, but when they lose their antlers, then they're back to like, testosterone's low, they're kind of back to their normal self, they're not as crazy. But yes, they're friendly. Okay.  And when the mamas have their babies, are the mamas super protective? Are they good with you being around the babies, but nobody else?
13:16They're actually usually pretty good with us. We have one female that is a little more  iffy on it with us, a little more protective, but for the most part, they are all pretty good. I need to find somebody who's closer than Wisconsin who was raising reindeer. Cause I really want to hold a baby reindeer before I die.  They are so cute. They are. They're so tiny.  Yeah. 12 pounds on average.
13:43Yeah, yeah, like 12 to 15 depending. Yeah, yeah, they're, not that big and they're like all legs. It's so funny. And, they  start walking pretty soon after they're, they don't like lay, like, you know, some animals you would think like they, they aren't mobile, but they're up and around really soon after and doing zoomies and yeah, they're, it's pretty impressive.  So much fun.
14:09It's amazing to me that they are 12 to 15 pounds at birth because my dog weighs like 36 pounds. So they're about half of what she is right now. Yup. Yeah. When you put it that way.  Crazy. Crazy. She would love to have a baby reindeer friend. Maggie would just be the best mama to a baby reindeer for five minutes. It would be amazing.  Okay. The other things that I read are the female reindeer keep their
14:37antlers longer than the males do because they use them to  make sure they can get food so they can feed their babies. Yes, yeah, they keep theirs on longer.  So when the males lose their antlers, the females are the ruler of the roosts. They have the advantage of, you know, being able to kind of pick on them if they need to and defend their babies. Fabulous.  That mama bear energy. It's mama reindeer energy. We do have a few that will
15:05not often, but there will sometimes be females that'll lose one  before they calve.  I think we've had one lose both of them before she calved, but usually they keep them on. um Sometimes right after they have the baby, soon after they'll lose them, it just really depends from reindeer to reindeer.  But yeah, they do keep them on till spring. um Some males, I know there's like a thing out there where all males lose their antlers in December, and that's not the case. We actually have a bull.
15:33that still has his antlers on. He is younger and it seems to be when they're younger, they sometimes keep them on maybe a little longer. And our steer still has his antlers on, so it's not always the case. But  a lot of males will lose theirs in December, but some of them will keep them till January. Do you do anything with the sheds at all? Right now, we've been just kind of stockpiling them.  I tried to do some macrame designs on some.
16:02Um, but it's just, it takes a lot of time. I enjoy doing it. It's just getting the spare time to do it.  Um, and then there are some people who are interested in just having, you know, the sheds, like they're all like, they just like, if we sold them, they just want, you know, a reindeer shed. But we  have a big stockpile of them. I think now we're going to try to part with them since we've got a bigger herd now and they grow them every year. So we just keep getting more and more.
16:31Yeah, I was reading that even the babies within four or five months start growing antlers. Oh, yeah, right away. So they're born with, you know, nothing. And then  all of a sudden you'll start seeing little tiny nubs forming and then they just keep getting longer and longer. And  some of them will just be little tiny ice picks. Some of them will have a few points, but they're on the smaller side. And then the following year, they just like triple in size. It's crazy how much how big they can get.
17:00in such a young age from year to year. the racks  on caribou and reindeer are just gargantuan. Once they get to be about what, three or four years old, they're just huge. Yeah, yeah, they are big. And the males especially, obviously the males, their antlers are much thicker and larger in size. It's pretty impressive on how big they can get. And we bring  some sheds to events.
17:27um And that's one thing we have to remind people. They look at them and they're like,  oh, they assume it's from a dead reindeer that we killed the reindeer or something. I'm like, no, they shed them every year. So those sheds, you know, they fell off. So it's kind of like a, you know, educational point as well for people. Cause some people just don't know that, you know,  deer,  you know, the species, that's just something that happens.
17:53ah But yeah, the males, theirs get large real fast. It's very impressive in how fast and sometimes daily when they get really big, you'll just notice a difference daily on how much bigger they're getting. Well, I was reading that they can grow an inch or two a day. I was like, oh my God, that's got to hurt. Yeah.  I don't know if the growing process technically hurts on them, but they are very sensitive when they're growing because they're covered in this fuzzy velvet.
18:21And it's just a bunch of blood flow that's just basically going through them to keep growing. And so like they're very sensitive. They don't use them. They don't want to touch anything with them. And if they even nick it just the littlest, it just bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. It eventually clots, but it's just if you nick it just a little bit, almost like if you cut yourself with like a razor, just doesn't want to stop. And it's just like the smallest little thing. So they're very sensitive and they're just full of blood.
18:51through that process. then end of August is usually when they harden. Sometimes some of them will be a little later like September. had a steer this year was really late on wanting them to harden and then they just rub all that velvet off. They don't have that feeling and sensation once they harden. I mean, when they're rubbing that velvet off, there's some of that blood left between the velvet and the hard antler.
19:20And so people think it looks painful when really  it's not. It's just a little bit that was just left on top of that hard antler. So it looks like a  bloody mess sometimes because they'll just rub their antlers in trees because it's like an itchy feeling for them. They want it  off.  And it just looks funny because it's just like their antlers will just look kind of bloody at first when they're doing that.  And it's just a natural process. It doesn't hurt them.
19:49Yeah, I was talking with my  son like a year or so ago and I made the mistake of calling  deer antlers, deer horns.  And he said, you know better than that. And I was like, better than what? And he said, antlers are not the same thing as horns. He said, antlers are a living part of the animal up until they start to harden off. He said, horns are not alive. And I said, um
20:18actually I didn't know that. He said, you're kidding. I said, no, I didn't know that. He said, yeah. He said the horns on a cow or steer, you know, bovine. He said, those aren't the same as antlers. And I was like, oh, I learned something new today. I was schooled on the difference between antlers and horns. Yeah. Yeah. There is a difference.  Um, cause obviously with reindeer, they fall off  and they grow a new set where horns, just, you know, they, and they grow from the base  of like,
20:48the head  of cattle where  the antlers, growing from the tips. The tips keep growing because of all that blood flow. So they're not actually growing from the base. yeah, you don't think of that when you're just looking at  them, but yeah, they do grow differently and they are different. and getting schooled by my kid is my fault because I'm huge on semantics. And he was like, for a lady who's big on semantics.
21:15I can't believe you didn't realize that there was a difference between antlers and horns. And I'm like,  you can stop now.  I have been schooled, now I know you can stop harassing me. And he's just laughing.  So it's great when you raise your kids to be smart because then they outsmart you.  It's a challenge then  for them probably. Yes, exactly.  The other interesting thing that I read is that reindeer on their hooves, they have a dewclaw.
21:44like a dog has a dewclaw or a cat has a dewclaw. And I was like, what is that for?  And then I continued to read  and it's so they can walk on the snow and ice easier. Yep.  And, uh, and it kind of, cause the cows even have dewclaws, I kind of, cause they're hoofed animals, I kind of compare them. Their hooves are different than cows or even horses, but they have that dewclaw and it looks funny cause it looks like they need a hoof trimming, but they don't.
22:14And  we do have trim them. So obviously they can get longer than what they should. But yeah, they are for that traction on snow and ice and their hooves are really big because it accesses no shoes  and shovels in the snow even. And if you looked at the bottom side of the hoof, it kind of indents a little bit. So they are really good shovels for the snow and they can dig as deep as three feet. Wow. OK.
22:43um I was looking at a photo of a reindeer hoof  and it reminded me of the chunky  platform heels that were in fashion a while ago. was  like, oh, they have fancy feet. And they're softer  and they say like,  not saying super soft, but they kind of are like a little softer in like summer, more spongier.
23:09And then in winter, they harden up a little like more firmer, you know, for that ice and snow.  in summer, so it's easier to do their hoof trimming in summer versus winter because they're very, very hard  in winter.  Yeah. Do the babies have the same  like angel feather thingies on their feet when they're born the  eponychium or whatever that's called for cows and horses?
23:38Angel feather? I'm trying to think of what you're referring to. So that the hooves don't cut the mom when they're coming through the birth canal. Oh, yes. Yeah, their hooves are tiny. They're not like really big when they're first born. But are they soft? Are the bottom of their feet soft? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah, they're more rounded, smoother. Okay, because with horses and cows, they look almost like little flaps.
24:07on their hooves when they're born and it's so that they don't slice mom on the inside of her body. It's so cool. is amazing how she takes care of things. because with our dairy, because I grew up on a dairy farm, yeah, their hooves are softer and then they're hearted and they're just different. it's weird how they're made that way. It's always interesting how things change too so fast in the calves.
24:35Yeah, they go from being completely defenseless to able to take care of themselves really fast.  Yeah, yes. yeah, the  reindeer babies. So it's interesting because they are a little different  than like cattle. You you feed calves twice a day, bigger amounts, and they get that curd in their stomach and it kind of slowly releases throughout the day. But then you have reindeer babies, they drink
25:03very often in small amounts. milk is really, really high in fat and protein content  as well. So that's also probably why they don't need like a ton at once, but yeah, they drink very often.  And  reindeer do have four teats, um not like goats where they have two. So  they have four and they're really, really tiny. Oh, okay.
25:29And they usually only have one baby. are occasionally twins, but it's usually one baby per mama, right? Correct. Yes.  And  we actually had a set of twins.  What was that? Not this last year, the year before that.  So yeah, twins are very rare. They usually just have a single calf.  And when we had the twins, we were kind of calling around a bunch of other reindeer owners who've been in it for
25:57a while, like did you ever have twins? Did you have to pull them both? So you had to feed them, like did you have to bottle feed them or did they do fine on the mom?  And the mom who had it, she's our oldest in our first range. She's always been amazing with all of her calves.  And at first we thought she was like pushing one away, the smaller one. The female was more runtier, she was smaller. And then we realized she was making them take turns. So like at night she was trying to let one drink.
26:27And then she would let the, you know, she was trying to kind of give them turns. So she was, it was very interesting because at first we thought, oh, she's just pushing one away and that wasn't the case. So, and then you have to think, is she going to produce enough for both? You know, you want to make sure they're both getting enough nutrients or is that bigger one going to drink more? And then, you know, when the other one wants to drink, is there going to not just be enough? So we ended up having, we left them on the mom and we would kind of every like,
26:57So if you ever bottle feed reindeer, we keep ours on the mom because we've just had good luck with that. And our moms have always been really great. You have to feed them like every three hours, almost like a baby human because they drink that often. And so we had to go out there. I had my cousins help me a lot. They were great. I actually just had my newborn son at the time. So I was already feeding my baby every like three hours.
27:26So they would go over there and help and feed them,  the baby twins, and try to make sure, like see if they would drink off the mom. Then they had a little like, you know, syringe, like just to kind of do little, slowly put a little bit in their cheek at a time and  kind of see how much they would take  and record that  every day or every feeding. And then we'd weigh them.
27:55Yeah, it was it was a very interesting with reindeer every year you learn something new there is And that was something that year I'm like and they live we showed them at shows there that first year with the mom They took turns we always bring the calves to events with the mom  They always do you know really well that way and then this last year we brought the twins out together So that was really fun that they were able to kind of go to all these events together awesome
28:24So yeah, the babies, it's crazy that, oh, and I found what I've been looking for. Cause I'm like, I don't know the percentage of fat and I'm like, I'm just trying to find it  in their milk. So  this reads here, is it?  Reindeer milk is very high in fat compared to milk from other domestic species. Like a Jersey cow is known for its high butter fat content,  which is
28:49which only has about 4 % milk fat, reindeer milk registers at 24 % milk fat. They rank first in fat content among milk consumed, or they rank, yeah, first in fat content among milk consumed by humans. People do not consume reindeer milk in certain parts of the world. some do, like, know, where reindeer are native, there are people, you know, in Norway, like you were saying.
29:19And Siberia where they rely on these animals and herd them and this is like their food source and,  know, they, you know, have to drink their milk too. So, and they use, you know, they butcher them too. And it's crazy how  much the fat content in these animals are so high, but they are also native to those really harsh, cold climates too.  don't know if that's also why. Probably.
29:48And what you're telling me is reindeer milk would make excellent ice cream.  Yeah, that would be interesting to try.  Yeah, it would be the smoothest ice cream ever known to man. Yeah. Oh, and then it does go on to say polar bear milk is 31 % fat. So yeah, it's interesting how  like they did this research on all these other animals and the fat content in their mouth and how it really, really varies.
30:16I mean, even a dairy cows like jerseys just have more just naturally than Holsteins. You know, it's just interesting how that's just how nature works. Did you know that the milk from cats has a very high fat content too? Oh, cats. Okay. I don't know too much about cats. I mean, we have tons of bark cats, Yeah. I was reading about all this stuff this morning and I read the same kind of comparison that you just read. And it said that.
30:43is that cats have a very high fat content in their milk. And I was like, I am not milking a cat.  That would be very hard.  I would just frustrate the cat and  I'd probably get sliced up pretty good. So no, we're not milking barn cats around here. That seems like a bad plan.  Okay. Well, Sarah,  I  would love to talk to you for days about this because I  love it that you're raising reindeer. think that's so fabulous.
31:09There is just so much to them. It's endless amount of information I could give.  Yeah, I have one more question and then we'll wrap it up. When little kids come to the event and they see the reindeer,  do they get to actually pet the reindeer or do they just get to ask you a bunch of questions and stare at the reindeer? So for us,  we don't allow the petting of reindeer just for biosecurity reasons. For us, um
31:36and liability, not that our reindeer are aggressive or anything. It's just,  it just puts a peace of mind. feel like for us, cause I'm not, we have two  teams and if I'm not at the other one, there's other, you know, I have helpers and if something happens, whether there's a person who doesn't understand what they're doing or a PETA person who wants to make a scene, I don't want them to have that on their shoulders. So it's not, I don't.
32:04I allow it for that reason and just mainly biosecurity too, because you don't know  what those people, if they have animals either. There is something that sheep and goats can carry. It's called MCF and they can carry it. doesn't affect them. But if reindeer end up getting it, it's deadly to them. So if I ever have any helpers of mine and they have,  there's some who have sheep and goats at home and like you cannot wear any of the clothes or boots that you have that you go out.
32:33by your sheep and goats because I just don't, it's a big risk. know, it's something that if reindeer get it, it's not a good situation. ah But yeah, the reindeer are very, very friendly. So we let people take photos with them and  I do bring antler sheds so people can hold those  and touch those. And then yeah, we get lots and lots of questions  about them. Nice.  Awesome.  All right. Where can people find you Sarah for your reindeer business?
33:03So we do have an Instagram and Facebook. It's called SantasCrew  LLC  and we also have a website as well. um And there's a page if you just want to learn more just about reindeer in general, there's a ton of information on reindeerowners.com.  An abundance amount of information there. um So yeah, it's  interesting. um Some states don't allow people to own reindeer, which is really interesting too.
33:31um So if you are listening and you're looking into wanting them, just, you know, first of all, check with your state's rules and regulations.  That's what I would say first before going on and trying to find some reindeer to purchase. Cause that would, you know,  you want to make sure you can get them to begin with  and then making sure you knowing the  facility you need. Some states require double fencing, some don't, you know, all those things, every state's a little different.
33:59How expensive is it to acquire a reindeer calf? It varies. um It's quite a wide range.  It could be 12,000 and I see up to 20,000. It really depends.  Bottle raise seems to go for a little  higher for some reason.  And some people prefer that, which  is totally fine. It's just preference. We don't bottle raise. We do work with our animals though, too. um
34:28So it's just really, really depends on that. And can you even get them from certain farms? So it depends on certain states. um I can't sell to certain states because of their regulations,  but I can sell to some others.  like, for example, I can sell to the of Texas. Their regulations currently is you can't have a CWD case  within a certain mile radius. Yep, chronic wasting disease.
34:58Yes. Yep. And  I meet that requirement. But if someone else in Wisconsin has a case that was just within that radius, even within a mile, they cannot sell a reindeer to that state, which is, which is so crazy. Um, so I can, it can make it hard. There is a state I could sell to and they just change the regulations and now I can't.  Um, so it's,  it's a really, really interesting market that way, how it's constantly changing and it makes it harder.
35:26to acquire them or sell them. So yeah, it's very interesting and constantly changing. Well, you're never bored. So that's good.  No, no, never. And like I said, we learn something new every year with these animals. So we'll see what happens this year. I mean, if we ever get twins again, we've been through that.  So  I think it's fascinating. And I'm so, I don't know, I'll use the word impressed. Probably not the right word.
35:54So impressed that you do this with your dad. think it's great. um As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. And if you'd like to support the podcast, you can go to atinyhomestead.com slash support.  Sarah, thank you for coming back and talking with me. Oh, of course. Thank you for inviting me back.  I loved this conversation and I have not talked with anyone about raising reindeer before. So this was really interesting. Thank you so much. Yeah, you definitely, you're welcome.
36:23All right, have a great day. You too.
 

Cole Canyon Farm - The Impact of Having A Coach

Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farm. Learn about how having a coach can change your perspective.
 
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00:00You'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 farm in Montana  for like the fifth time, I think. Good morning, Morgan. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. Yeah.  What a journey this has been um from Groovy Grazers to Cole Canyon farm to more surprises. feel like
00:26We have so many pivots you've had to cover, so I can understand why we've been  on quite a bit.  Well, you're also really listenable and you're really fun and I like you so much, so you make it a joy to talk with you. ah Morgan has been,  I don't know how to say it, she found herself a coach. Yeah. And I wanted to talk with Morgan about how that is changing things for her because  I feel like coaches give us perspective.
00:53That we need that our friends give us so tell me about how that's going Yeah, so we talked a little bit about the last episode. I was like alright. I just did this crazy thing I signed up for a coach, I've never signed up for a coach. I've actually never spent I Would say probably more than two three hundred dollars on continued education for myself, and this is thousands of dollars But it's really important that you invest in yourself just as much as much as you invest in your property right so
01:23um I do some silver and gold stuff with a friend  and her name is Diane Graber. She has a homesteading thing that she just launched. So I'm going to have you talk to her about Mary because her and her husband have been doing this for well over a decade. Like,  yeah. So  she's coming out into her homesteading area as I was coming into my set, you know, my,  golden silver era. Like I was just learning about it. Right.  And she.
01:52came into my life about a year ago and she was helping coach me and that was really great, but I just had a lot going on. We covered a lot of what was going on in 2025, know, just lots of pivots changes. And she asked me about, I don't know, two weeks before the class, she was like, hey, jump onto this class, just say yes. It'll change your, change your whole world. I've worked with this woman before in previous adventures that we've done.
02:21And she's a great person I just reconnected with her after 15 years. So was like, all right, cool. Like I'm, I love meeting people. That's how Mary and I met. If people don't know, she just messaged me on Facebook. Like I love talking to people. So it was one of those things where I was like, fine, I'll jump on. I don't have a problem. It's free, right? Like for me, income  is lower in the winter time. It's kind of a squeeze here in Montana.  And
02:49So being free was great. It was something I could commit to.  I got on  and a coach is a vibe. Let me tell you, like you  will not vibe with every coach. You will not like what some coaches say. You will think that it doesn't fit your niche, whatever, be it right. Like coaches are, they attract their vibrational group is what I'm gonna say. Like, sorry. uh
03:18the wind's bad here, you're going to attract the people that need to be around you. So somehow I landed up, landed in this class and I was listening to it and it was about being a millionaire. And I was like, well, don't, I'm not just try, I don't strive to be a millionaire. And it's not that I think that it's unhumble to be a millionaire. It's just like, for me, 250 K a year would be life-changing enough, let alone 500 K in a year, you know, so.
03:46For me, was like, all right, I may not vibe with as much the millionaire side of this, but  I can get through the whole breakthrough concept of it. So I think there's a lot of like shame around having coaches or being open about having coaches. But there's a reason why in corporate America there's bosses and those bosses have supervisors and supervisors have supervisors. It's a checks and balance because like you were saying, Mary, it's a perspective.
04:16So I got on, Melanie talked, it was two days. I really liked what she said. I had some really big breakthroughs about throwing spaghetti on the wall. I've said that here on this show before. If you've heard me talk on here before, I've talked about how we love throwing spaghetti at walls. We don't  anymore. And all  throwing spaghetti at the wall does is it either gets butter on the wall or it gets spaghetti sauce on the wall and it makes a mess. Correct. Yeah. So like...
04:43In the past, was like, I'm just, and I was real honest about it. Like I didn't try and tell anyone we had every, you know, my ducks were not in a pond and we all knew that they were like in everyone's property. Um,  and so  Melanie was like, girlfriend, like you got a lot of potential. You got to lead with your feminine side.  I  grew up  in a home with a first generation American as a mother from Iraq.  And my dad is a Marine.
05:13So  there was no sugarcoating involved in my household. And so I speak sometimes from the masculine side of life. And sometimes people don't vibrate with that. And she's not saying that you have to be, know, whatever weird version we think women and men should be. It's just to say, you know, she was just saying like, you got a lot to say, use a softer voice, you know, like use my good storytelling voice and I'll capture a lot of people. And like you said earlier,  I have fun talking on these podcasts as much as I do.
05:42um hearing what people think about my storytelling. My son loves when I tell stories. So, you know, it just naturally makes sense that this would be a calling for me. And, you know, she was like, just kind of pull yourself back in. And had I not done this coaching, to be honest with you, I wouldn't have written my mini gardening guide already. I wouldn't have completed also my full gardening course that I'll be selling this year.
06:12I wouldn't be getting set up for a website so then I could actually get help because I was paying for Wix and I was paying for the $50 a month program.  And that was great, but I had to do all the work. spent,  Mary, I spent like four or five hours a night, some nights, for weeks on end trying to get Wix to operate the way I wanted it to.  And it's still not operating correctly for Groovy Grazers.
06:39Yeah, I'm working on the one for the other podcast right now, the Grit and Grace and the Heartland  Agriculture podcast.  And I'm trying to get the social media buttons to work on the theme that I chose and it's not working. I'm probably going to have to look at a different theme. I do it through WordPress.  once you get your website built the way you want it to be, it's plug and play. It's easy. You just update it. But getting them built is a pain in the butt.
07:08Yeah, which by the way, I'm just gonna blurb in if any of the listeners on this show have not listened to the new one. You gotta go. You should be like running to your search button right now getting that in. Hopefully Mary will link the link below for it. like, yes, you should. Absolutely. Because  I yeah, my son even listened to it with me. Like he was like, Mom, this is great. And like he loves the fact that 2026 is the year of women's agriculture, like
07:37you know, especially being first generation farmers. that, that was something that you also had completed. So you can understand we're kind of in the same process of like getting something up and going and people don't realize how many hours you put behind this. So all it took, and you're going to be just floored. It took Melanie a 30 minute session with me. That was it.  That's all it takes. Like,
08:05you don't have to pay for hours and hours and hours of coaching. I'm taking a course that is self-paced and there's like, you know, twice a month Zooms  where we can all meet together. You can watch a replay and I jump on the Zooms because I think it's really important to be present and plugged into what I'm doing, especially if I'm spending a few thousand dollars on it, that it's got to be priority at that point. Or then I feel like I wasted, you know, my own money and
08:33that came included with it. to,  I am going to get more like one-on-one sessions with her because it was very minimal information that I gave Melanie, cause this is just like an introductory one-on-one, but she told me that  my whole goal has been  since doing  Groovy Grazers was to teach because I find that that's my passion.
09:02and what I love to do the most.  being able to teach, but just not in my area, but all over and then creating a community, I've have probably been on the soapbox more times than I can count about community being so important and what we do. And so being able to create that was really kind of seamless for me after she explained that I needed to get a Facebook group going, which I did, Built From Dirt Facebook group.
09:29We have over 400 members and as Melanie said on the master class a few days ago, like we have active members and it's because I'm not just blasting people with just like, I'm not just trying to sell them something. Like I want to build a community and that is my honest mission in doing built from dirt farm school is having a place that we can all bounce.
09:54bounce off of each other, but then also help elevate each other's businesses because most people that are in the ag industry, like as we all know, you can't have every single type of livestock and excel in any of them. You've got to really kind of hone in on one. So most ag businesses were all kind of like just a few small streamlines that kind of play together income. So, I mean, I've, I,
10:21personally also changed a huge mindset of like and I'm not biblical or uh Religious in  any sort of normal sense. I'll just say it that way, right? like I just kind of believe what I believe and My mother just came from Texas who  is from like the Bible Belt, right? And she is a I will love you so much as my neighbor type like I just absolutely adore my mom and her views and
10:50She told me, and I can't remember what scripture it is, but there's a scripture about like what you say you create. And that theme kept coming up. First, it started with my mom saying it. Then Melanie brought up exactly the same thing. And that was during that masterclass. And then one of my good friends, Harley, she said the same thing too, right? Because I'm sure you saw Mary, but  for the listeners, Bambi is having to be put to sleep. And I'm sorry if I get emotional. No, it's okay.
11:21Our Philly is lame beyond being, man, I'm sorry. I was hoping I wasn't gonna cry. No, it's okay, honest, it's okay, because I do it all the time, Morgan. I don't think I'm gonna cry, and then I'm like, oh no, here we go again. Yeah, Bambi has some issues, and you can't fix her, and I'm sorry. Yeah, and it's okay, and that was our $100 gamble, right? But to
11:48To tie it into what I'm talking about, about what you create, we're sitting there and we had just posted the really heavy news. And this was after I had signed up for  my coaching with Melanie Greeninoff  and a thousand dollars later, the vet was essentially like Tyria Heid also.  And we're like, there's nothing we can do.
12:11the hawk injury she sustained, like there's nothing we can do with that, even if we did surgery on the left leg, which it was up to $3,000. And we were considering it like Bambi, Bambi is a one of a kind horse.  And so  we get inside, I sit down and I'm like, everyone's going to start texting me because everyone knew that this was this big appointment. I just sometimes I'll just post on Facebook because it's easier to update the masses, right? Sure.
12:39I get a message from ah Hannah. She's another farmer out here and she's someone you'll have to talk to too.  They raise cattle dogs, but she had given us Pearl and she said, hey, I got a filly here for you.  She's papered and she had a tendon surgery, but she's going to track sound. Montana equine did it. I said, oh yeah, she's super cute. I didn't understand Mary that she meant free. Oh, okay.
13:07Yeah, so right like kind of like you you're like, oh that's cool. Like someone's offering you a horse right away. What a not good time, you know, and and I I don't know hannah very well actually i've I met her through getting the dog but um, she had uh Someone in her family passed away and so she's been dealing with that since i'm like bought since I went and got pearl our little uh, cauli dog, right? So hannah's like yeah, she you know explaining me
13:37Yeah. Yeah. oh
14:07So right, like I'm telling you this emotional story because these are all the things that led up to like where I am today and man has it been a rocky 30 days. But when Harley said that I had to remember that like  I always said that even if Bambi couldn't be pasture or  riding sound if she could be broodmare sound. And then when broodmare sound was really not looking great I was like if you can just be pasture pet sound right.
14:34And then she wasn't past her pet sound, but I said, I told my husband, said, it's okay. I know it's really hard. We'll save up some money. Cause it's really expensive to get horses like that are paper. Oh Oh yeah, it is. Yeah. So I was like, it's okay. We, we took this hundred dollar gamble. We failed out on it. Well, I wouldn't say we failed out because literally the vet Dr. Campbell was like, you have some of the nicest babies I've gotten to handle with. Like
15:00thanked me for how pleasurable my weanlings were to deal with, which is so cool because this is our first time having babies, right? So I  have taken so much pride and I do take a lot of pride in the way my animals are up kept, their behavior, their mannerisms. And so it felt really good for her to say that, but  she told me she was like, definitely let this one pass, but I mean, know that you...
15:26that you've done a great job, this is nothing you did wrong, right? So I told my husband, I was like, the next one will be papered. She'll  be papered  because Betty is papered, my other mayor is papered. I mean, papers don't mean everything, but if we're trying to run a good program, like what is probably in the works right now with our friend Harley, then we need good mayors. So I sent Harley the paperwork on this mayor and she's like, yeah, absolutely.
15:56Yeah, yes, that's really cool. And she's like, wow, like that is a nice mare. And it was all because Hannah said, um
16:06you guys will do right by this mayor essentially. Like,  we're not going to overwork a horse, we're going to do right by them. But like in  another sense, like the vet being impressed, right? So, but I started speaking that into existence right away. Like as soon as we got the news before Hannah had messaged me, like we're going to have a papered horse. We're going to, we're going to recover from this. It's going to be okay. Maybe it wasn't great that we had three.
16:35Three under three, right? But I had it horse style. I was like, it'll all be okay. And then we get the message from Hannah. So speaking  positively and speaking  the outcome you want is so, so important. And I think that's something that I've probably really failed at in the last few years of my life.  And it's  something that I had to come to terms with was sitting there and being like, man.
17:05I have spoke like the most absolute negativity through this lawsuit over the land. I've spoken the worst about not being able to afford a house, which by the way,  we're getting pre-qualified because we are actually moving.  know, but that changed too. Yeah, it's a big change. don't want to, I'll be honest, Mary, with you, I can stay on this 20 acres and I can live around all these people that absolutely do not want me to farm.
17:33And they're going to listen to this episode because that's on track with what they do to see what we're doing next. Or I can just say, I'm going to go farm somewhere else where there's water. Yep. Yep. I'm going to in just for a minute. There's a saying about when one door open or closes another or a window opens or something like that. I think that the Bambi situation is that.
18:00And I listened to the free masterclass that Melanie, your coach had put on this week.  I missed the first hour because I had other things that had going on. But I listened to the second part yesterday and  she's big on the things that we worry about. We invite into our lives. Yes. And the one thing that I really got out of the 45 minutes I listened yesterday was that because I was like,  you know, I used to know that.
18:29I used to be like, I'm not going to think negatively. No, I'm not going to worry about not having enough money. I'm going to manifest money. I'm going to think it's going to be okay. The money will come or whatever it was that I needed. And in the last couple of years, things have been rough and I have not been thinking positively. And when I got done listening to her, her second half of her webinar that she did,
18:58I was like, oh, that was the thing I was supposed to take away from it. And I woke up at three o'clock this morning thinking, okay,  I have to get that website thing figured out and I'm going to make it work.  And  Morgan's going to talk to me today. That's exciting. And I didn't wake up worrying. I woke up excited. Yeah. It's different when you do that. Like even with Bambi and like, I don't think that there's such thing as like test, but I think that that was.
19:26whatever you believe in's way of showing me that like, no, actually your mindset did change because like, instead of being down and feeling like I completely let down this Philly, which I didn't, I went above and beyond anything that I could do for her. ah I was like, it's okay, life's okay. Even if, you know, we  end up not getting this free Philly, like that, that still wouldn't make me go back into a negative mindset because that's...
19:56It is what it is. It was a gamble, right? And I think that in this day and age, we're  all... Like news used to cycle, Andy and I were talking about this,  news used to cycle like a week, right? Like they would be replaying the same stuff. I remember when I was little and I like swear that I called this an existence sometimes. I'd be like, why isn't there anything new on the news? Why hasn't anything new happened? It's not like that anymore.
20:26That it cycles out between 12 hours, a whole new string of stories every day.  Yeah. And it's getting really exhausting. I have had to actually turn the news off lately unless I see something really important come through on my phone, AP app.  I'm like, no, I can't, I can't listen to this anymore because it's all  negative. Yeah. See? So like that's exactly what I was getting to. So we're just  all.
20:57Trying to escape the negativeness in life so we think something shiny and new or great needs to happen every single day because everyone makes things look like an Instagram story and like that is the last of the dreams that I could ever show like is a false Morgan like I
21:17If you ask people about me, they'll tell you like, I just am who I am. Like, you never have to guess. I'm just going to say the things that might upset you, but I'm the same person in every room. And that's something that I'm really big about. So I try to share even on my Facebook, the good and the bad, because if everything you see is just positive all the time, and it's fake positivity, like you can tell. You're like, there's no way that there's something new.
21:44and great happening every single day in somebody's life. But if you can take from the fact that I can create a good mood every day, and that'll lead to the next big positive thing in my life, then that's, I mean, that's really ideally it. Like, yes, you should wake up and feel like a million bucks. Yes, you should wake up and think you're gonna get a lot done that day. Because if you don't, if you only get two things done, that's a lot.
22:12Right? Like that's still two more things that you've completed in a day instead of being like, man, I wrote a list for 15 things, but I only did two. So now I'm going to get down on myself. So as a woman in agriculture, taking a coaching with a woman that who does have a background  in  farming, her family comes from farming. we like vibed on the first webinar because I was talking about sheep farming and, and Melanie, what I like about her is it's
22:41It's not just network marketing. It's not MLM stuff. She's actually teaching you how to  be the best that you can with offerings. like she, that's what that 30 minute was about was to figure out what offerings I could offer to help bring an income to offset while the sheep herd is growing. Cause eventually the sheep herd will kind of take care of itself. But it was how do we get from point A to point B  on limited income?
23:11And I can write my own courses. I've done that kind of stuff before. I've written my own Zooms, my own webinars, you know, on my own research and then the love for teaching that we have. um Now, Groovy Grazers, is it like dead? No. I mean,  I'm going to find an employee this year. So,  I mean, as much as I hate to tell all of my reoccurring  clients, it may not be me this year coming in, but it's going to be somebody that I've trained.
23:41you know, then I can still keep that portion alive. But being away from the farm is hard. And it even though it was bringing in money, it was  as hard as having a nine to five job. Yeah, it's not harder. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, because I'm tired after that, because I have health conditions, you know,  and I want to spend all my time farming. But one thing I've really like, slacked on is gardening. Andy uh
24:09My husband is an expert in organic living soil. So if anyone has questions about this regenerative farming word that's going on, you know, how to no till and all that stuff, we, that is something we specialize in and that is really our passion. So  Andy just has a lot of knowledge. He's just a hermit. So he's always been called a hermit. He's just kind of more in the background.
24:34When it comes to teaching but Melanie was like you need to get your husband out there like you and you guys doing it as a wife and husband duo is like That's so cool. Normally. It's like just the husband wants to do one portion of it The wife wants to do another or like they don't want to do it together And I'm like, well, I personally couldn't imagine farming with anyone other than my husband So  it makes sense that we going on go in on the farm school together, but also knowing that
25:04You can offer like there's something like Mary, I'm sure there's something you could probably talk about doing podcasts, right? Yeah. And help other people that are doing podcasts and just give them a formula essentially of what you've done. That's something you could offer. You know, um, the next farmer down the road, well, maybe they offer chicken eggs and that's the only thing they offer. Right. Melanie would be able to tell you how to do that  or how to at least assess it to make sure it's, it's profitable or not. And so.
25:35That's something  that I think coming from a third party is a little easier.  dreams sometimes, I don't know if you dream big, I dream for the moon sometimes. I used to until I got really negative with the lawsuit stuff and I felt like that was never ending because we're like year four into that and it's still going, you know, like still  actively not even hit the first courtroom.
26:00You're talking another three more years. That's seven years by the end of this. That's why we've decided to move because I'm not doing that at all. And I want water. We were already looking at a property that's 40 acres, by the way, with a well  and flood,  38 acres of flooded pasture, all within my budget.  So  good things happen, right? I spoke that into existence. I want, I'm going to find a house that's going to fit all these and we're going to get pre-approved for it. And so.
26:27That's one of the biggest things for me is creating though a positive mindset that you can have like in a space you can't. woke up this morning at 3 a.m. You knew that we were going to talk and I was going to light a fire underneath you. Well, you usually do somehow, yes. Yeah, which is that's I mean,  we were destined by the universe to light a fire under each other. So I love it. That's why love coming and talking to you. uh
26:54So you knew you were gonna do that. You knew that either you're gonna have to get these buttons to work or just change your theme.  Not once did you say, man, if I have to change my theme, I'm really gonna be disappointed. You just said, well, that may be what I have to do. Oh yeah, I honestly don't care what the theme is as long as the background that I'm working with does the thing I need it to do. Yeah, but you didn't even go down  that mindset. Do you know how many people would have like,
27:21snowballed all the way into the worst computer program ever and they can't do this. Oh, yeah, that was me about 15 years ago when I first started screwing around with websites. I was like, oh, this is such a learning curve. Holy cow. But all learning curves are hard. And that actually leads me right back around to what I was going to say, because we're running out of time here. We're at 27 minutes already. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It flies. You don't have to...
27:51Morgan loves Melanie as a coach and that is fabulous. I'm really glad that you found somebody that you vibe with. But there are coaches for everything.  Every coach is different. Some of them are very soft and very sweet and they still get the point across.  Some are very harsh and very direct and they get the point across. So you have to figure out what works for your style  with their style. uh
28:18Some coaches are really expensive. Some coaches are not really expensive and you've got to figure out how to handle that too. Yep.  Yeah. So, um, I love that you went and listened to the new podcast and I want to talk about that just for a minute.  Um,  the new episode comes out on Monday and it's actually about how the immigration situation in the United States right now is impacting agriculture and women in agriculture. Yup.
28:48I just, we were going to talk about it  shortly after that lady got shot here in Minneapolis by the ICE agent.  Yeah. And I couldn't talk about it without crying. And  Leo was like, let's wait a week. And  I really needed to talk with my dad about it because he's like my anchor when I'm spinning. Yeah. And talked to my dad about it. And  he said,  I don't want to make things harder, he said, but it's going to get worse before it gets better. Yep.
29:18And once he said that, I took a big deep breath and I was like, okay.  And then I started looking into how important people from other countries are to agriculture because they come here to work and they work hard and they're good people. And they're sending a lot of the income home to their families to support their families. They're no different than you and I.
29:41Exactly.  so Leah and I talked about that and so that one will be out on Monday and then the next Monday,  I think  the episode is about 4-H because  Leah has been involved in 4-H since before she was born, she says, because her parents were involved in it.  I love that. No, that's going to be a good episode. So I will definitely be tuning in and I'll share that also on Cole Canyon Farm because that'll be a good episode. That would be fabulous. Thank you.
30:09The new podcast is called  Rit and Grace in the Heartland, Women in Agriculture. uh tomorrow we're interviewing the head editor, chief editor, whatever,  of the Old Farmers Almanac, Carol, I can't think of her last name.  Carol, I interviewed her on A Tiny Homestead, but we're going to have her come and talk to us on the other podcast too, because she is,  she is absolutely a woman in agriculture and she is
30:39deciding factor in what gets published in the Old Farmer's Almanac. Wow, that's really cool. It's gonna be so fun. I'm so excited.  So Morgan, I am so proud of you for investing in yourself and having to make all of these decisions from a place of positivity instead of negativity. That's amazing.  People can find you at Cole Canyon Farm on Facebook and are you, you said you're working on building a website or getting your website? Yeah.
31:08The website will be up and going we're coal Canyon MT  as in Montana.  Yep. As in Montana on Instagram. Okay. Awesome.  Thank you so much for sharing your experience with getting a coach because I'm not sure that  I think that people think that coaches are woo woo. Like, like only weird people get themselves a coach and that is not true. Yeah, no, I'm glad we got to talk about this because there is a big
31:37dark shadow around coaching. And honestly, it's just a third perspective and it can excel your business. So yeah. And in case it didn't come through and I'm afraid it didn't. Morgan is a coach. Yes. Yeah, I do coach. So if you need help with gardening or I don't know anything else that Morgan's doing and would like to teach about, you can contact her at her Facebook page and eventually the website and
32:06She will be more than happy to help you  get started on your next project. Yeah, absolutely. We're super excited. Thanks for having us on, Mary.  You are so welcome.
 

Frostbite Family Farm LLC

Today I'm talking with Addie at Frostbite Family Farm LLC.
 
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00:00You'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 Addie at Frostbite Family Farm, LLC in Lonsdale, Minnesota. Good morning, Addie, how are you? Good morning, I'm good, how are you?  I'm good. We're having some really gray weather this morning. We are. It's coming after a lot of sunshine though, so I can't complain.
00:25Yeah, we're supposed to get snow tonight and I'm kind of hoping we do because the cornfield is looking very bare right now and it looks kind of ugly. So fresh coat of snow would be nice. Yes, we have some livestock and it actually gets harder when things warm up and get a little wet. So the dry snow is always a good thing. Yeah, I was just talking to a dairy farmer. I don't if it was this week or last week, but they were saying that it had been
00:54like really muddy. And I of course assumed that the cows were out in the field and I said, I hear that wet weather is not good for cows feet.  And he said, oh no, he said, they're in the barn or they're on a dry lot and it's actually dry. He said, they're fine. He said, but yes, it can wreak havoc with their feet. And I was like, okay, cool.  Yeah, that is the difference between large dairies and small ones. So we operate a micro dairy.
01:21And all of our cows are out in the field. So they have a good space to roam around in, but mud definitely affects them. Yeah. And, okay, I don't want to get too far into dairy stuff because I've interviewed two people about dairies in the last two weeks. But when you say microdairy, how many cows? So right now we have 16 cows. That includes our calves. So we are milking 10 currently twice a day. Okay. And I'm assuming you're not milking 10 cows by hand a day.
01:50No, we use a surge bucket system. It works really well. My husband and I team up and do it together and it gets done pretty efficiently that way. It kind of keeps it cleaner than hand milking. Yeah. I think the days of hand milking have kind of flown. They've kind of gone away. Unless you just have one cow and you really like milking cows. Right. And even then I'm like, okay, you get a bunch of stuff that kind of flings into it and it's just, they make smaller systems now.
02:20It's really easy. Okay.  So  I want to know how your farm got its name, because I love the name. Sure. Yeah, that is  always a topic of interest. It's so funny.  We picked that name after we didn't start out farming.  My husband and I got married and lived in an apartment. And I've always had this love of plants and food and good cooking. And  as we had kids, it developed into  including health and
02:50um eating at home and making things ourselves.  And we sort of realized over time, like, I think we need to look for some land. I think we want to do some of this ourselves. And we began our land search, but at the same time realizing that neither of us had come from agricultural backgrounds. We decided to try to find people locally that were doing what we wanted to do or close  and  get to know them.
03:17and hear their processes.  And um apples were a big point of interest for me. I love apple trees and  just the amount of food they can supply is amazing.  So  we found an orchardist in Northern Minnesota who was organic for a really long time.  He has this amazing little orchard on acres and acres of planted trees, really well maintained. A lot of them are like the semi-dwarf stock  and we would go visit every year with our little kids.
03:46It was one of the only organic orchards that we had heard of locally.  It was about a two hour trip for us, so it was always a big event taking the kids.  And  as we had gone over a couple of years, we got to know the owner, and he is incredible  and would give us so much of his time walking around the orchard telling us all about his trees and the ones he was breeding and the different varieties he chose and why. I just...
04:11I felt like I could just consume that information all day and he was so gracious with his time and he would walk around and show us, this is the triumph apple. It's a new one I'm trialing. You know, taste it. This is what I like about it. This is what I don't like about it. ah And on one of our trips up there, I mean, he was showing us the inside of his buildings and where he would make cider and all of these things and ah he was like, hold on, you got to come with me to the back of the orchard. He's like, my favorite apples are planted back there.
04:41And as we took the trek back, he was telling us about the frostbite apple. And it was developed in Minnesota.  It's like a great, great grandparent of  Honeycrisp and some of the  original apples  that were planted here in Minnesota. It's this tiny little burgundy apple, and it kind of cracks on the top a lot. It's not really grown commercially because of that. It's not good for shipping. um But it's a dessert apple.
05:11and he was like, you have to try this. Come over to the tree, like, here's how you pick a really good one. And he just like watched us and you know that's the sign of like a really good, a really good food. He's just like waiting for us to enjoy it. And I remember biting into this apple and thinking I had never tasted anything like this. And you your mind starts thinking back to other ones you've eaten, like the gala apples and things like that, where they're like a little mealy, not a ton of flavor.
05:39maybe a little dry, and this apple, I mean, it tasted like brown sugar,  just molasses, it had these really complex flavors. uh And I remember just thinking, it crossing my mind that if somebody didn't care enough to plant these varieties that maybe don't ship so well, or maybe oh aren't great for grocery store, they're not perfect, uh I would never have gotten to experience this.
06:05And it is one of my favorite apples. we, every year we go up there, we get a little box of them and our kids, you know, we all fight over them and we share them with people and  just watch people's faces light up and they go, I've never tried an apple like this. I didn't know they could taste like this. em And so as we were thinking about our farm and what we wanted, what our mission was, what we wanted to do, em the frost by apple kind of came up in our mind. It's like, we want to be the people who cultivate varieties that maybe
06:35aren't the most popular but still deserve a place in the food landscape.  People should try these in their lifetime. We should not go our whole lives thinking apples are these boring standard  and not let little blemishes stop that.  we do a lot of different fruits and vegetables.
06:56This last year was our first year at farmers markets  and selling produce direct to consumer and a lot of our vegetables even. love to pick heirloom varieties, weird shapes, weird colors. When we started, all of our ideas rolling and what we wanted to do, this was kind of the theme. And I had a lot of people actually look at me and say, this is not gonna work. People are not going to want a black tomato. They're gonna look at it and say, ew, that's gross.
07:24We don't want to try that. Give us something, you know, the normal bushel boy tomato. Just stick with the normal varieties and then you'll be successful. And I just, like, you could not force me to grow a normal red tomato. And I've always been like that. I think the colors are so fun. We're losing varieties and people need to care about that. So yeah, just kind of come to that. I love that story. That is so beautiful.
07:53And I'll tell you a secret, my husband and I have been talking since oh, a few years after we got married about wanting to do the homesteading thing and we're doing it now. We've been married for over 20 years and we bought this place in 2020. the first thing that got planted here was apple trees because we had talked and talked and talked about our dream.
08:20for years and apple trees were like always at the top of the list. We wanted our own apple trees. So I get it, Addie, believe me. Yes. Yeah, they're so beautiful. They produce so much food.  It's an investment. It takes a lot of time. But we, the property we moved to  has two apple trees. They're a semi dwarf, so they're not super tiny, but they're not super large either.  And I am consistently baffled every year. Like we, my family,  have
08:48I married and I have four kids and we could not get through all of those apples if we tried. There are so many, they're abundant. You know, we end up finishing our pigs on apples and giving them to the cows and chickens and all of that and selling them and giving them to friends. And it's just amazing how much food  one tree can produce. It is insane. And I have another story about apple trees.  The lady that we got our dog from.
09:17She lives in Montgomery, Minnesota. Her name is Jean Bratz. I don't know if you're familiar. She has the  Minnesota farmer Facebook page.  Okay.  They raise small scale. They raise steers. They have many Australian shepherds that they breed and they sell the puppies and take incredibly good care of the puppies from when they're born until they go to their new homes because they have seven children.  Sure. So almost every puppy is assigned a kid basically.
09:47Oh, but  they have apple trees in their backyard,  like many apple trees. And we were over there in the spring one year and all the trees were blooming and all you could smell when you opened the car door and got out in their driveway was apple blossoms.  And she has the the Wolf River apple trees, the great big apples. Oh, sure.  And  I
10:13keep meaning to get hold of her. need to do it this year and ask her if there's any way that we could get  a cutting  of a branch so we can graft it onto one of our trees because I would love to have Wolf River apples as well. That's the thing. There are so many varieties and that is also just kind of what makes me sad about our whole food industry is we have reduced
10:37reduced plants to a handful of varieties that  ship well, store well, all of that. And you just don't know unless you look.  We planted 40 apple trees this last spring in our  backfield. And looking through the varieties, it was so important to me. Sure, we'll do a couple of the honeycrisp and things like that.  these incredible trees that have existed forever, that have stories to them, and that have been lovingly cultivated over
11:04centuries, we planted this black Oxford apple and it is almost entirely black on the outside. Inside looks like a standard apple. The flavor profile is very similar to a honey crisp.  But again, like we would not know that these varieties exist unless someone cared enough to continue to cultivate them. So I think that's so important. Get the cuttings, graft it, plant it. You know, there's a lot of work before you ever see the fruit.
11:33You know, what do they say?  The best time to plant an apple tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is today. I've always heard it the best time to plant a tree is a hundred years ago. Oh, sure.  I guess  the more modern varieties if we're grafting under rootstock don't typically last as long. some of those other ones, they're incredible and they do last, you know, a hundred years.  Yep.
11:59I don't know why we were so fixated on apple trees, except that my husband and I really love applecrest in the fall. And we were like, if we had an apple tree, we'd be making applecrest by now  instead of having you buy apples at the local orchard.  But we planted  honey gold. We planted a regent. We planted a harrelson. then my husband went to Fleet Farm for something and he came home with
12:29some other apple trees.  And I was like, where  are we putting those? And he said on the other side of the property. And I said, okay.  And  I was talking,  I was writing a piece for Homestead Living Magazine that got bumped because of their holiday gift section. I'm so sad. uh when I sent her the draft, when I sent the editor the draft, she said, you guys have a small orchard. And I had to look it up.
12:57If you have more than six apple trees, you have a small orchard. And I was so excited that we are technically the owners of a small orchard because we have like 20 trees. Yes, I love that. That's awesome. Yup. I didn't know we had a small orchard, but we do.  So that was, that was pretty awesome.  Um,  I would love it if you could give me a rundown of the, the farm things that you have going on. So you have apple trees, you have some.
13:26you have dairy cows. What other projects do you have going on? Sure. So something that was important to us was uh just the cyclical nature of farm life and how, you know, when we monocrop one thing, kind of, you you end up having to outsource things where if you have a bunch of little endeavors, they can all sort of feed off of each other. So we started with  one dairy cow  and her calf  and have quickly expanded from there.
13:54um We came here really wanting to do market vegetables. So right now we have about 10,000 square feet of growing space out in our field  and we  applied for an Equip High Tunnel grant and ended up  being awarded the grant and we built a 100 foot by 30 foot high tunnel. So we are currently getting set up to start planting in there for the spring already.  We do  some poultry.
14:23We were surrounded by a lot of woods so we don't free-range our poultry, but we do them in tractors behind the cows in our field through the summer and then they're in a stationary coop in the winter. And then this last year we added  meat chickens  and  feeder pigs. So we ended up doing four feeder pigs. We have a lot of woods again with a lot of oak trees em and acorns and  we ended up building a big paddock in the woods and
14:51putting the pigs in there and it was awesome. we're, we do some cut flowers too. What kind of cut flowers? I love flowers. Yeah, we do. I'm trying to think how many beds we have right now. I think it's 30 to 40 beds that we do have cut flowers and we sort of do some of everything. We've got some perennials in there. I planted yarrow and what are my other perennials I have in there? Some echinacea.
15:19Things that self-seed too, we grow lot of chamomile and calendula. And then we've got the kind of typical  zinnias.  And this year we're doing lyseanthus and ranunculus,  dahlias, bachelor buttons, cosmos. I just placed my seed order, so it's all kind of fresh on my mind right now. m Those pro-cut sunflowers, those are a really good one. And then a lot of just like greenery, filler, we do some basil.
15:49What else? Eucalyptus. Things like that. Yeah, this was our first year, this last year selling market bouquets and it was super fun. Awesome. We grow peonies because they're my favorite.  And this year we'll probably have enough to actually sell quite a few if people want to buy them. That's awesome. Yeah, because it takes three years for peonies from when you get the roots and put them in the ground until they start to produce flowers.  Really. Yeah.
16:17So it's the first year is creep the second year. No first year is sleep. Second year is creep.  Third year is leap and my peonies leaped this past spring. I had so many blooms. I was in heaven.  Oh, that's amazing.  We grow sunflowers.  think we'd.  I can't remember the name of it. It's a little yellow flower. It looks like a daisy and I thought it was rununculus, but it's not. I'm almost positive it's not.
16:45And we have yarrow growing here wild. there's baby pink yarrow. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. We, we ended up starting, you know, if you go to like a green house and you buy like an established yarrow plant, they're like $15 a plant. And I was like, I really want these. So we started them from seed and in the first year we ended up getting blooms and they were like full size. was blown away by how quickly they grow. Yeah. And they're such a pretty plant.
17:16and medicinal and all of that too. Yeah, the leaves are really pretty. They don't even look like a leaf. They look like a pine needle. Like a fern, yeah. Yeah, they're really lovely.  I am such a sucker for plants. I, if I had my way, our whole property would just be all peonies every year. That would be amazing.
17:37But I don't have my way because I am married to a wonderful man who wants to grow vegetables and apples and pears and plums and peaches. We don't have pears yet. So he wants all the things and I'm just like, why can't we just pick  one and make it great? And he's like, because it's boring. And I'm like, okay, yes. I'm in all the things.  I'm in all the things person. think, you know, peonies even where they're they're done after a certain point. Oh, yeah. Short, short bloom season.
18:06I just want stuff all year. One  of my kids was like, oh, what is your favorite flower? What's your favorite smell? And I was like, it's not a flower. It's a tomato plant. I love how tomato plant leaves smell. uh It's just the joy you find in all the different things. And plants are definitely good for that. Oh, they are.  I  can't have lilacs in the house anymore because I sneeze. Oh, no. Didn't used to.
18:33But in the last year or two, if anybody has brought me a lilac stem, I'm good for about five minutes and I walk by it and it makes my nose tickle and I sneeze. It's not really an allergy, but it's just a little tiny irritant. But I love how lilac smells and we got some  lilac fragrance oil and made  lilac candles.  And the lilac candles don't bother me at all.  I still get to have it.
18:58I still get to have lilac in the house and I don't actually sneeze every time I walk by it, which is great.  Yeah,  lilac has always been one of my favorites.  But this last year I grew stock. Have you ever grown that? No. Okay. It looks sort of like a snapdragon. It's a barassica. So it really likes those cool temps and it has the most unique scent I have  ever had with a flower.
19:27like a little spicy, super floral,  the smell. had one stem of stock in our house and the whole house was just full of the fragrance of it. And it was so beautiful. We're going to do a lot more this year. just, we do  a lot of our seeds through Johnny's seeds and they have the varieties they have are so beautiful. The colors, that's another one. If you want to grow something that smells really good.  cool. I'll have to look it up and add it to the list.
19:56The list just gets longer every January. Yes, January especially. These winter months are rough for us plant lovers. Yeah, although I'm really glad that I asked you to be on the show now because I think if I had asked you to be on the show in May, you would have been like, Mary, I'm not going to have time until January. Yes, that is definitely the downside of this life is you get busy. It keeps you busy.
20:22Oh, yes, it does. And especially the younger you are because you have way more energy in your 20s and early 30s than I do at 56. Yes, there are a lot of things that we, you you get in January, you get really motivated and you're like, I can do this, I can do this, I'm going to start all of these projects. And then July, you looks back and is like, girl, what were you thinking? You do not have the time for this, but we do it anyway. It's great.
20:48I figure I have one more weekend before my husband says I'm going to bring in the seed trays and get things started. Yes, that is my day today. Actually, that's what I will be doing after this. We're going to start some seeds.  Yeah, I'm hoping he holds out until at least the first weekend in February because if we start them now,  I will not have my kitchen table for 12 weeks. That that is a problem. We ended up.
21:13with all of the growing space in the high tunnel. That's sort of how we started, but we transitioned into our garage is heated. um We insulated, got it heated and do grow shelves out there. And that has made it so, you know, the like LED glow where you're like, don't, we don't need this surrounding dinner and everything all the time. So that has enabled us to start those early crops sooner and not be bothered by that as much.  I made the mistake of buying the pink  grow lights from Amazon.
21:42I thought I was getting the white ones. No, we got the pink alien looking ones.  Yeah. And that was like three years ago. And we have windows right all around the table in our kitchen  and they face toward the road.  And I said, you know, anybody driving by is going to think we're growing marijuana in our kitchen. And my husband laughed and he said, we have moved to the country.  They know we're growing vegetables. And I was like, okay.  Yes, that is a thing we've had people ask.
22:13Yeah, but that pink glow is so creepy, especially at three o'clock in the morning  when you wake up and need to use the bathroom and you come downstairs and the whole kitchen is bathed in pink light.  Yes.  It's like, oh, there's aliens in my house. OK, cool. Yes, we started our growing  project before we moved out to the country. We lived on a little lot. ah And I was like, you know, if we want to grow, we should practice here. So we started growing some of our own things. And in our city house, I did the same thing and got
22:43the blue purple lights and so many of our friends as they would come and go from our house would joke about that. Oh, what are you growing? know, like just tomatoes. That's it. Basil. have to leave to bite into it. It's basil. It's great. Yep, exactly. And honestly, marijuana is not as big a deal as it used to be. So I'm not always worried about it, but it just made me laugh when I saw that they were pink lights, not white. I was like, oh, I
23:11I clicked the wrong thing on Amazon, but they're cool. It'll work.  So I try to keep this to half an hour. We're only 23 minutes in, but I wanted to talk about barn cats with you because  on your Facebook page, you have a photo of a beautiful long haired,  I assume it's a barn cat.  And we have a kitten who's about 16 to 20 weeks old. We don't know who got her from a friend.
23:37who looks exactly like your cat. Our cat's name is Smokey. What is your cat's name? Her name is Floof, but I am not responsible for naming the kittens. Are you kidding me? That was our mama cat's name. Really? Oh funny, my three year old named her. yes, they get to pick the names for the cats.  Oh, we don't have Floof anymore. She disappeared.  Oh, that's the worst. Yeah, we've had that happen. Was your Floof a black, white and orange?
24:06Calico by any chance, because that's what ours was.  She is a tortie. So she's dark, kind of gray and has some orange in her and got the long hair. That foofy hair, I think, lended to the name. That's exactly why we named ours Floof, because my husband was like, what do we name her? said Floof. She looks like she's going to explode. That's so funny. We had two of them, actually.  We had friends pick up the other one and it was Poof and Floof. uh Our Floof.
24:35had three litters before she disappeared and we have one cat left from her. He's a little over a year old. He is an orange long haired cat. Oh nice. And his name is Fluffybutt because he has his mama's extremely long hair.  is name of Fluffybutt.  Cat names are the best. have some just outrageous names.  One of our cats name is Garbage. um
25:01Constantly gets into our dumpster. So his name is garbage, but then our neighbor cat who's a long orange haired is Stanley So, you know you're out and you're like, hey Stanley you're walking a garbage. We've got you know, it's a whole thing Well the the one that looks like the cat that you have on your Facebook page Her name is smoky because when she moves  she is basically a dilute calico So she's got some buff and some really silvery gray  and
25:29I don't think there's a speck of white on that cat,  but she looks like smoke when she's moving  and she's gorgeous. And then her sister is shorty because she looks just like Smokey,  except that she's got short hair. Sure. And then the third one that we got is another orange kitten that looks exactly like  the one that's over a year old that we had to begin with.  And his name is Junior because we can't tell them apart when they're away from us.
25:58So yeah, I love having barn cats. Like when I was a little kid, we always had a pet cat and we had one at a time. And I said to my mom one time, said, why can't we have more than one at a time? And she said, because they're basically indoor cats.  We live in a thousand square foot house. I want one cat.  I said, well, I want all the cats. And she said, I know you do. You have loved kittens since you were a baby.  And now,
26:26Literally, I could have all the cats I wanted to and they're outside and they're not a problem. Yes, that has been our experience.  I grew up my great grandparents going to their little farm and they had kittens, you know, when we would go over there and it was like the highlight of our day, my siblings and I.  And we have some allergies to like pet hair and stuff.  you know, when you have like a lot of little kids, you're like, I don't need anything else in the house to clean up after.  We've just decided no indoor animals  and for mom's sanity.
26:55So when we moved here and there was a cat, my kids were just enamored with this cat. She's a barn cat, little standoffish at first, but had kittens and it, you just watch their faces light up and how much fun they have. And it's just been one of the highlights that we didn't know was coming with the farm that, you know, they just thoroughly enjoy every year.  Yeah. A um lot of people don't like cats and that's fine. They don't have to.
27:24I love cats because cats, they decide that they are your friend,  it's an honor because cats really have no use for people. All they want you to do is feed them.  Yes, we have uh my husband is a cat lover. I'm a bigger dog fan, but I think especially as we farm, I appreciate what the cats do so much. You know, they'll come in with rabbits and different mice and things they catch. And I see they're so functional, but we will with our little micro dairy when we milk.
27:54We have, you know, when we milk each animal, we'll strip out the first couple of squeezes of milk out of each quarter. And then we have this cup we strip into and there we tap it on the ground and all of our cats know they will come from near and far when they hear that tap on the concrete. And we pour it out into a little dish for them. And it's like the highlight of their day. They love it. It's so fun.  It's treat time at the farm. Yeah. And the other thing is, that we literally only had two cats.
28:24up until a month ago, month and a half ago. Both males, one fixed, not fixed. One fixed and one not fixed. There we go.  And my husband was like, this is a problem. And I said, why? And he said, because they're not going to be able to keep up with the rodents in the string in the summer. He said, right now, everything's kind of quiet.  He said, but that humongous pole barn is going to be overrun with mice if we don't get some more cats.  And I said, well, considering we have two males, that's going to be a problem. he laughed.
28:53Um, our friends over at O'Connor Family Acres here in Lesor,  um, Tracy and Paul have some barn cats and they happen to have some kittens and they brought us the three that I was talking about.  cannot freaking wait for fluffy butt and smokey  to get together and have babies as strength because they're going to be the longest haired, most beautiful kittens ever known to man.  Yes, they, we have.
29:19We have the Siamese cat that we originally got with the house and then a long-haired orange cat that's our neighbor's cat and they we went from having  oh my goodness two females to having over the summer 20 um cats with all of their litters  and all of the kittens are so fun and so beautiful and it is  pure comic I mean fun to watch them all just like explode out of the barn door following their mamas around it's amazing but at the end of
29:48the summer, we were like, okay, we got to find some new homes for these guys and found a couple of local families that wanted some barn kittens and you just, you you're like, we're good with one or two. But when you have animals and you have grain and feed and chickens and all, you know, I've seen people with like massive rodent problems and we just don't have any of that. And I attribute that 100 % to the cats and you know, it's it's great fun for the kids, but it's also functional.
30:18Oh, we wouldn't have as many cats if we didn't have a big old  pole barn that needed to be patrolled for mice because that would not be a good plan. ah The saddest thing I've seen so far regarding kittens and dogs, we have a dog and I talk about her a lot. I haven't talked about her a lot lately though.  Her name is Maggie. She's five. She's a mini Australian shepherd. She would have made the best mama.
30:46ever, but we didn't want puppies. So she was spayed when she was six months old.  She loves it when  the kittens come out of the barn and get introduced to her. And  she freaking knows when there's babies in the barn. oh Because my husband and my son would go out and play with the kittens to get them socialized so they were friendly. So she would smell the kittens on my husband and my son  when they would come in the house.  Saddest thing I've ever seen.
31:15We didn't have any kittens this past summer because flu flaked off and that was it. We didn't have any female cats. And uh Maggie kept looking over toward the barn all summer long, like, where are my friends? Where are my babies? And so the other day, the three new kittens were in Maggie's doghouse. And I say that loosely because Maggie barely uses the doghouse. So the cat take it over  and Maggie can reach it.
31:42and the kittens have discovered that there's hay bales in there and that it's a nice warm place to hang out. So Maggie noticed movement in the doghouse and went over and stuck her nose in and smelled the air and you saw the tail start to wag. She got a nubbin. She's not a tail, she has a nubbin. And I was like, oh no, this is going to go really good or really bad. And she was barking at the cats because she didn't know they were there to begin with.
32:11They're not little babies. They're not six week old babies coming out of the barn. They're almost full-sized cats now. And I was like, oh, this is going to go bad. And after she got done barking at them and they managed to get past her and get back to the barn, she came trotting over the door like, I have new babies. Oh, cute. So saddest thing ever this summer, because there were no babies for her. And I think that she really missed them. And then
32:39happiest moment of her life was discovering that there were new cats in her  doghouse once she figured out they were good kittens, they were fine.  Sweet. Yeah, we have an Anatolian shepherd. He's gigantic.  And he and the cats have a love-hate relationship, but he is a guard dog.  But he and the cows, when the cows have babies and stuff, it's so sweet. I love those like...
33:06interactions they have with each other and the friendships they make and one of our cows is his best friend and it's just it's so funny to watch and we love it.  It's so funny because growing up I thought that cats and dogs hated each other. m Because you're told that as a little kid. and dogs don't get along and I'm like yeah okay I know better now because  Maggie would raise a litter of kittens even though she's a dog every year if we love. Oh sweet.
33:36And she would let them just like curl up against her. One of the last kittens from the last litter  tried to nurse from Maggie. And  Maggie very gently put her nose right under that kitten and lifted up and moved it out of the way. She was like, no, I'm not actually your mama.  Yeah. was very sweet.  Very, very sweet.
33:58There are so many moments like that when you live on a farm or a homestead and you have animals because they do the craziest, funniest things.  On the flip side, when a cat gets hit by a car and dies, that's hard too. Yeah, loss in any way. have,  you've heard  the phrase where you have livestock, you have dead stock.  You're like, it's just part of raising animals, right?  You get to enjoy them during their lives and then...
34:28Then when they pass, it's always just so sad.  Yep. First barn cat we lost the road. I cried all day.  All day. Beautiful, beautiful silver tabby.  And the second one we lost, I slammed cabinets and yelled and said a few choice words and didn't cry because you got to get used to it. Yeah. have, unfortunately with dairy cows, specifically with the jerseys, the calves can be fragile and it's
34:57It's an adjustment when you are not used to that kind of experience with loss  when you lose calves and it's just, yeah, you go through all the range of emotions.  Yeah, and you lose the potential of that animal. That's the hardest part because you have all these  hopes and dreams once you find out that your cow is pregnant. Yeah, it's a long process.
35:22Yeah, and then that baby doesn't survive and you're like, but I had such great plans and now they're not going to happen. Yeah, and we bottle feed our calves too. So our kids are really involved and it's been rough every time it's happened. you know, you're like, it's all about teaching kids too. I feel like right now a lot of people don't have that hands-on experience dealing with loss anymore.  We're not close enough to nature. We're not close enough to things that are fragile.
35:48And so we just try to really walk with our kids through that and be like, okay, you you take care of animals in life and you take care of them in death and uh having compassion and understanding the cycle of life has been really valuable. Another thing that I just, you you  look forward to a farm and all the things that you will learn and glean from it, but it's those little things where you weren't necessarily thinking that was going to be a huge part of it, but it is.
36:16Yeah, there's a couple of things that I hold on to when it comes to loss.  One of the things that I tell myself all the time is that the price for loving something is knowing you're going to have to say goodbye at some point. Yeah.  And there's another one. And of course, now I can't think of it. Oh,  how lucky are we to be able to have that depth of feeling of love? Yeah. Those are the two things that make it easier for me. Yeah.
36:45I have seen some posts recently about how cruel the dairy industry is and, you know, I'm not saying that that is never the case, but you know how calves are just a commodity and I'm like, oh, you know,  you've clearly never cried over a calf. Like, m you don't know until you find good places to get your dairy, find good places that really value their animals because there are those people out there where it really does mean a lot to them and it is their literal blood, sweat and tears that go into.
37:12raising these animals and creating amazing genetics and the next generation of milk mamas and Yeah Yep, I am so proud of all you ladies who are under 40 who are taking all of this on Because it's a lot and it's a lot when you're raising kids along with the animals Yeah, it is. It's everyone warns you you know, oh this is
37:40going to be so much work, you're not going have a choice. You're going to have to put it as completely different when you're experiencing it in those moments where you're like, okay, you know, my kids still get sick, and I still have to milk. You know, where you're like, there are still things that have to happen. There aren't days off, you know, it's negative 60 wind chill, all of that, you're like, it still has to happen. And walking through it is really the only way to fully grasp what that means.  Yep, absolutely. And you know that 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer, right?
38:09I had not heard that. Wow. It is. And you are doing it. So again, really proud of you, Addie. Thank you. All right. I try to keep this to half an hour. We're a little bit over. Where can people find you? We are actually going to be putting up a website in the next couple of weeks. So I don't have that info yet, but you can find us on Facebook or Instagram, Frostbite, Family Farms, LLC. And we would love to connect with you over Messenger or I think my phone number is on there. Yeah.
38:39still love the name of your farm.  I  love wintertime and I  love frost.  I don't love frost bite, but I still love the name. I know it's still fun.  All right. As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com. If you'd like to support the podcast,  you can find that at AtinyHolmstead.com slash support.  And if you like this podcast, you should listen to  the new one that I just started with.
39:07Leah from Clear Creek Ranch Mom on Facebook.  It's called Grit and Grace in the Heartland Women in Agriculture.  Addie, thank you so much for taking the time and I appreciate it and keep doing the good work. Thank you.  All right, have a great day. You too.  Bye.
 

Day by Day Dairy

Today I'm talking with Sara and Nick at Day by Day Dairy.
 
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00:00You'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 Sarah and Nick at Day by Day Dairy  in Wisconsin.  Good morning, guys. How are you? Good and good morning. Good morning.
00:21How is the weather in Wisconsin? Snowy. um looks like it's all trying to melt today, but it's going to be like 40 today. Yeah. Not a warm spell before it gets cold again, but  never stays cold too long.  I'm your, I'm your neighbor in Minnesota and it's supposed to hit 40 today and 45 tomorrow.  Oh, okay. Yeah. It's, I prefer to stay frozen all winter instead of the thawing and I'm like freezing and muddy mess.
00:51I'm sure it's not good for the cows feet.  They go out on a concrete this time of year. We have them on a concrete cow yard and the ones there in the tie stall barn, they go in and out. They'll go in and out for a little while, but then we put them back in the tie stall. So yeah, they don't see too much mud this time of year. Try to keep them clean and dry as best as we can with  the weather, you know.  Good, good.
01:15My husband watches videos of farmers and dairy farmers and cattle, know, steer  meat, meat farmers on YouTube all the time. And he's watching, he's always watching these shows where the  cows' hooves are all messed up from being out on wet pasture. And I'm like, it's so gross. Why do you have to watch these? I, isn't Nate the hoof guy? I watch his videos. He does, he does pasture or  um, hoof trimming. Yeah. He does hoof trimming.
01:44It heat up pasture  and uh a freestyle barn cows. So it's kind of a mix, but I don't know why it's satisfying. like watching it.  When we let ours out on the pasture, we rotationally graze all of our, all of our heifers. So they're always on fresh grass from probably beginning of May to almost first a week in December, sometimes a second week in November, depending on the weather. And the cows go out in a dry lot that has some.
02:14green on it, but um just because they have a totally different ration, the milk cows do.  We haven't figured out a way yet  to perfect that intakes that they eat out and out if we do rotational grazing. yeah,  no, definitely, we do get them outside quite a bit when the weather is appropriate.  Good.  All right. So since I knew I was going be talking to you,  there is a song that I learned in school, I think.
02:42And it's something about day by day, day by day. Oh dear Lord, three things I pray. And I don't know if you guys have ever heard it, but I had to learn it for a musical chorus thing back in probably sixth grade. So it was a long time ago. And so thank you for sending me into the way back machine by your name. And how did you, how did you get your name? Well, we were trying to think of names for a while.
03:09And I'm like, Oh, what should we do? We had a lot of different like ideas, none of them just felt right. And one morning Nick woke up and he's like, I think, I don't know he said something about taking things day by day or something. Yeah. We're just trying to take it day by day to get to the next day. So then we're like, Hey, day by day dairy.  It just kind of happened. Yeah. It just kind of happened like that.  Awesome.  Um, and also Wisconsin.
03:38As far as I know, last time I looked it up, which was a few years back,  Wisconsin is the or  pretty much the state for milk production in the United States. Is that right? think California passes us in fluid milk production, but I think we're still number one in cheese. ah I believe California, because they have... Yeah, go ahead.  Is that how you guys got the cheesehead moniker?
04:07Yes, yes. Yeah, there's like a cheese store. There's so many cheese stores all over.  Yeah. Both proximity.  Yeah.  Oh, yeah. When my husband and I make road trips to go see my folks in Maine, we go through Wisconsin because we drive and there's a uh Dane DeForge exit and there's a cheese shop there.  And the first time we drove to Maine, he was like, we have to stop there. He grew up not far from there.
04:35Well, he didn't grow up far from there. His family is from there. He grew up in Minnesota, but he used to visit family in Wisconsin.  And he's like, we have to stop there. And I said, why? And he said, because they have the most wonderful Granny Smith wine, Granny Smith Apple wine. He said, and they have chocolate cheese.  And he was raving about this chocolate cheese. And I was like, okay, so is it like fudge? He said, I can't explain it. You just have to try it. And I'm not a fan.
05:05It is the weirdest like fudgy cheese thing ever and  I it smells like fudge but you bite into it and it's really smooth and and soft like cheese and He gave me a piece. I ate it and I looked at him and I said I'm glad that you like it because it is all yours  Yeah, I don't think I've ever tried chocolate cheese
05:30Yeah, it's really weird. I mean, if you love fudge and you love hot chocolate, you're going to love this. But I just, couldn't get past the texture of it. we ship our mouth to a cheese plant too. Yeah, a little one. A small one. Yep. Screes. So our mouth goes to cheese. Is that all it goes to? It doesn't go to butter or anything? Well, I mean, some of the cream gets separated out when they're doing
06:00when they're doing their process to make cheese, but that goes to, that would go to a different creamery. I mean, that's what most cheese plants, and then you, you know, you got your whey products too that come out of some cheese plants when they take out the whey. So I mean, there's a lot of things milk turns into when it gets turned into cheese. Okay. So usually, you know, your whey gets separated out from your milk and your, and your,
06:29and you usually get some cream and that's on a cheese plant what they end up doing with that because they buy the product off of me. But um there's a lot of different things that milk gets turned into, you know, like your protein powder on your,  your, oh, I can't think protein shakes and stuff like that was where a lot of that way ends up. Okay.  And uh do all your creams, your cream factories take that and turn it into, you know, like your whipped cream and stuff like that. And, but
06:57Yeah, no, mainly all of our milk here goes for goes for cheese. There's only really off the top of my head. I think one real local fluid milk plant. And when I say local, it's Appleton would be the Lamers that does liquid milk, drinking milk in the in the area. And when I say in the area, that's an hour and a half away. So there ain't too many plants that do drinking milk around here. OK, cool.
07:25So how did you guys get into this dairy farming? That's a lot. We start way from the beginning. Well, ever since I was a little kid, I grew up on a dairy farm. My dad would have been the...
07:44fifth generation dairy farmer and I'm sixth.  But he milk cows for a while, him and my mom did, and they ended up changing career paths.  Probably when I was about 14, the cows ended up going and we converted it to like  a beef operation and we calved out our calves,  cow calf operation is what they call it. All your animals freshen in and you raise them through the summer months and.
08:13Me and my brother would work with them, cows and the calves in the summer months when they're out on pasture. And then every fall we'd sell the calves and put the cows, you know, back in the barn, take care of them all winter, get them bred and do it all over again. And we did that for a little while and I kind of got some steers and stuff through that, but I really just always felt like I was, if I was gonna farm, I was gonna do it as much as I could, as young as I could. And the only way I could feel like I could really do all.
08:41farm  and get the calf, well was, you know, a milk cow you have 365 days a year and you get milk out of it and a calf where beef cow you only got the calf. And I was a lot more hands on with the dairy industry and I always kind of liked the dairy industry and I always milked for other farmers after my dad got rid of the cows. So, uh, yeah, I just, when I turned about, I think it was 20 years old, I started milking a few cows  and I kind of.
09:10and renting out a barn. And I got one site that I rent out is where the milk cows is at. And then my home farm is where we do the rotational grazing with the dairy heifers and the dry cows and all of our young stock is at the home farm. And all of our, go ahead. So it's in your blood is what you're telling me. It's pretty much. mean, my grandpa spent a lot of time with me ever since I was real little working on the fields, fixing stuff. I mean, he's really the reason I'm doing what I'm doing. So yeah.
09:41Do you still absolutely wholeheartedly love it?  Most days, but you know, you have your good and your bad days, I guess, just with anything. Let's put it this way, I've tried probably, I don't know, how many different careers or how many different jobs, and I just always say, I'm just gonna farm.  So I mean, it's just, I don't know, just something I've always probably do for as long as I can.
10:07Okay. Is the dairy you guys' only job or do either one of you have a jobby job as I call it? So  I also grew up on a dairy farm.  Nick and I met in high school.  So we've been together since then. But once I graduated, then I um ended up working  off the farm  and doing that for a while. And then once we had our kids, we had two kids back to back. They're 11 months apart. So then
10:37We were like, well, they're only young for, they're only at that young stage for, you know, a short period of time.  And so we made the decision that I'll just, you know, raise the kids  at home on the farm. Um, so that's kind of how that came about. Otherwise, um, we did have that income too. Um, and I also have, I also own a reindeer business with my dad, which I started back in high school. So we've been doing that.
11:07on the side.  So busy with that as well, especially during the holiday season. yeah,  I'm sure that you were very busy here a month or so  ago. Baby reindeer are my favorite, favorite baby animal. They are so cute. They are, and they're so tiny when they're born. They're like 12 to 15 pounds. Are they as soft as they look? Yes.
11:35They are very soft.  I'm so jealous, Sarah. I've never been able to pet a baby reindeer before.  have  been able to pet white-tailed deer because we used to go to a place when I was a kid, um Maine Wildlife Sanctuary or something like that. And there were always fawns in the spring that had come in with their moms.  And you could feed the moms and of course the babies would come up with them and you could pet the babies, which was really fun.
12:03If you know anything about white-tailed deer, they are very soft, but it's more like a sleek soft and the baby reindeer look like they're just smushy. Like you just push your fingers into their fur. Yeah. And they're fluffy, very fluffy. Yeah. Yep. Boy, I am so envious that you get to deal with calves and baby reindeer. How lucky are you?  Lots of animals. Yes, absolutely. So I just talked to a young woman.
12:30Uh, Friday, I think it was Friday for an episode for the podcast that came out today.  And she is also a dairy, but it's just her and she only has 15 cows and milk right now. And she only has access to 30 cows right now. So do you guys have a lot more cows than that? Or are you a small dairy as well? We're small. We keep 50 milking. There's usually about,  and then between dry cows and heifers and
13:00If we have a couple of steers or anything else, there's, there's another probably 50 to 60 heads. There's around 110. Well, and then you got your calves. So you're always about 110 head roaming around here someplace between the two sites. And, uh, and, know, I guess, uh, and then we do cash crop land at the other site where we do our rotational grazing and stuff. So there is, you know, we do have other, uh,
13:28I guess just get at it. It's pretty diversified.  I guess there's cash dropping. We sell hay. We do a lot of different other stuff too, I guess.  I'll still farming, but yeah.  I keep hearing that from a lot of people that if you're going to be in agriculture,  you probably are going to need to be diversified because  if something goes wrong in  one section, you have the other section to rely on of your business.  Yes. Yes.
13:59Yup.  Agriculture is one of the most interesting fields to be in, I swear, because there are so many avenues to go down and you don't have to just focus on one. Actually, it's smarter to focus on more than one.  Yeah. And then because you talked about that  one girl, she had a lot smaller herd. But when we say because some people will probably think our  herd is big, but actually like in our area.
14:26It's small. It's very small. There's there's thousands and thousands of cows of dairies around here. I think there's what more cows and people in our county. Yeah. And this side of the Mississippi. It used to be the statistic. The statistic. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. But yeah, no, yeah, it's there and it's you know, they all kind of go hand in hand. The crops kind of go with the cattle because if you're not going to grow a really good crop, you're going to get any.
14:55good milk out of your cows, know, and cattle like eating good quality, healthy plants. it always kind of, everything kind of seems to go together. So yeah, it does seem like multiple different avenues, but it's all kind of neat at the end of the day when you come in the barn and they're full of milk that's all from work you did out in the fields and that you did obviously with the cattle every day. It all kind of bundles up into one thing that goes into one silver.
15:20stainless steel tank that gets picked up every other day. It's just kind neat that way.  Yeah, it all works together in a circle and  that's what agriculture is. mean, we don't have cattle, we don't have goats, we don't have sheep, we don't have any livestock here except chickens. And I'm not sure that chickens count as livestock. I think they're little dinosaurs and  herding dinosaurs is not the easiest thing on the planet.
15:50We do have a 50 foot by 150 foot um farm to market or farm to table garden. And we have the chickens and  the garden scraps feed the chickens. The chickens make eggs, the eggs feed us, the eggs feed our neighbors. And then we continue to have the energy to grow the garden.
16:15So it is just a circle here too. All of everything in agriculture is just one big circle. uh Yep. That's amazing.  It's almost like nature had a plan, huh?  Yeah. It's almost as well, guess seeing you brought up the chickens, uh, this last summer, we tried some chickens out in pasture and it is amazing to see what them chickens will do. We, we moved them around in their, uh, chicken tractor, it's called. Yep.
16:45And it's amazing to see the amount of clovers and other plant vegetation that comes back  out in them pastures, you know, because it was just grass before, like your fescue and your timothy. It's amazing to see the amount of clovers that's out there and the diversity from there from, you know, that chicken manure being applied to that area. It's really neat. yeah. It's almost like magic. I just, love everything about it. And that's why I love this podcast because
17:14You guys know this stuff like the back of your hand, but when you're explaining it to me, I feel like the little spark comes back in your voices about how it all works together. Yep. Yeah. You get to interview all, cause in agriculture there's, a wide range. I mean, more than just dairy farming and beef and you get to talk to a ton of different people. I get to talk to people who buy acreage and turn it into, um, agritourism places. Oh.
17:44Okay.  Which is really fun because people are so inventive. I mean, I talked to a couple months ago, they have a lot of them forested acreage and they put up a cabin so that people can come and spend a night or a couple nights or a week in a cabin in the woods. There's no outhouse, there's no shower, there's no nothing. It's very rustic. But the people who go there love it because they get to just decompress.
18:13They're told what the rules are. Don't leave food out because there are bears around and they will come get your food. And if you're in the way, they will get you.  And I just love that they took something that was not  necessarily growable or harvestable. And they're growing it in a completely different way.  it's a good like people who want to experience that but don't own it or don't have, you know,  access to it. That's a nice thing that they offer to people.
18:42even if it's just a short period of time.  exactly. I mean,  you don't have to buy an acreage and get cows and ducks and chickens. You can like think outside the box and use it for something completely different. If you want to. Yes. Yeah. It's like we are putting in more fruit trees this year because fruit trees do really well on the land that we own.  And we got
19:12apples last year, like more than enough for us to eat and to sell some at the farmers market for the first time since we moved in five years ago. And we always wanted apple trees. Like my husband and I have been together for over 20 years and we used to just sit and dream about what our homestead would look like if we ever got one.  And the first thing out of both of our mouths was apple trees for sure.
19:36Can't tell you how delicious that first apple tasted because we've been waiting a damn long time for them.  I believe it.  So, um do you guys have a specific time that you calve? Is it in the spring because it's warmer or do you end up  with calves in the winter?  Well,  with the dairy and us  being in the milk business, we calve year round.  I mean, there's no... m
20:04Back in the day when it was a cow-calf pair, we always tried to have the calves in the ground, know,  middle to later spring. But with the dairy cows, I mean, we're calving year round, you know, trying to keep five to six animals coming in the barn  between the heifers and stuff a month. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes you only have two or three. It all depends on your breeding and how it goes. But yeah, we try to keep a uh decent  flow of  animals calving monthly.
20:34You have babies all year round? Yep. Oh my God. I'm so jealous. I mean, I know it costs you a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of energy. And I know it's a job, but how sweet is it to have those calves every month? Yeah. There's a lot of them. There's a lot. Well, they add up. They add up. They add up. You don't think there's going to be a lot? Oh, yep. There's quite a few.
21:03And then, sometimes I like little jerseys, but yeah, yeah,  I to know. Yeah, two of them are coming, but the jerseys were kind of something I thought I'd be fading out of. And they kind of came back with a vengeance. I had more in the barn at the other place than I really thought I had coming up. And I thought I was down to about two and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have seven again. So  as most of the herd Holsteins, yeah, most of the herd is Holsteins.
21:29I say this all the time when people bring up Jersey cows, they are my favorite cow. I love their faces.  know. I agree.  it's like a... oh Holsteins are beautiful animals, but Jerseys just have this thing about them. It makes them look like a stuffed animal and I love them. I think the calves,  look like some kids, like I think it was my nephew, they call them a deer the first time they saw...
21:57Jersey calf they're like deer. I'm like, nope. It's not a deer.  It's a calf  Yep, and the other thing that's that's really funny is I for a long time called any bovine a cow and My dad after years of this growing up. He was like just so you know, not all bovines are cows and  I said they're not and he said no he said a male  Not able to reproduce bovine is a steer
22:28He said, a male bovine who is still able to produce is called a bull. He said, and there's a whole bunch of distinctions for the female cows, but they're cows if they're female. And I said, why didn't you tell me before? And he said, because cows are cows. He said, we're not raising them. And I was like, okay, why are you telling me now?  And he said, because you are so curious about everything. He said, I thought I should tell you before you ask.
22:56So  the distinction for  the female bovines, a heifer is a cow that hasn't had babies yet?  am I mistaken?  what's the name for a cow that  has had babies? Is there a different name? No, no, no, no, you're a cow. No, it's a cow. oh then if you really want to get anything under a year, it's called a calf. And then when they're
23:25a year they're called yearlings the heifers are now and then when they're bred a couple months just short bred and then when they're within a month or two don't quote me on that definition they're called springing heifers.  Oh okay. Yep so yeah so yeah I guess there's a uh plethora of terms if we really want to get down to it otherwise it's just calf heifer cow. And then there's steers. Steers and bulls.
23:52Well, the whole point of the podcast is educate the general public on all the stuff they don't know. So I figured I would take the chance to ask experts. Yeah. That's a big misconception. And some people think, a lot of people don't know the difference between beef and dairy either, that there's a difference between the breeds. Yeah. And there is. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, there is. There's a lot of people who don't know that either. Well, a lot of your beef cattle, like what I
24:21when my dad was converted to for a while there, um they're bred with just the idea that they're going to be meat animals and they're going to produce meat and they're going to, and then the,  then the cows are going to grow calves and they're going to nurse on over five months. And then those are going to be either their replacements eventually, or steers where your milk cow is obviously produced to have a calf, produce milk and get bred back and do the cycle over again.
24:52Yup. Okay. So I know you guys are a dairy, but I also know there's no guarantee that all of your cows are going to have female calves. So do you guys sell the male calves off? yeah. Okay. So yeah, that's a loaded question with our breeding. A lot of the dairy industry has gone to, they look at their cow and they're only breeding. I'm just going to throw a random percentage out there. Like the top 10 to 15 % are getting bred with.
25:21Sex semen  so you're getting like sex hosting calves usually on the ground.  They're female  and then you're breeding them bottom half to or the bottom third or whatever um You're breeding them to beef So they're getting crossbred with like a beef animal like we talked about before and that beef animal is then put out to market, you know,  Like an Angus or Simitol there's uh
25:49Usually them are the two main ones, but there's quite a few beef breeds. But yeah, that's usually when that's kind of been the new trend that has been happening. Probably, I mean, 10 years ago, a bunch of old farmers thought it was never going to happen. And now, I mean, it is something that happens quite a bit. And it is really kind of taking the industry over, I'd say, a lot, a lot. You're seeing a lot more cross-bred calves go to market, which is
26:18probably for the best, because now you have a high quality meat animal instead of a Holstein bull calf that, yeah, it's going to still put on meat, but it's not going to be as high quality as a cross animal. um yeah, that's kind of what happens. oh cool.  And then I have another podcast that I've started with a lady that is a rancher  in Nebraska.  And  she was telling me that this past year, 2025,
26:47was a banner year for beef cattle producers. Is the dairy market not keeping pace with that at all? Well, the calf market, you know, guys are having the dairy producers are able to capitalize on this calf market really, really well, because replacements for these beef industry is so tight. that's something that
27:15really, I think is really a good thing for the dairy industry. um But as far as the milk goes,  I say average and I say now it's starting to get a little below average. um Supplies there's enough milk out there by the sounds of it again.  But I mean, that's just with everything in this industry, it goes up and down. We've had some real good years in the past, but it's it's breaks are getting pumped and it's it's it's going to be a couple tight.
27:43tight years coming up ahead for milk, I would say. Please don't stop doing it because I love milk. I just drank a whole glass of whole milk with cookie, with ginger snaps that my husband decided to make this morning for breakfast. Do not stop, please. Yeah. Yeah. We'll be here too. I mean, when I started, I went through COVID when that happened. I remember getting $10 a hundredweight and way back when I first started it was $13 a hundredweight.
28:13And just to put that in perspective, a couple of years ago, I'd say last year, I think we hit 24 in July. It always goes up a little bit in summer. But like right now, if you look on the board for CMEA, it's gonna be down in January here to 1475. And our costs have not gone down any. And you're talking about being in margins or...
28:41The price of milk being within a dollar of a $13 a  hundredweight that 10 years or eight years ago was tough floating for a lot of producers. So, I mean, just put that in perspective for you. mean, that's kind of the way the industry goes every now and again. Granted,  you know, through time, we tend to get more milk and, you know, more diversifying, like with the beef cattle and everything else. But  that just seems to kind of be the trend with that milk price.
29:10Yeah, and the average consumer has no idea what it takes to raise dairy cows. They have no clue, the heart and the soul, number one, how much it costs to feed those critters,  not to mention any care that they need, like veterinary care. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.  And  yeah, it's  like I said,  I think that, you know, I'm glad I started when I did.
29:39Cause everyone when I started thought I was nuts. You remember you had a hard time finding?  Wasn't the plants, certain plants? Yeah, was a hard time. It was hard to get into plants. know it's a lot of plants weren't taking, but I mean,  it's, how do I word it? I'm glad I started when I did, cause you just eventually got to hop on the bandwagon and you know, it's gonna, it's a roller coaster just going up and down no matter what,  no matter where you jump in on it. So when I started,
30:08I was able to buy cows fairly reasonable. I'd buy cows from farmers that, you know, their barns are full and it was probably the bottom end of the herd, but I still took it home.  I, you know, and  with that beef market starting, I was able to breed some of them to beef and maybe kind of gave me time to breed my better ones to sex semen, which that helped a lot to grow the herd.  Um, cause yeah, I mean, when I think about what I started with, I want to have now for cows.
30:35and how I was able to do it in such a short time. And I think about how like my grandfather and my dad farmed and they always said it takes a lifetime to get a herd of cows. ah I feel like I'm my cows now. I know I don't have the best of the best by any means the word, but  I feel like compared to when my dad and my grandpa's, you know, were done, I feel like I'm very competitive with what they had, you know, I feel and granted, you know, there's a lot of time lapse there, but
31:05It took eight years instead of a lifetime. Just the genetics in these animals and the genomics is just,  it's outstanding what  has taken place in eight years that I've been doing it hard where I've been in the bar, melting cows. is just, it just floors me  how we were able to produce these animals now and for health traits and everything. It's amazing. Yes. It's amazing how when nature and science come together for good, actual good things happen.
31:35Yep.  So for funsies, have a parting question.  Do you have a favorite milk cow out of your herd? The one that melts the most.  I like all lineback cows. I know Nick is, that's a,  we don't have a lot of them, but I think they're so cute. No, I got an old cow that she was going with me.  She was a calf when I started.
32:04So she was born in that first batch, out of that first group of heifers I had when I started. So she's, she's what? I've been milking for probably eight, eight years. She's nine. She's no, well, she's eight years old. So she's on her sixth lactation. I don't know. I always really liked that cow. She never, never gives me no trouble. She's always there. Because she was there from the beginning. Yeah. Was she a calf when you got her or was she a cow? She cowed, her mom calved on the farm.
32:33Okay. So she was a calf that I raised. One of the first ones. Uh know, when I started milking, milking cows. so eight years ago she was born, you know, so yeah. Don't hear. Yeah. 24 months later she had her first calf. So yeah, you got a couple of calves in the barn, but yeah, she's hopefully we get her bread and she can have one more at least. And I lied. That wasn't my last question. Cause I meant to ask you this earlier. Sorry about that.
33:01I don't know what the laws are in Wisconsin for raw milk. So what are the laws in Wisconsin for raw, not pasteurized milk?
33:12My understanding, it's illegal. it? Yeah. You can't. Yeah. You can't. In Wisconsin, at least. I know I've heard some states, they're way more lenient. I think Minnesota just passed a lot. Is that correct? I feel like it wasn't Minnesota. Somebody just joined the raw milk. There was some legislature, legislature, the legislation that just went through. And there's a handful of states that have passed it. But.
33:41think it might come to Wisconsin. Um, I've been doing a little research on it and I think, you know, there's a lot more to that than people really  seem to look into. Like your water gets tested and, um, a lot of other things that need to be done. But I think it's, could be a real good opportunity for some smaller producers down the road. yeah. Um, yeah, I hope something happens with it. really do. Yeah. Cause we did look into it, but yeah, the state of Wisconsin is harder.
34:10for that, the raw milk.  Does Wisconsin have the thing where you can sell raw milk  only for pet consumption?  That I do not know. I'm not sure on because we were looking at for farmers to sell. To sell to people. Yeah, I don't know. yeah, I kind of get scared when we start talking food and drug administration regulations, I guess.
34:35You know, I just try to ask anyone who's in the industry because it is different in almost every state. Yeah. There is a handful of states. I know that just passed it because I remember reading some article, but,  um, feel like there's a lot more of a demand for it too. Now for people who want that as well, but it's just not as easy to get it because of those regulations. Yeah. The law here in Minnesota is that the farmers can sell raw milk out of their tanks.
35:04as long as the person buying it  comes to the farm where the cow lives and where the cow was milked and where the tank is. And I'm not positive, but I  think I could be wrong.  I feel like the law is that the  consumer has to bring their own container,  but I could be wrong. Like I said, I did not  look in it that deep. mean,  it is something that I think  will eventually
35:34just like everything will kind of pass, especially with all this stuff going on in West Chase of Nile with regenerative agriculture and everything else. think we're, it's an incredible time to really be doing this. There's gonna be a lot of changes in the next 10 years, I think, on these smaller farms, probably towards this. So I think it's gonna be interesting to see.
35:56Yeah, I'm all for it because I absolutely love love raw milk, but I can't afford it right now in Minnesota. It costs too much and I want to be able to pay it, but I just can't. Yeah. How much is it in there over there? The last I looked, it was over $10. I want to say for a half gallon, but it could have been a gallon. don't remember. No, I, yeah, I, there was a podcast I listened to about it. Shera pointed me towards it.
36:26Yeah. And there was a guy, a gentleman owned in California who started it and explained it. yeah, it is, it, could really do a lot of good for the industry if something like that would come ahead. And it just, to the testing that will be involved in it. Once they figure that out, and I think a couple more states do it and they have it for a while. I think that it's going to be an easier thing to get past probably in states like Wisconsin. But yeah.
36:56Yeah, the best thing about raw milk is that you can make cheese from it. If you try to make cheese with pasteurized whole milk from the store,  it doesn't usually turn out the way you want it to.  No,  no.  And the thing is with, uh you know, with raw milk, it separates. So I know a lot of people like to use that cream for many different things  that you can just do at home with.
37:22Yeah,  the cream from the unpasteurized milk is fabulous in coffee. It makes it into this decadent dessert drink, not just coffee. Yep, I believe it.  So yeah, I will be a happy girl when I can go to the regular grocery store and buy unpasteurized milk and know that it's fine. That'll be a great day. Maybe I will live long enough to see it. We'll see what happens.  All right, guys, this has been
37:51Fabulous. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Where can people find you? We're on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, day by day dairy.  Fantastic. As always, you can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  If you want to support the podcast, you can go to atinyhomestead.com slash support  and just started a new
38:16podcast with the lady I was talking about and that podcast is Grit and Grace in the Heartland Women in Agriculture. uh You guys, I know you're busy. Thank you  so much for your time. I really appreciate it. No, of course. Thanks for inviting us. All right. Thank you. You have a great day. You too.