A Farm Wife

Today I'm talking with Diane at A Farm Wife.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org.

00:25
Today I'm talking with Diane at A Farm Wife. Good afternoon, Diane. How are you? I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm good. Are you in Michigan? You bet. Are you guys getting the wildfire smoke like we are in Minnesota? Yeah, it's kind of hazy. It's not really bad, but yeah, it looks a little bit weird. Yeah, it's raining here. So the air is already wet. And if I look across the cornfield that borders our property, it looks like it's foggy, but it's not fog, it's smoke.

00:55
Well, we actually have sun trying to peek through and it's very windy but it's getting it's like an 80 something right now, which is great for drying out our hay. I bet it is. We don't have any hay and I'm so glad it's raining right now because we've had like a week or so of beautiful dry weather and that's great because this time last year it was raining every day here, but

01:23
But it hasn't been and we've got a really good garden started this year. Like last year was a miserable fail for gardening season. So  we've got everything crossed that it just keeps doing this week of really nice weather and then a day or two of a good rain and then another week of nice weather. Everything crossed. Us farmers are never satisfied with the weather.  Oh, I know. And I feel so bad about complaining about it, but

01:49
If you could have seen my husband's disappointment last year,  May into mid-June, because all it did was rain. We  know  what that's like. He was so good. Like it's just a farm to market garden,  or farm to table, whatever you want to call it. But it's his, it's his joy. It's how he unwinds in these stresses. Yeah. It doesn't matter how big or how small you are, the weather affects what's happening.

02:16
Yeah, it was just rough and he was so good. He  never blew up about it.  He just had faith that this year was going to be better. And I said to him the other day, said,  that faith is paying off. It's much better this year. He just laughed. Yeah, that's kind of our mantra as farmers. It'll be better next year or next harvest or next planting. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, that's all you have to hang on to. There's nothing you can do about what's going on in the atmosphere. So.

02:45
You just pray or send up smoke signals or just open up your hands and say that I will be done and hopefully everything turns out Okay, so yeah,  all right So I have been looking forward to talking with you for a week since I well not week We only talked a day or two ago, but since I found out about you I have been very excited to talk with you because you are not a 25 year old  lady Just getting started in this you have lived a very full very

03:14
I think lovely, wonderful life so far. Yes, very blessed, but I am not in my 20s. That is for sure. Yeah, so tell me about yourself and what you do. Well, just to back up a little bit, I was raised on the east side of Michigan. My dad was a tool and die maker and had a normal, what I thought was a normal life. Dad, home at 430, weekends home, went summer vacations and I

03:44
graduated in June, turned 18 in July, got married in September and moved across the state onto a farm and into a unknown territory. My husband would leave at five in the morning, come home at 10. It was crazy. It was so different that I couldn't even begin to tell you how different it is. And you learn how to do a lot of things that you didn't know you could do because there was nobody else around to do them but you. So I was,

04:13
Very fortunate to land on a beautiful farm here in West Michigan, a dairy farm. We had four boys. And to tell you the truth, the farm was my enemy for quite a while because it took my husband away and it took away what I thought was supposed to be family time and how family was supposed to look. And, um, he would be home on Sundays, um, after church for a little bit in the afternoon, because on Sundays we just did, uh, feeding.

04:41
and milking and everything else waited because it was Sunday, so that was the only time we had together. So it was very, very difficult  trying to acclimate to  a life that I never saw coming. But once the kids got a little bit older, you know, and they were on the farm and I was able to join in, then the farm became my passion. And  I can't say enough about  all the goodness that comes from being on a farm.

05:11
Are you and your husband still together? Yeah. Congratulations, because that is a testament to how committed you were to making it work. Oh yeah. It was, I said I do, so I did. Uh huh. Yup. So what do you do now? Oh my goodness. We have been away from the farm now for about two years. I say away. We're not.

05:36
working. We're still right across the road from the farm. So we see everything going on. Our second son and his family is running the farm now.  And  my husband is still kind of trying to find out where he's supposed to land.  I, on the other hand, am busy. Oh my goodness, I cook, I sew, I can, I bake,  I  walk my dog, I spend time with my grandkids. I don't know, I'm always busy doing something. I'm not a sitter.

06:03
I like to be doing things. write, I blog.  I'm still trying to find a place. I was revamping or kind of looking at my  website. And I've been trying to figure out how to go from being a proponent of farming and  sharing all the good stuff about farming, which I still will do.

06:26
but I'm not in it daily and I don't see things that I used to see and transition into this part of life and what it's like. And I'm not sure how or what that's gonna look like yet. It's always a work in progress. It'll hit you when you least expect it, Diane, I promise you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm 55 and the reason the podcast exists is because my youngest was gonna be moving out.

06:55
and he's the youngest of four.  And  I needed a project because I refused to go through empty nest syndrome without a project. That's why the podcast exists.  Nice. And  he ended up moving back like a couple months later and the podcast still exists. So that tells you how much I love doing it.  I know my kids have told me you need to have a YouTube channel and do your baking and cooking. And I have, um,

07:24
They all come home for Sunday dinner. Well, most of them come home for Sunday dinner after church. And I just love cooking for my family. And I used to have a cookie shop and I sold cookies at Farmers Market years and years ago.  they I've done some cooking classes in my house and stuff like that. And I just tell them that just seems like way too much work to try to do that. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot of stuff to do.  I have my cottage food producer

07:53
registration for Minnesota. And I keep like dreaming about making dozens and dozens of cookies and breads and stuff. And I wake up in the morning and I'm like, don't know why I keep dreaming about this. I don't have time. I'm already sucked into finding people to interview for the podcast and then getting them out. I don't have time to make dozens of cookies. And the first farmers market is this coming Saturday.

08:21
And I keep toying with leaving Thursday open. think Thursday is the day I don't have any interviews scheduled and making some cookies just to make myself stop dreaming about it and get them in little bags and labeled and send them with my husband to the farmer's market.  Cause maybe that will stop the recurring dream about chocolate chip cookies. Cause it's kind of driving me insane. Does your market  allow cottage law? Yes.

08:45
Our market does not. used to have a commercial kitchen  when I was doing the farmer's market before, but now that I'm just doing cottage law, they don't allow it. that's totally out of the question, which is fine. Cause have other things to do,  it's, the farmer's market is a great place to be. It's one of the best places to be a part of. And I sell cookies and therefore.

09:07
I don't know how many years I did that and I would trade with other vendors trade for you know vegetables fresh fruits plants it was a lot of fun it was great community.  Yeah we have friends that make  bagels and sourdough bread  and so my husband will will trade them things that we make for for baked goods and  I'm like hon if you want cookies or if you want bagels or you want bread we can make it and he's like

09:33
You know as well as I do that other people's baked goods taste better than ours. I'm like, okay, fine. Yes.  You always have a place to shine. Yeah, exactly. And, and they don't necessarily want to make soap or lip balms or candles. And those are things that we make and sell at the farmer's market too.  So we ended up trading things back and forth and barter is an excellent system. Yeah.

10:02
So,  I took a look at your blog and I read the post about your walk and your wonderings.  You are a really good writer.  Thank you.  I grinned. I giggled. I was like,  this is really good. And  is your dog a German Shepherd? Yes, Max. He's beautiful. Yes, he is. He's quite princely and he knows it. Yeah,  I like to...

10:30
If I could just download my thoughts,  there'd be a whole lot more writing that would have been recorded.  it's, you know, I'm walking and I'm thinking, and then I get home and then something distracts me. And then I go to sit down to write and then,  what was it I was thinking about? And, you know, it's kind of one of those things, but I do enjoy walking and I do a lot of thinking when I walk and mowing the lawn. That's my other muse spot.  mom mows their lawn on their, their,

10:59
14 acre plot and she's not mowing 14 acres but they have a pretty big backyard and she mows the backyard on a riding mower. Yep. She loves it and she's 78 years old and she's out there mowing the lawn. Yep. I love it. I think it's so great. I will call her and she'll be like, it's perfect weather this morning to go out and mow the lawn so I can only talk for five minutes and I'm like, that's fine. And she's just so excited to go out and do it.

11:27
I think it started when my kids were littler, when I would mow the lawn. It would be one thing that I could accomplish that looked like it was done for more than like five minutes. Because when you've got kids and you're trying to clean your house or cook food or whatever, it only looks good or done for very few minutes. And then  they come in and either devour the food you've cooked or mess up what you've cleaned. But when you were mowing the lawn, you could see where you were going and you could see what was done. And it stayed that way for a little bit.

11:55
Oh ma'am, I can relate.  The only time I feel like our house is ever actually clean these days is if we're having company.  And it's actually clean for a couple hours while they're here and then it's right back to stuff everywhere. I'm like, how does this happen? Yeah, I clean for the very first time somebody comes after that. They don't get a clean house. They get whatever it is and that's what they get.

12:21
Yeah, I'm not at that point. I  can't handle people walking in and seeing stuff everywhere.  Our door is always open and we do get people who will stop by. I have a new front porch, at least new to me in the last couple years, and I spend a lot of time out there. I read,  I sew,  I do puzzles, I do word puzzles.  do anything I can drag out on the porch with me to do. do. So a lot of people go by and every once in somebody will just...

12:49
pull off and stop in and come in for a visit and I actually love it. I think it's great. That's really sweet. What a beautiful way to spend some time. You were saying that your German Shepherd is princely. Yes. I'm always saying that our dog is way too fancy a dog for us. She's a mini Australian Shepherd. Oh, a little wild type? No, no. She's really calm. I swear she has the personality of a

13:18
seven-year-old lab. She's very calm in the house.  I,  my sons, son and daughter-in-law, they have two and they are just  runners. They are so fast and they are just all over the place. I don't, I guess they do have their calm moments, but I always think of them as being like the herding dog. I mean, you can't walk across the yard without them trying to direct you where you want to go. Oh yeah. When we're outside, she definitely is walking behind us and she does the diagonal walk behind your legs.

13:47
And she's fast. She's really fast. She has a frisbee and we throw the frisbee for her and you don't even see her feet hit the ground when she's running. Yeah. Yeah. But  she's, she's a perfect example of a black tri Australian shepherd. So she's black and white and has the golden, golden, um,  beauty marks above her eyes and on her legs.  And she's fancy. She's a very fancy looking dog.  And  there are times where I just look at her and think,  man,

14:17
We got way too beautiful a dog for our not fancy life. And I say it out loud. Yeah. And my husband laughs. He's like, she's such a goober. She's not fancy. I'm like, okay, fine. I think she's fancy.  So I understand your Prince Lee  remark about your German Shepherd. He's, I'll say, he's more like a cat because he allows you to pet him and he allows you to spend time with them. And then when he's done, he just kind of...

14:45
walks away and says, okay, that's enough. I have no idea what that's like. Maggie is a pocket dog. She is everywhere we are as often as she can be. Nice. Yeah. And she's only about 36 pounds. So it's not too bad if she jumps in my lap. Yeah. Max is, I had, I took him to the vet just this week and he's 105 right now. So he's not jumping on anybody's lap right now. That is a big boy. Yep, he is, but he's, he's pretty cool dude. Nice.

15:16
Okay, so I have a question about your blog as I was looking at it.  the blog a hobby? Is it something that you do just to get your thoughts out and share them with the world and maybe teach people a little bit?  what is what's the purpose?  It started out that way. It started out.  I remember when I first started decided to do this.  There used to be a commercial on TV. This is really going to date me.

15:44
about these two bigger guys with coveralls on just doofus looking guys went charging through the door acting like a farmer and it had something to do with green giant or something like that.  And it's like, I was to the point where I was so sick and tired  of TV media, whatever you want to call it portraying farmers as dumb buffoons.  To be a farmer  nowadays  takes

16:14
a little bit of everything to become a successful farmer. You have to be an accountant, you have to be a mechanic, you have to be a veterinarian, you have to be a crops person, at least for a dairy farm  like we are. You have to know how to grow your crops, you have to know how to prevent pests, you have to know how to harvest your crops, how to take care of your animals, how to  get the best quality milk and have the best quality cows to take good care of them.

16:41
And then along came all of the animal activists that would say that a dairy farm kills their calves because they only want the calves so they can get milk.  So much baloney, so many  lies that were being told that it just was very, very frustrating.  And the fact that people in general, and still I believe this is true, do not appreciate the amount of work that goes into food.

17:08
It seems to be that most of the people that who are listening to you are somewhat aware of growing crops. You know,  they're more of like you said, table farm to table type people.  We are more of a conventional farm. We  milk 1100 cows on our dairy and,  um,  but, people just don't get  the  blood, sweat and tears that go into it. instance,

17:35
We can go out and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on seed and plant alfalfa in our fields that we have plowed and disked and gotten ready only to have rain come and wash it all out in the road and have to redo it again or not have rain and have it totally dry up and that that crop is lost. And people don't  understand.

18:02
For instance, we've had people say, why do you have to, excuse me, why do you have to be out in the fields after 11 o'clock at night? Our kids are trying to sleep. We don't have that personally, but I've heard it before because our neighbors aren't that close. But when you've got a hundred acres of hay on the ground that needs to be chopped and put in the silo and you got rain coming, you have to do it. You have to get it done. You can't wait another day. You can't stop at five o'clock and take care of it.

18:32
an expiration date on everything with farming.  And the fact that  the activists  would say that we are mistreating our cows or not treating them kindly. Well, that made absolutely no sense at all. If I am not doing the very best for my animals, how do I expect to get good quality product that we're selling that is our business? So there's just a lot of things that went into it that got very frustrating.  And I thought, well, I'm just going to start that.

19:01
And then,  um, through the course of selling cookies at the farmer's market,  I ended up  coming in contact with  a local, the local radio DJ guy there. And he started having me on air and I ended up being on,  um, the local  news  station in Holland, probably for 15 years under, um, I had a program called a farm.

19:28
life with a farmwife and then random ramblings of a farmwife  and had 10 minutes a week and could bring different things on and talk about different things, the value of milk, all the nutrients in milk, and about all the different things that was in the news and all of the things that were being misrepresented. So that's kind how it all started.  And it's just kind of grown with where we were or where I am  in the whole farm thing. And that's kind of where I am right now.

19:56
kind of done with that and I'm on another stage or another area and I'm trying to figure out which direction to go with it. love it. I love that you basically stumbled into being on TV. That's fantastic. Radio. Radio. Sorry.  Yes. And you have a great voice for it. So.  Well, thank you. My kids probably don't think so, but thank you.  None of our kids love our voices. They only love our voices when we're, when they're babies. Yeah.

20:25
My son said to me the other day, said, you don't sing as much as you used to. I said, well, I don't listen to music as much as I used to because in the old house that we lived in four and a half years ago, it was a little small house. Like downstairs was all of 400 square feet and music carried through the house. If I put it on in the bedroom, I could hear it fine in the kitchen. Here it's a bigger space and I don't have a really good place to put speakers and things. So I don't play music all the time.

20:54
He said, you should sing more. said, you were happier when you sang. And I'm like, uh-huh, I know I'll get on it. So  my plan tomorrow is to clean off my kitchen table now that all the seedlings are finally not on it and put my speakers on it and bring my laptop over and set it up and have music on again. Cause he's right. need to, I need to do that again.  Um, so I have a question. You, you were a dairy farm or you are a dairy farm. Yep. Okay.

21:24
Somebody was saying that bottle calves are really freaking expensive right now. Why? What is going on there? Because you used to be able to get a bottle calf for $100 and that is not the case anymore. Well, for us, when we breed our animals, you have to have a cow that has a calf in order to have milk. we have been, personally, we've

21:52
breed a lot of our cows now to Angus because a black calf is much more expensive than a whole stinking calf or probably even,  you know,  any other breed because it's beef. And I, this is just my personal opinion. I don't know for sure, but with the whole COVID thing and everything  with,  um, people not trusting the supply food supply chain, they're wanting to do it on their own.

22:19
And so there more and more people, I believe, that are trying to raise their own food, which would include their beef.  And so that has driven the prices of beef up. That's what I think is happening.  And  that makes sense to me because I do know there's a lot more people who are trying to do things on their own, which I think is great. And if you don't, aren't able to raise your own beef, find a local beef farmer. I  think for the most part, our food supply is fairly safe.

22:49
I'm just  wish there, you know, there's been a lot of people have been trying to get  labeling better for us. And there's a lot of things that we aren't finding on our labels as far as where this meat actually came from. It'll say packaged in the U S but we don't know where it came from. So  I  recommend getting your, your beef, you know, from a local farmer if you can, we get it, son raises beef. So I get it from him.

23:19
And I know we've got a couple of local beef places around here that that's been pretty busy, but I'm guessing that's why. Okay.  I was wondering if it was because  the cost of feed has gone up so much. Well, if you're selling a bottle calf, you're not feeding that calf at all. So that doesn't go into the equation of you getting that amount of money for it. if you're going to buy a bottle calf, what are you going to do with it? Are you raising it to

23:49
start a dairy farm, are you raising it for beef?  And the amount of feed that you're putting into it is going to come out in the end when you harvest that animal one way the other.  Right. Yeah. Okay, cool. I was just wondering, and since you raised cows,  thought maybe you'd have least some idea, some, some. That's,  that's my uneducated guess.  Okay. I'm going to have to  catch up with a friend of mine because they raised cattle in

24:14
Nebraska, I'm gonna have to send her a message and be like, so why are bottle caps so expensive right now? Since I know you'll know the answer and she will, I'll find out. Yeah, and if she's a beef farmer, then I'm guessing it's gonna be connected to that. Yeah, she's fantastic. I freaking love talking to her. She's Clear Creek Ranch Mom on Facebook. Okay, yeah. I know when you talk to a beef farmer and you talk to a dairy farmer,

24:42
Totally, they think, well, a cow is a cow is a cow, but it's not. There's nothing the same between beef farming and dairy farming. Oh yeah.  Totally different. Well, totally different objective. Yes, and they're totally different animals. For instance,  when our  cows have their calves, we're right there  and  we take care of them immediately.  Beef farmers, their critters are out in the field and they drop their calves and

25:10
When they go out to try to tag their calves, the mama cow can be a little protective where our cows are so used to us being around them and with them all the time that there's really no problem. Just the difference  in  the way they are taken care of and raised.  One is not better than the other. It's just the different business. Yeah, I feel like the dairy cow mamas  are like, come see this beautiful thing I brought into the world. And the beef cow mamas are like, get the hell away from my kid.

25:40
That's pretty much the way it is. And that was another thing that these activists would say that we would take calves away from our cows and the moms would just cry and cry and cry and cry. Well, that's never ever happened. We do take our calves away  after  they're born because we treat them and we bottle feed them to make sure they get the right amount of colostrum, which we take from the mother.  And we don't want other cows stepping on them.

26:08
And so there's a reason why we do that and that's for the calf not to harm the mother and to say that the mother is standing there crying her eyes out. No, that doesn't happen.  And this is why I invite people like you on my podcast  so that you guys can tell the real story of what you do, how you do it and why you do it. Because  maybe, maybe with any luck.

26:34
My podcast will educate enough people that the activists will have to step back and go, okay, maybe I need to go actually see what happens on a farm. Yeah. Yeah. That the thing is, is you don't know what you don't know until you know. Right. And most people don't want to take the time to figure that out. They, um, they're so passionate about what they think is true and what is right that they, they won't look at it through any other lens.  Yeah.

27:03
That's, um, it's no fun.  I, I love a good debate. I love a good discussion. I don't love having a conversation with someone whose heels are so sunk in that they can't even begin to hear what my opinion is.  Right. They want to be right over knowing the truth. Yeah. And it's, it's fine. I mean, people can be who they are. I just don't necessarily want people who don't want to learn in my life. Right.

27:33
And we've all got room to learn. Yeah. I'm doing my damnedest, Diane, to get the word out about what you guys do, how you do it, why you do it,  what you love about it,  and that it's not always easy, but it's good work. Yeah. There's nothing more rewarding than  having a newborn calf and taking care of a calf  or the smell of dirt in the spring or watching that corn that  you think about planting corn, you take a seed.

28:02
You shove it down on the ground, you bury it, it gets no light, you hope it rains, and it's got to fight its way up through the soil to sprout. And then that little one kernel will turn into hundreds of kernels of corn to feed your cows. It's just, there's miracle after miracle after miracle on the farm. And I think the fact that farmers get a chance to see how God works gives them the ability to continue when it's really, really, really hard sometimes. Yeah.

28:32
Absolutely.  We have a cornfield that surrounds our property and we've met the owner.  every year, well, the last two years is the third year running, they have been growing corn.  It was alfalfa.  And  I have found myself like feeling some weird kind of ownership regarding the corn coming up. They  seeded three weeks ago now, I think.

29:00
And the corn plants  are probably five inches tall, six inches tall.  And the first year I was like, fricking corn, because I have allergies to the pollen. So basically mid July to mid August, I'm sneezing my head off from it, but that's okay. I'm getting used to it.  But this year they put in the seeds and I was like, oh, please let the weather be good this year. Please just let it be good. And this isn't even my corn.

29:29
Diane, this is basically our neighbor's corn. And I was watching it just kind of misty rain this morning out there. was like, I bet those corn babies love that. And I'm like, why do I even care? It's not my corn. Well,  it's good that you do. That's part of the problem that we have here. These people will...

29:48
move out into the country because they see these big old fields and they think, how wonderful, it's beautiful. And then when we go out there and we spread manure on the fields, then they complain because it stinks. But they don't realize those beautiful fields is food for our cows and the manure is a fertilizer. So,  you know, you have these visions of how things are supposed to be, but at least you're understanding and you're appreciating what it takes. And that's a good thing.  Yeah, the first year they grew it.

30:18
Part of the way they plant is they kind of round the corner of our property. So there's actually corn growing on a few feet of our property. And I walked out and I said, Kyle, I said, do you think that they would mind if I grabbed an ear of corn that's actually on our property? He said, do you want to eat it? I said, no, I want to look at it. I want to husk it. I want to see what it looks like, because this is field corn. It's not sweet corn. And he was like, OK.

30:45
He said, don't care. And I did. I pulled an ear off when I thought it was ready and I, I husted it and I looked at it. said, why does it have dents in it? And he said, cause it's dent corn.  I said, I don't know what dent corn is. I didn't grow up around anyone who grew corn. Explain this to me.  He said, it's field corn. He said, it's for feeding animals. He said, it's, it's not like sweet corn. And he said, he said, go Google it. He said, I can't explain this to you in a way that you will understand it. He says, I'm not going to explain it right.

31:15
So I looked at dent corn versus sweet corn. I learned a whole lot of stuff that probably doesn't really matter to me personally, but I was like,  that's interesting.  Even the raccoons prefer sweet corn over field corn. We have acres and acres and acres of corn behind us. And then my son plants a few rows of sweet corn for us  and the raccoons will ignore the field corn and strip our sweet corn. Well, yeah, cause sweet corn is really yummy.  Very much so.

31:43
You were talking about the manure being stinky.  I would  rather smell manure spread on a field than the gross slurry  that Minnesota has adopted. Yeah. Comma manure is much better than I believe than chicken or pig.  But it's whatever you get used to, I guess. But you know, that's one of the best fertilizers there is. Farmers have been

32:12
doing this kind of stuff before it got popular in the mainstream, that's for sure.  Yeah, they're doing something now and it just is the stinkiest fertilizer. I'm assuming it's some kind of cow manure mixed with other stuff and it's like a liquid. we  have  slurry stores where we pump the manure in. In fact, we have to have that because in the wintertime we can't spread manure so it gets stored.

32:40
And when that gets stirred up, it can be pretty pungent.  And it's a little bit different than spreading freshman new around the field. So yeah, it can get pretty stinky. That's just  the way it is. Yeah, the stuff that they are using around us, I don't think it's just what you're talking about. I think they have added stuff to it because it's got this  really chemically smell.  Oh, yeah, I don't know. I don't have any idea. Ours is straight.

33:10
poop. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either. But oh, the first time I smelled it, wasn't they don't I don't think they use it on the field around us. We were driving down a road nearby.  And they were doing it. And I was just like, I can't freaking breathe. I mean, the windows on the SUV were rolled up and I still was like, Oh, my God. Yeah.

33:31
So I don't know what it is. I am all good with actual calminor. That's fine. I  grew up around people who used it. My dad would get a load for the garden in Maine when we lived there. And it actually was a normal smell for me in the fall and in the spring.  And then you were talking about people complaining about the people doing stuff in the fields after dark.  The first...

34:00
The first year we were here in the spring,  they were doing stuff in the fields after dark.  And I was like, huh,  I wonder if that's going to keep me awake. And I couldn't really hear it, but the lights were coming in through the  curtains. And I just turned over the other way and went to sleep. was fine. And now if I hear them working out there with the combine when they're harvesting the corn,  it's comforting. It's like, oh, all is right with the world. They're doing their jobs. Everything is good.

34:30
Yeah, yeah. It's all what you get used to.  Yeah, I kind of really love it.  I didn't know if I would, but I do.  So I think I might be a farm girl at heart. I don't know. Might be. don't think everybody should be. I think that we need all kinds of different people doing all kinds of different things because  variety is the spice of life. And all different kinds of farms. There's not one best way to farm. I don't believe there's.

34:59
all kinds of farms that should be  respected.  Yes, I think that if you are doing good work and you are kind and respectful of other people, that's all that is asked of you. think that's perfect. Yep.  All right, Diane, where can people find you?  Afarmwife.com  and I'm on Facebook, A Farm Wife. I think I do have an Instagram, but I don't do that very much.

35:29
Like I said, I'm tinkering around with trying to get a little bit more actively posting on the blog and I post on Facebook frequently, but the blog is kind of  been not as active as what it was before, but I  put my recipes and things out there too sometimes. So either one of those, a farm wife, there's several farm wife kind of things, but mine is a farm wife. Okay. Awesome.

35:58
All right, Diana, try to keep these to half an hour and we are definitely there. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. This has been really enjoyable. I'm glad you did. Keep up the good work. People need to hear about all the different ways and things that people are  creating food and involved in taking care of Earth. Yes, because it's the only one we have. Yep.

36:26
All right, as usual, you can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Diane, I hope you have a lovely evening. You too, thank you. Yep, thanks, bye. Bye.