Grounded In Maine

Today I'm talking with Amy at Grounded In Maine. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Amy Fagan from Grounded in Maine. How are you, Amy? Again. I'm good. Good. Amy and I talked months ago. I think it was June.

00:29
I think. I don't remember. And we recorded an episode and it was released and it was great. But Amy is no longer grounded in Maine. She has uprooted herself to Virginia. So I wanted to have her back and talk about how that's all going. So tell me about what's changed. What hasn't changed? Yes.

00:50
No, I will always be grounded in Maine. I spent my first 49 years in Maine, so I will always be grounded in Maine, but I no longer live there. I got divorced in July. I moved to Virginia in August because Maine is way too expensive for a single income. And so I just relocated. And you moved to some land as well as a house on it. Is that right? It's not a lot of land. I'm on a little more than an acre,

01:20
It's all me. It's plenty. You can do a lot with an acre honey. Yeah well I mean it's weird because the backyard is this super steep downslope. That's where the chickens are and I need to fix that up but so everything is gonna be in the front yard. All the gardening is gonna be on the front yard and people are gonna hate me here because they are very they love their lawns.

01:49
are very meticulous about their lawns and I am not going to be mowing my lawn. I am growing a food forest. Maybe they'll be inspired. Maybe they will. I hope so. He'll be a trendsetter. I am going to be a trendsetter and I'm getting more chicken. So I will be selling my eggs to my neighbors and, um, and if I have a really great, if I have really great crops, I will be feeding them too. So meh.

02:17
Nice. Take that about my scruffy lawn. Well, yeah. And you can't eat grass. I say this all the time. You cannot eat grass. Absolutely. Doesn't taste good. It makes it smells good. Doesn't taste good. Yeah. Yeah. It makes me insane when people are like, but I want a nice green lawn. And I'm like, you can have a nice green lawn. You could be growing chamomile and it would smell amazing when you step on it.

02:46
But no, it's grass. Or mint or creeping thyme or anything. But yeah. Even Creeping Charlie smells good and it's a low ground cover and people hate the Creeping Charlie, but it's really pretty and it smells good. I don't know Creeping Charlie. I'll have to look that up. But yeah, I mean, I've had three people in the first month offered to mow my lawn. I mean, not for free, but. Well.

03:16
One of them did for free. But I said, you know, I don't plan to do this ongoing. So I'm sure if you want to know it now, but it's not gonna last. But the man that lives across the street is super, super sweet. He's a retired policeman, which was, I knew that before I moved here and I was psyched about that. I'm like, so he's gonna look out for me. And he is, but he's also 75. He just lost his wife this year.

03:44
He was in the hospital earlier. He can't really get around well, but he can get on his mower. Well, that works. My first time meeting him, he had come over and was mowing my lawn. I was like, oh my gosh, what? Wait, no, I was gonna have someone else mow my lawn. And he was like, I just didn't know how to say hi. Like, you know, I saw that. He can't just like walk up the stairs because he's older.

04:09
But he's, you know, he's been in this house across the street for 75 years, his whole life. And his daughter lives on one side of him and his son lives behind with his donkeys and other animals. And his grandson lives next door, which is right across the street from me. But so it's like, it's, it's kind of cool. It's family, it's family area. He owns some land up at the end of the road too. But it's, I'm an agricultural because I brought my chickens. Good.

04:39
Hmm. Yeah. So it's good. It's good. I have I mean, I've met a lot of neighbors and I will say my my.

04:50
I really like them. I really like my neighbors. People drive like they want to take me out and I'm not sure if they really do or if that's in my head. Nobody walks here except for me and we risk our lives doing it. Yeah, but it's so good for you. So keep doing it. As long as nobody runs you over, it's great for your health, right? Yes. Yeah, it's a nice uphill too. It's

05:19
It's so funny to me how many co-incidents you and I share because our neighbor who lives northwest of us, about a quarter mile away, he is a county sheriff. So you have former law enforcement and I have current law enforcement. And actually the county sheriff stopped by a couple weeks ago with his truck. Huh? Oh, hey. How what? Yeah, pulled in and stopped and...

05:48
My dog was losing her mind and I thought maybe he was just going to turn around and no, he parked and he was just sitting in his truck. I walked out as he got out of his truck and I said, can I help you? He said, oh, I was just leaving you a note. I said, what's up? He said, our barn cat took a ride with my wife this morning in her vehicle, like underneath her vehicle. She slowed down to make a turn and the cat jumped and ran into the ditch and they couldn't

06:19
And I said, Oh no. And he's like, so can I leave my business card with my personal numbers? So that if you see her, you can call me. And I was like, of course. And I said, and if you can't find her, I said, we have like seven barn kittens that we're going to be finding homes for in like four or five weeks. And he said, that's really sweet. He said, but she's a favorite of one of my kids. He said, she's, he said.

06:45
He's really upset and the look on his face as a dad, I was like, oh no. So needless to say, we don't know if they found the cat, but he stopped by again that same weekend, like three days later, and my husband was outside. And he had pulled in the driveway, the sheriff, because he'd seen our mama barn cat, who is also a calico, which is the kind that got lost.

07:12
And he thought it was his cat. Oh, and he got out and looked and he said, damn. And my husband's like, what's up? And the guy, I can't remember his name right now. Anyway, he said, I thought that was our cat. And my husband said, you cannot have that cat. She's the mama cat. We're going to have real issues if you take her. Yeah. So super nice man, very comfortable having him as a fairly.

07:39
close neighbor and fairly close is relative out here in the country. You know how that goes. Yeah. But funny that you have former law enforcement, isn't that weird? Current law enforcement and on the other coin, Kading's I was talking to Amy on in messaging like three, four weeks ago. And I, Amy had said something on her podcast about going to an indigo girls concert way back.

08:06
Was it on my podcast? I couldn't remember. I was like, how did we end up talking about that? I think so. I don't know. I don't know where I found out about it. I was stalking you because you're my favorite person. And I was listening to your podcast. I think that's how I heard about it. And I was like, huh, I wonder when that was. So I messaged you and I was like, when was that? And you told me Amy and I were at the same Indigo Girls concert when I was 20. And I assume you were in your 20s.

08:34
I don't think I was still in high school. I'm very concerned. Where are you? I forget

08:41
I'm turning 51. Okay. Yeah. So that makes sense. So when I was 20 and you were 17, we were at the same Indigo Girls concert at what used to be the expo, the exposition center, I think in Portland, Maine. And I had just had my daughter like a month or two before it was my first big outing since having my baby girl. And we could have met then. And I was like,

09:11
wow it is not a small world it's a minuscule world. Yeah it's really it's really cool I love it and I've I've been to so many Indigo Girls concerts and I've been with so many different people. I think I've been to two I think I went to it went to see them at the Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. Cool. After I moved here I seven or eight times I think. Yeah yeah I've also seen Melissa

09:40
Damn awesome. Yeah. So that was fun. But anyway, little tiny world just gets smaller all the time. I know. It's so fun. Podcasting is amazing. It really is. It's freakish how connections get made and then you discover other things. You're like, whoa, really? Okay. So coinking eggs aside, you had a very exciting thing.

10:08
happened to your house? You had solar panels put on your house. I did. I mean, literally a week ago today. Yeah. I knew that I needed it because it's really hot here. And I don't do heat well. So I am using my divorce settlement to buy my solar panels. But also, so like everything in this house is electric. So it makes sense.

10:39
Like the heat, the air, the water heater, everything is electric. So, um, yeah, I mean, it's exciting because they're like newfangled and they just are much more, um.

10:57
the, what's the word that I want to use? The, um, shoot. They are much better. They're much better. Yeah. Efficient is a good word. Robust is the word that I was looking for. Um, then the ones that we had in Maine. Okay.

11:14
So I have questions about this because this is a very homesteadish thing to do because I feel like solar is a thing that lots of homesteaders aspire to having. Yeah. I mean, I didn't get the bank thing to hold on to my electricity. I bet that's what you were thinking. Well sure, yes. But I mean, we would love to have a solar put on our house because our house gets direct sun all day long. Yeah. But it's expensive and we're not sure we want to.

11:44
We're not sure we want to take on that big a bite of an investment, even though we know it's an investment.

11:52
So will you be able to sell any of the energy produced back to your electric company or is it just going to power your house? It's just well, I mean anything excess is just going to go back into the grid. I don't think I'm selling anything per se. Okay. But I should have all that I need except for in the winter months. Okay. I mean unless it's unless it's sunny during the winter.

12:20
Yeah. And I mean, that's a crap shoot. It could be, it could not be. It most certainly is. Do you have a generator by any chance? I don't. Okay. All right. But if you have solar power, does that mean that your power will never go out as long as you have solar energy going into the panels? No. Nope. I mean, if I had, if I had the, the, the energy bank, then it would probably last a

12:49
to maybe three days, but I don't. It's an extra like $12,000, I think. Okay. Cool. I think that's so neat. We keep talking about it. And I actually just got an email today from some solar company saying, hey, you can have solar panels installed for free. And I'm like, I don't think it's gonna be free. I don't believe that. No, no, no, no. I don't think it'll be free. Nothing is free. Yeah.

13:18
So I'm gonna go look them up. I'm never gonna click a link in an email like that, but I'm gonna go look them up and be like, so I just got an email for you that said it would be free. Is it free? Right? I highly agree. What does free mean? Yeah. Yep. We had actually talked to somebody the summer after we moved here. So three, four summers ago about getting solar installed. Oh.

13:47
And it was a whole zoom call and the guy was super friendly and informative and kind. And he was like, so we have these two options. This is what it does. So it works. I mean, it's like an hour and a half discussion over zoom. And my husband and I were like, send us, send us the write-ups for what's involved, how much money it's going to cost, all the things. And he did.

14:14
And I read through both of them and I was like, neither one of them are affordable. And number two, I'm not sure that this makes sense. Even if it was affordable, I'm not sure it makes sense. And so he did a follow up Zoom call with us. And I said, okay, I'm the one who processes information super fast. And my husband and I talked about this at length. I said, I have like three questions. I wrote them down. And he said, shoot.

14:43
And I said, like, throw them at you. And he said, yeah. I said, okay, here's the number one. Here's number two. Here's number three. And his answers were such that we went, yeah, we're not going to do this right now. And the look on his face was so sad. Oh gosh. Don't make me go back and say I failed. I said, please don't cry. He's like, oh, he said, I just, he said, I understand why you're choosing not to do this right now.

15:13
He said, but he said, I can tell how much you guys would like to do it. I said, yes. He said, and of course I would like you to do it. And I said, well, yes. He said, but I totally get why you're saying no. He said, and it's fine. He said, he said, no hard feelings. I'm like, okay, good. So it was, it was a thing and we still want to look into it, but it's just, we keep hearing about tax rebates and how there's there's, um,

15:42
incentives to do it and I'm like that doesn't help me if it's still going to cost me 10 to 20 thousand dollars. Right well check in to um check and see if there's a lease option. Yeah. Because then you don't you don't have to necessarily pay for the installation at least not right away. Yeah I gotta do some research because it would really help you know I mean in the winter time we have a wood burning furnace.

16:11
Boiler whatever they're called and so our electric bills go down Immensely in the wintertime because number one it's a wood Energy thing and yes the blower for the the furnace is still going but it's it's not terrible But in the summertime my god the air conditioning bills are crazy. Yeah So, I don't know you can't win for losing sometimes It's true. I mean we don't there's not really

16:42
a great way to get out of it without paying a lot. Yeah, it's expensive to be alive. Who knew? Right. But I mean, the cool thing about solar in the summer is that you have so much sun that you literally won't have a bill. Yeah. And here especially, it is crazy how much direct sunlight our door yard gets. It's just... Yeah. If it's a sunny day, it is...

17:12
gorgeous and there's sun everywhere. And it's because of the way that the tree line is situated. It's, it's off to the, I'm still trying to figure out my bearings here. West. It's the west of the house. So, so the sun obviously comes up in the east and so the sun goes across. Basically the sunlight comes toward the front of our house all day long. So having solar would be great.

17:39
but we just have to figure out how we can make that happen. Right. So I'm gonna be inspired by you and do some research and see if we can't figure it out because I think it's a fantastic alternative. So speaking of fantastic alternatives, I was listening to your podcast with the attorney that you just put out. And there were a couple things that you guys were talking about. I think it was recycling.

18:08
Number one, Virginia doesn't do the deposit return that Maine does on cans. And see, I really listened and there are a couple other things. And I was thinking about doing a podcast episode, either just me, which I haven't done yet, or with somebody talking about ways that you can be like responsibly sustainable.

18:37
One of the things I was thinking about is when I was growing up, the nearest real grocery store was like 15 minutes away and we lived on a block and a lot of the neighbors really did know each other, which is really weird these days. Nobody knows anybody. And so if my mom was going to run into town, you know, town 15 minutes away, she'd call a couple of her friends and say, I'm running in to pick up groceries. Do you need anything?

19:06
so that they didn't have to make the trip to town. And I was thinking that wouldn't it be cool if you either call a friend and say, somebody who lives fairly close, I'm heading into wherever to get stuff, do you need me to pick you up anything? Because that means that the double drive to and from doesn't happen. Or wouldn't it be cool to be like, hey, let's have a girls day and go shopping for groceries instead of going to the bar for wine?

19:36
You know? For sure. I mean, I think everything about that is great. I mean, I think that we should try to condense, you know, if one person is going in one direction, it would be cool if there was some way, I mean, with all the technology, just like paying all the neighbors and be like, hey, I'm bringing my recycling downtown. Do you have anything to add? Or you know, I'm going to the grocery store, the farmer's market tomorrow morning, like do you need me to grab anything? And you know.

20:04
Stuff like that I think would be so super cool. I mean, I've met most of my neighbors, but I don't think we're really on that those terms. I'm not opposed to it ever. But like I only go out on the weekends, not during the week. And so it would be cool if, you know, if I was low on milk or something. Yeah, I offered that. Yeah. And my husband and I have had the best times grocery shopping together. It's so silly. Or we'd go to Home Depot when the kids

20:32
with the kids before we had our youngest, the kids all went to their respective other parents places every other weekend. And so my husband would be like, let's go get food and let's go to Home Depot because we need this or that because we had a fixer up our house. And so we started calling at Home Depot date night. And then we'd be like, oh, we should probably get groceries while they're gone this weekend because taking all three kids was a pain in the butt. Yeah. And yeah, take advantage of the time away.

21:01
We would have the best time grocery shopping. It was just silly. Yeah. So make it, make it a community thing, or at least, you know, helping out your community and then the carbon footprint gets smaller. So that was my, my brain storm for, for that episode that I listened to from you and your, your attorney friend. I don't environmental attorney. Is that what it was? Yeah. Kenya.

21:31
Yeah, she's she's cool. Oh my gosh. She's so so creative. Yeah, she and her podcast is actually very cool. Yeah, I just I mean, I'm having so many thoughts since moving here. I mean, part of it is out of convenience for myself, but like, I can't remember if I said on the podcast that I was thinking about opening up a store. Did I say that? I think so. Oh, OK. Yeah, I'm thinking about opening up like a bulk food and refill store.

22:01
on your property or in the town that you're in? In the neighboring town probably, which is about 15 minutes away. I mean, it's probably like 12 minutes away, but like you were saying with the grocery store, it's like, you know, 15 minutes. But I mean, I was gonna go to one, there are two refill stores just under an hour from me and neither of them are open during normal person hours. Like they're open during regular business hours, which

22:31
people are doing business and working. So they're not gonna get a lot of business and they're gonna end up closing, which just seems silly. But so I was like, shoot, I need to refill some stuff. So I either need to learn to make stuff or acquire stuff somehow. But like one of the things I was just talking to somebody about was like olive oil. Olive oil would be a super cool thing in a refill store.

23:00
or in a bulk food store. And, you know, they don't, I should say we, because I'm here now, but we don't recycle glass, which is silly because glass is infinitely recyclable, but they don't recycle glass because it's heavy. But glass also is perfect for a refill store or a bulk food store. So.

23:26
That would be a great way to keep that out of the landfill. I know in the refill store in my main store, people could drop off extra spaghetti jars or salsa jars or whatever, and other people can use them if they come in and they're like, oh, I'm a jar short. Something like that would be super cool. Drop off your extras and someone else will use them and then just, we'll just keep them in circulation and stop throwing them in the landfill. Yeah, definitely.

23:56
Guys, you and I can't remember her name, the attorney, we're talking. Yeah, Kenya, you and Kenya were talking about the disposable. Yeah. Cutlery. Yep. And I hadn't even thought about that because we rarely actually go out to eat. We may order something in, but we don't go out. Yeah. And we don't ever get. Her idea to just put us, have the restaurant put a sign and say. Yeah.

24:26
Right. You never need it, but it's always there. But like have the restaurant make a sign or have it, you know, if you're ordering online, just say, you know, I need cutlery or I don't need cutlery, like just specify and then don't make it automatic that it's put in there. Yeah. And my son actually has a case that has like 12.

24:53
reusable straws. I think they're aluminum, I think. And they have the little silicone toppers that go on them so they're soft. And I was like, what do you need straws for? And he was like, sometimes you just got to have a drink with a straw mom. I'm like, okay. So the idea of plastic straws is very weird to me because the only time I actually have them...

25:20
is if we pick up something from like a fast food place, that's it. Right. Right. So yeah, I mean, I have from my real food store in Maine, I bought like a little canvas case that has a bamboo fork, spoon and knife in it. And I think it had chopsticks as well, which I took out because I will never eat chopsticks in the car. I mean, I'll never eat Chinese food in the car. But like those, I just have them in my car in case there's a need.

25:50
They also sell at places like Fleet Farm and I don't know if Fleet Farm exists in Virginia. I know it doesn't in Maine. But at like, what's the word I want? Maybe even Home Depot. I don't know. But there are places that you can get these. They're like a Swiss Army knife, except that they have a spoon or a spork. So they're like all attached? And a little knife. Yeah. And they just fold into the

26:20
I don't know what it's called the handle thing and You just throw that in your bag and you have a way to eat that is you can just wipe it off with a napkin Take it home wash it. Yep. Very cool. So there's so many things that that are Imminently require plastic. Yeah imminently reusable forever yeah, and the other thing that makes me laugh is people talk about silverware and

26:49
Nothing is silverware anymore. It's cutlery. They don't really make Cutlery out of silver anymore, right? It's silver plated or yeah, it's too expensive Right, and I'm quite sure that there are people who who want actual Silverware and can afford to buy it and they have the beautiful box with the beautiful filigree stems On their silverware and I applaud them. I think it's gorgeous, but

27:17
I would be afraid I would ruin it by using it. Well, that was what I was thinking as you were talking about it too. It's so pretty. If you use it, it's going to get all tarnished and then you have to polish it and stupid stuff. But the box is pretty because it's always velvety, right, on the inside? Oh yeah. My mom had the most beautiful silverware set that I think she got as a wedding present. And I don't think she still has it. I don't know what happened to it. I haven't seen it in years.

27:47
You don't think they pondered. I don't know what happened to it. I have no idea. I should ask her. Or maybe I'm thinking of it from when I was little. I remember it from when I was little. It might have been my grandmother's. I don't know. But I haven't seen it in, I can't remember the last time I saw it. So anyway, interesting stuff, but we're getting way far afield from what I wanted to talk about.

28:14
So are you going to leave your podcast called grounded in Maine or are you thinking about changing it? I plan to keep it at least for now. Like I have it. It's you know, too many changes. So at least I'm planning to keep it for now. I may change things in the future, but not yet. Okay. And for anybody that didn't hear the original episode that we did, Amy's podcast is called grounded in Maine.

28:43
And Amy, what is it about? Because you say it so much better than I can.

28:48
Oh, it's about sustainability. So it is encouraging people to be creative about being sustainable because we just don't all have money for solar panels and huge farms and stuff like that. But so just to so that we can all feel part of the solution. And climate change. And it's beautiful. I love your podcast. I, after I...

29:17
found out about you, I started listening. I was going backwards because I didn't want to go all the way to the first one and listen through to the front, if that makes sense. And I had listened to like 12 of them from most recent back. And this morning I was like, this is silly. It's going to take me forever. So I actually went back to the beginning and started listening to it from the beginning because that made more sense now.

29:47
It does. I mean, if you start at the beginning, it will just like, then you can, I don't ever recommend binging my podcast. They're long episodes, but there's no order to it. But I mean, if you start at the beginning, it will like play the next one once that one's done, I think. I think so too. Generally. Yeah. And the thing is, ever since I started my podcast, I've been listening to other people's podcasts and you know what podcasts are great for? They're great to keep you entertained.

30:16
and informed while you're doing dishes or folding laundry. Or making jam. Mm-hmm, yeah. And I actually bought earbuds that have the little things that hook over your ears, over and behind, because I had the little button ones. Yeah, they fall out. Yeah, one fell out into my bowl of granola, into the milk. I had to wait four days for it to come back to life. Oh, goodness. So I was like...

30:43
I can't do this if this falls in the sink. This can't keep happening. No, no, this will not stand. So I went out to Amazon, God forbid, and found earbuds that are pearlescent pink colored. So I can find them. Oh yeah, you did, Mary. I did. And now I can find them because everything in my house is either dark brown or black or cream. So I couldn't go with any of those colors because the cases always blend in with everything.

31:12
can't find them. Yeah, like a pearlescent pink case would be great because I'll be able to see it. And it will be safe from all the boys. Yes. Well, my husband and my son don't care. They're like pink. Pink's just as manly as black. It's fine. So anyway, got these earbuds over my ears and I have not dropped them anywhere. So it's been great because I can listen to your podcast. I don't even know they're my ears.

31:43
Do you wear glasses? I do. And you can wear those too. That's what would make me hesitate. Like too many layers over my ears. Yeah, no, I was afraid of that and I put them in and I forgot I had them in. That's awesome. Or on how we say it. So yeah, they're great. But I listen to your podcast, I listen to Charlotte Smith's podcast, she.

32:11
She is a coach, a farming coach. Cool. Yeah, she's really cool. And I listen to Best to the Nest. It's a podcast that Elizabeth Reese and Marjorie Punnett do. Elizabeth Reese is a personality in the Twin Cities. She's a co-host on a talk show in the afternoon. And she's big into homesteading. And she and her dear friend Marjorie

32:41
started this podcast a while ago and it's about making your nest a safe place to come home to. Like how you decorate, how you take care of it, how you cook in it, how you raise your kids in it. It's just, it's a gorgeous thing. I love it. And I didn't like podcasts until I started my own. So weird. That's fun. I, there's

33:10
nothing like it. Yup, I love love love love this format now. I had no idea that I would. I know. I mean I was on a podcast called Podcast Junkies and I was like I totally

33:28
It's very me. Because I listen to so many podcasts and I listen to them all day long while I'm working and I listen to them when I'm doing things and I listen to them when I'm driving. Unless I get super tired and then I put on the eighties, but otherwise it's podcasts. Yep. That makes sense. Okay. So I don't want to keep you.

33:55
because I try to keep my episodes to 30 minutes and we're already over that and I knew we would be. But what's the plan? You said you have your chickens, you're trying to get a food forest started, you got solar panels and you're thinking about opening a refill store? Is that what it's called? Refill and bulk food, yeah. But I mean, my job is ending in February because I moved, which is a super bummer.

34:24
So I'm just thinking about what I can do. I'm going to have to find a job because, and I'm thinking about the, the refill and, and, um, bulk food, I'm thinking of starting really small and doing it like out of my car in the beginning to see if there's a need for it and to see if it's really popular and if it's really popular, then I'll get a storefront. But like, I'm thinking I'll do that on the weekends when things are busier and, uh,

34:51
And most things, oh my gosh, here, most things are closed on Saturday and Sunday, which is so weird. Oh. I mean, the box stores are open. Sure. I mean, the farmers market on Saturdays, but like, most things, a lot of restaurants are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Most restaurants are, a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays. Some are open on Saturdays, but it's kind of hit or miss. Where are you in Virginia? You're not.

35:20
You're not near a coast or anything, right? I am, no, I'm close to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm about 20 minutes from North Carolina. And I'm like three and a half hours, three and a half, four and a half hours from the cities in Virginia. So Virginia is not, it's not a tourist state like Maine is, right? Or is it? Not where I am.

35:49
But on the coast side, there's Virginia Beach, and then the cities near Virginia Beach are all close to Washington, DC. So they're very close to there. So it's very congested in that area. And I'm very far from there. Yeah, I was always under the impression that Virginia was very much farming country, but maybe it's not. I am.

36:17
was under the impression of that as well. I think there is a lot of farming country. I think I don't know where it is though. Okay. Well, I was going to say there's a lady that I interviewed months ago, and she is

36:44
with insurance companies and helps the customer find the best insurance company for them. Sure. Okay. She's like a farmer broker. She helps people get connected with different farms to get products from the farmers. And she also, I think she does like a drop spot so that people can just go to a place where the farmer has brought their stuff to. Oh, what?

37:13
Yeah, it's super cool. I will try to get you. I'll try to introduce you to her because she's on Facebook too. Yeah, I think her name is Suzanne. But anyway, You could look into that too because it's worked out really well for her and her community. Yeah, like maybe I could do like a um, What do you call? franchise or something Yeah, I I don't know what it's I don't know what it's called in this case, but

37:42
But I see it as she's a farmer broker, like an insurance broker. She doesn't grow any of this stuff, but she gets everybody connected so they can buy from each other. That's cool. I mean, I... Yeah, it's a really neat situation. I was part of Farm Drop in Maine, which sounds sort of similar, that everyone would bring what they had. You can order everything on a website. And...

38:09
you know, on a weekly basis and then everything is dropped off in one area and you just help pick up your stuff. But, um, and I just joined a co-op in North Carolina, but they're like an hour and a half away from me. So it's not going to be something I can just do all the time. It's going to require planning and coordination. Yeah. And I feel like I would need to spend a lot of money to make it worth the trip. Yeah. Which I don't really have. But I

38:38
I didn't tell you. Well, I think I you might have seen my post just the other day about Gracie the cow. I almost bought a cow a couple of weeks ago. Yes, you said somebody needed to adopt her. Yeah, there is another one that was so super cute. Her name was Flossie and I was very tempted but I was I messaged a lot of people and I was like, can you please talk me out of this?

39:07
She's only going to be like three feet tall. Like I could totally like, could she live in the house? Could I get diapers for a cow? I was trying to work it out in my head and I was just like, somebody needs to talk sense into me because I'm just going to go for this. But like, I don't have a place for her to sleep. Talk me off the cowlust. Exactly. I mean, I've wanted a cow for at least 20 years and a miniature cow would be so much easier and.

39:37
I just, you know, I don't have a place for her. I don't have hay, but I was like, maybe she'd get along with the chickens. And then I was like, the man that lives across the street, his son lives behind him. He's got donkeys. Like maybe she could hang out with the donkeys and I can clean their barn for like boarding and stuff. But at that point I was like, I don't even know these people. But.

40:02
And she's three and a half hours away. So it's just a super long trip. And I just I don't know. Would she fit in my car? Maybe. Doubtful. I mean, she probably would if she's she's four months old and she's her name is Flossie. Oh, my gosh. I'll have to send you a picture if I still have it. But oh, yeah. You know, you could get a couple goats. Your property would probably handle goats. I don't want goats. Why? Um.

40:31
I just said they're just not cows. What about sheep? Nah. No. Bah. No, I just I really have one. I mean a cow and a donkey maybe, but I just I don't I don't want a whole I don't have that much room for a farm. But I was like, like I'm in the process of getting a new chicken coop and then I'm gonna get more chickens. But maybe my eventually my cow can live in the old chicken coop.

41:02
But right now the chickens are in the chicken coop, so I don't have a place for a cow. Well there will be a perfect cow for you someday. I know it. Yes there will. And on that note, I'm going to let you go, at least for the podcast recording, because I am, we're at like 41 minutes now. So anyway, I am so glad that you're settling in and you're making friends and you have been on my mind and I'm glad you had a chance to come talk to me tonight. Absolutely. Any old time. All right.

41:32
Take care, Amy. Thank you. Bye.