Growin and Crowin

Today I'm talking with Megan at Growin and Crowin.

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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. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.

00:29
Share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Megan at Growin' and Crowin'. Good afternoon, Megan. How are you? I am good.  I love that Growin' and Crowin'. I just talked to a lady this morning and Cluck is in her name. And had to be really careful that we pronounce the CL. Right? For sure. So Growin' and Crowin' is safe. That's a good one.  Yeah.

00:52
So you're in Illinois. it gray? Because she was in Indiana and I'm in Minnesota. It's been gray and sprinkling to hear all day. It was sunny earlier, but now it's all overcast again. Yeah, it's it's spring like, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Never know what you're going to get from one day to the next. Oh, thank God. It's spring. I know how your winter was, but it seems like our winter was a blink of an eye and the longest winter at the same time, which is really weird.

01:20
Right. Nothing compares to last year with all the snow we got. yeah, it always seems to take forever for spring to get here. Yeah. We, I was, I keep saying this. We have not had a lot of snow where I live for the last two winters. I don't think we've gotten a foot  either winter of snow. Yeah. We definitely got a big blizzard last year, but this year was not bad.  Well,  I  can't figure out if it's good or bad because my mom said that my grandpa

01:50
who was a farmer and then worked for General Motors for a long time. He used to say that rain and snow were  God's fertilizer or something like that. Sure, because it gives the ground moisture for the whole year of planting season and gets them started.  Yeah, and so this not having snow  sometimes  is a blessing because the roads aren't dicey, but it can also wreak havoc when we're trying to get stuff in.

02:20
It's a crap shoot. I keep saying that and I stand behind it. You just don't know how it's gonna go. Yeah. All right. So tell me about yourself and what you do growing and crowing.  Okay. So  it's my husband and I live, like I said, in West Central Illinois and we have an 85 acre farm or homestead or you know, whatever you want to call it.  We have three kids  and  I do photography. I'm wedding and senior photographer mainly. So this is

02:49
Hobby farm stuff at home is just a fun thing to do and keeps me busy. Okay. I always feel like I'm being nosy when I ask this question.  Do you try to have stuff from the homestead support the homestead financially?  So we don't do any sort of farmer's market or anything like that, really. It's just...

03:13
like I raise catod and pear sheep. you know, my goal with them is if I can sell enough lambs for, to buy the next year's hay supply, then, you know, then we did good.  So,  so no, we don't, you know, my husband and I both work full time as well. So it's not,  it doesn't support itself. It's more just about, it makes me happy. It makes us happy and, you know, get to try new things and that sort of thing.

03:37
Yeah, and happiness is a payoff all on its own. So I don't blame you. If we could have done 85 acres, we would have too, but we did 3.1 instead. Yep. Well, that's we bought it, you know, at 21 and initially we bought it because we want to hunt and ground. We all hunt. And so that's why we wanted the ground we got. And we do all hunt on it. So. Nice. What do you hunt for? Mainly deer, turkey. The boys do some coyote hunting, that sort of thing, squirrel hunting.

04:08
Yeah, my youngest still lives with us. He's 23 and he's always plinking rabbits because the rabbits eat our garden.  if he sees a rabbit, he's like,  um, I see a bunny and I'm like, uh-huh. He's like, I'm going to take care of it. I'm like, you do that. That would be great. So I have a question about the deer. I  do not love venison as a meat. I grew up with parents who hunted and  they loved it, but  I did not.

04:37
It's very, it's too close to the way that liver tastes to me and I just can't, I can't do it.  And I love liver but...  Yeah, I cannot.

04:49
Cannot do it, just the smell of it makes my stomach flip. I'm like, no. That's probably 95 % of what we eat. So we'll raise cattle every now and again. When the prices aren't so dang high, then we can buy them just as feeder calves. But we put the venison in our freezer and sell the beef. So it's just kind of our kids are used to it. That's what they were brought up on. And that's what we use pretty much every day.

05:16
Yeah, I was brought up on venison too. Every time my mom cooked, I was like, Oh no. I would, I would do my best to get it down, but man, I, I don't think I will ever eat venison again as an adult. just, cannot do it and all of power to people who love it. it. Please have my. No, no, I just don't like it, but that means more for everybody else. Right? There you go. Yeah.

05:46
And turkey,  I hear that  wild turkey meat is very different than what you get at the store. Is that true? It is. mean, like with a wild turkey, it's tough. know,  there's not much other than kind of breasting them out and you can cook the leg meat, but it's so dang tough. But yeah, we'll usually, Erin will throw the turkey breast on the smoker and that's the meal out of that. Okay. Yep.  Alrighty. Cool.

06:16
Um,  so I was looking at your Instagram page and  obviously you're a photographer. The photos on your Instagram page are beautiful. Thank you. Yeah. I, I didn't realize you were a photographer. And when I was looking at the pictures, I was like, Oh my God, who is doing her photos?  Now I know. Yeah. Well, and honestly,  pretty much all of them are just my iPhone because it's what we have in our pocket. And,  I can, you know, quick.

06:46
pull it out for a photo in the yard or whatever I'm doing. I very rarely carry my work camera  around home.  Just because it's work.  Yeah, it's amazing how far photography, know, the tools for photography have come. Yes. That you can get photos that that good from your iPhone is just crazy.  Yeah, I've always been, you know, a storyteller and...

07:11
I started out scrapbooking when our oldest son was  first born. so that kind of got me into, know, pushing me into the photography world. And then I went full time with it.  I'm just,  my kids are so used to getting their pictures taken anymore. And even their friends come over now and they just know  like  there's going to be photos taken and they're just all cool with it.  good. I'm glad because I'm not a person who wants to be photographed or videoed.

07:40
And I know that it makes it hard for the photographers and I'm sorry.  My husband  is the one who really like screws around with taking photos on his phone. Yeah. And he took one the other  night or morning. think it might've been sunrise between where our pole barn is and where our wood burning boiler  is outside.  And the light is such that it looks like an oil painting.

08:07
It  is the most beautiful photo he's ever taken that I've ever seen.  I posted on Facebook and I was like, this looks like a painting to me.  And like four or five of my friends commented and they were like, you need to print this out and get it framed. This is beautiful. Cool.  So yeah, I  love, love, love, love people who can take photos like that. And I don't think he even realized how gorgeous it was going to be. think he was just like, hmm, the light's interesting. Let me catch that.

08:37
Neat. Yeah. That's part of it is just recognizing that light and  I will always be like, hurry up. got to go. The light's perfect right now. It's going to go away. huh. Yep. Yep. We're losing the light.  Uh huh.  Okay.  Um, let me see. I, there was a photo of,  um, soaps. Were those soaps that you made?  Yeah. So, um, I don't, it's not a business or anything. It's just something that I wanted to try. think, you know, part of being a creative person is you want to

09:06
try a million things.  So I did it a couple years ago and actually my husband prefers it and he's like, we need to make some more soap. So  that was kind of my goal  over the winter and it kind of, you know, trailed into the spring. But when we  process, we have process all around me. And so when we processed hogs this last time, we rendered down all the lard. And so we had, you know, quite a bit of lard in the freezer. So  I use that up making, making soap. So it's, it's fun. It's time consuming.

09:36
But it's fun. And that's the cold process, lye soap that you Yes. Yeah, that's, I've never tried the other, so just that one. Yeah. The soaps in the picture look like marble. Yeah, the trying the coloring and the swirling is fun. I'm not an expert by any means and I usually probably cut it too early because I'm excited to see what it looks like, but it's a lot of fun. As long as you cut it after 24 hours, you're safe.

10:05
Oh good. I usually try to wait three to four days. So I'm doing okay. I'm doing all right.  Yeah. We always cut ours the next  like 24 hours from them from the time it's  Okay. Then it's then it's still kind of soft and the knife goes through it easier. Yes. Okay. And I always worry about like the trails that the knife makes, you know, cause I'm like, shoot, maybe I cut it too early, but then I'm like, oh, that's part of it. It's all right. Yeah. It makes everyone different.  Um, wow, that was a squeak. Sorry about that.  Um,

10:35
Uh, we actually bought a soap cutter, you know, like a, I don't even know how to explain it. It's a machine for cutting soap and it's just,  it's got a wood base and it's got a wire that you drag through the soap to cut it. And that thing is worth its weight in gold. It's so  nice because you get such uniform sizes.  We love it. It's fantastic.

11:01
And I was the same way. My husband tried making soap years ago, the same  cold process thing. And I loved it because store-bought soaps make my skin itch.  And the soap that we made, it's great.  It  moisturizes my skin. I'm not itchy. It doesn't leave that  tightness on your face if you use it on your face.  And he hadn't made soap for a while.  And I was like, I'm going to have to buy store-bought soap.

11:31
Right. Yeah. Not the same.  Yeah.  And I did. And I used it for a week and my skin was itchy and I was getting like little red spots on my arms. And I showed him and I said, can you please make soap?  And can I please buy a bar of cold process soap from someone until ours is done? And he was like, yes. He said, I didn't realize that the store bought stuff really bothered you that much. He said, but my God, you have little red.

11:59
raised patches on your skin. And I said, yes, I don't know what they put in store bought soap, but it's not good. Yeah. Yep. So I get it. And  I, I try to convince everybody to use the cold process soap that somebody makes. Cause number one,  you're supporting a maker and number two, it's actually better for your skin. Yeah. Yep. And, I'm going to be saying things like that on this podcast till I die because no one knows, no one knows that this stuff is good for you. Right.

12:30
But either way, I love that your soap looks like marble  countertops. It's really pretty.  Thank you. Okay, so how did you,  you said that you guys bought an 85 acre farm, basically. How come? What brought you to this? Well,  yeah, it was 2001. So obviously prices, you know, we're nowhere near what they are today.  Yeah. So when I say we bought 85 acres at the age of 21, people are like, oh my gosh, well,

12:59
It was a little bit different time then.  I sound old by saying that.  yeah, we were looking for something that we  could hunt. We wanted a place that we could walk out our back door and go hunting. so we happened to cross this. It was down a gravel road. That's what we wanted.  Nothing on the main road, something kind of off the beaten path. And we were lucky enough to get it. Yeah, but what  brought you to learning the homesteading skills?

13:26
Well, so the funny thing is like the whole homesteading thing,  guess, like growing up where we're at, know, having the backyard garden and doing those kind of things, it was just normal.  It wasn't really called homesteading.  Right. Yeah. I grew up my parents always had a big garden and stuff and we didn't have livestock or chickens or anything. And I think that's kind of one of the reasons now I'm like, give me all the things  because.

13:52
I wanted those animals. I wanted to show at the fair and  do those kinds of stuff, but  we just didn't have that. so it started with chickens, like a lot of people's stories and just kind of snowballed from that.  Okay. Yeah. And it's interesting because I ask people how they got here to wherever they are when they're talking to me.  And I usually get one of two answers. Either I was a city person  and I was sick of it and I wanted to try something else and this is where I ended up.

14:22
Or my parents or my grandparents or both, D all the above, had gardens, had animals, had dogs, had cats, and I wanted that too.  So I always ask because it's always interesting to hear the origin story. Okay, what else can I ask you? I saw pool noodles.  What's the story there?

14:48
That is so funny. And we were just laughing so much in the store that it was like, okay, we got to get a video of this. But so a couple of weeks ago, we had some storm damage  and we have a hoop shed for my, that's for my lambs.  It blew the each end off of the canvas. And so  Erin's going to have to  take some sort of like siding material or metal material  to rebuild those ends. And so in order to  keep that from like,

15:18
uh, wherein holes are, you know, kind of ruining the canvas around it. We needed a way to kind of make a barrier. And so, um, he was looking at like the, I don't know, it's called piping, something for pipes or something, you know, where you cover like insulation or whatever for pipes, but it was expensive. Well, the pool noodles were half the cost. So here he comes walking through Menards with a full box of purple  pool noodles. I'm just laughing and  I like the amount of people that would just look at us and they were like,

15:47
What are you doing? Or you're not supposed to buy a mall or all the comments we got just walking out of the store was hilarious. But  yeah, it's nothing crazy exciting. It's literally going to be to fix a barn that we lost in the storm.  And you say it's nothing crazy exciting,  but it is exciting because you're illustrating my thing  that I love to say about homesteaders being resourceful. Right.  That is true. And ingenious and thrifty.

16:16
Yes, thrifty there. That's a good one.  Yeah. I mean, we try to not spend money on anything here if we don't have to, because why would we? Yeah. And there's a place like,  I don't know, maybe  seven miles away.  It's a  veterinarian  medical supply  company. they're always getting supplies  in.

16:42
and they come in on pallets and they give the pallets away. They just leave them out by their dumpster and like, if you want them, take them.  And I'm not kidding.  I've been there when they've had 50 pallets stacked. And pallets are great for building things.  If you don't need it to be a super strong piece of  two by four, they're fantastic. And the thing that's great about this place is they have like two different styles of pallet and

17:10
My husband has figured out that one style is good for one thing and the other one's good for another. So it's not uncommon for him to grab the pickup truck and the trailer and drive down there and come back with like 30 or 40 pallets and just stack them because he knows he'll need them and they're free. Yep.  Absolutely.  We've definitely done some stuff with pallets.  I think anybody who is on land has done something with pallets. Our woodshed thing.

17:38
is the walls are made out of pallets and it's very funny. I remember watching my husband build it and I'm like, you know, we had the old one car garage that can't fit a car in these days out there. And he's, oh, that's full too. I'm like, oh, okay, good. Good to know. But you might need it someday. So, you know, you gotta keep it. exactly.

18:02
So yeah, just, feel like people who are farming or homesteading or just own more than an acre tend to be people who are like, I could use that thing that's sitting there that nobody wants anymore. Yep. Collecting, hoarding, whatever you want to call it.  Let's use collecting hoarding. Hording sounds ugly.  It's organized hoarding. That's, you know, I'll call it that. exactly.  Did I see, did you say you have rabbits?

18:33
I don't. So we have had rabbits in the past, so we have some cages and I keep teasing my husband that I'm gonna go get some rabbits so that we can use the fertilizers directly on the gardens and he thinks I'm nuts to  feed rabbits and pay for all the feed just  for fertilizer. But I'm like, we have the cages, why not? So we did when the kids were little, they each had a rabbit to take care of and stuff, but we haven't had them for a while, so we'll see.

19:00
And you do know you can have meat rabbits, right? Right. that's what, yeah, that's what he said is only, you know, he's like, if you get like a Cali or something like that, but I'm like,  I put it, I want cute ones. So we'll see.  We had one, we had a California rabbit. Yeah. And she was the only one of the three rabbit, well, two females in the male.  She was the only female that gave us a litter in the course of a year.  Okay.  Our rabbits were so stupid.

19:28
I talk about this a lot on the podcast because I want people to understand that just because you have big plans they don't always work out.  Right. Our bunnies were dumb. They did not get the memo that they were supposed to procreate easily. And we had  one litter of babies and  sweetest things ever. I I held a baby rabbit every day for months  because they are, if you hold them from the beginning, they're not afraid. They don't mind being held.

19:57
And when we we dispatched them, I couldn't be around it. I told my husband, I said, when you're ready to put these guys down and bring their bodies in,  they must be footless, tailless and headless and skinless because I can't see them with anything that reminds me of what they were. Right. It makes you feel bad, but it's something that you've grown yourself. So yes. And I felt bad. I felt like a terrible homesteader because I didn't want to be part of all of it. But I was just like, I'm either going to throw up or cry or both. So you really don't want me out there.

20:26
No, I just had that conversation with a friend the other day because she had, they raised Katahdin sheep as well and they were selling their lambs at the sale barn and she said she got in the vehicle and just started crying and I said, you know, I feel like if we didn't have that emotion or that tie to the livestock or the land, you know, I don't think it's right. You know, I think that's part of it and I think that shows that, you know, you're human. So.

20:50
I am such a softie, you will laugh. We had barn kittens, the first litter of barn kittens. We had  three over a year or so.  And we were very excited to find homes for them. And the last two kittens found a home together, which was great. And I was all good with this. And the mom and dad got out of the car  and they had two little kids with them. I think they were like four years old and two years old.  And I'm standing in the door watching these kids just light the hell up about these baby cats.

21:20
And I was so excited and so happy that these kittens were gonna go somewhere where they would be loved. And the minute they pulled out of the driveway, I just burst out in tears. My husband was like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, I'm a girl, number one. I'm over 50, number two. I said, I'm so happy and sad at the same time, I can't even function. He was like, why are you sad? I said, because those were our baby cats. I know there's somebody else's. And he's like, oh my God.

21:50
I said, I said, just, just give me a minute. I'll be fine. And he's like, you're really crying. And I said, well, yeah, I said, I cried everything, you know me,  but it was so weird. Like my, had this big happiness bubble in my chest and I had this terrible pit of sad in my stomach at the same time.  It was ridiculous. I don't want to do it again.  So when the next two litters found Holmes, I was like, bye kitties. It was nice knowing you enjoy your new life. And then I was fine. Right.

22:22
So there are things that will just catch you entirely off guard in  this lifestyle.  And honestly, when  the first garden that we put in here,  four summers ago now,  when it came time to put the garden to bed  for the fall,  I definitely had a tear in my eye because I was like, was our inaugural garden and we're done.  Right.

22:52
It's just weird.  I feel like I get way too attached to stuff that I shouldn't get attached to. I think this might be the wrong lifestyle for me, but I really do enjoy most of it. So,  okay. So what you said, you said you had a bad storm and it messed up your,  your sheep shed, sheep, whatever. Yeah. So it was, it just knocked over our little, like, we have a little garden shed in our yard and it just came through and  just wiped it out and then.

23:20
You know, did some damage to the end of our hoop shed. So it was the weirdest thing. Didn't damage the house. My greenhouse was sitting next to the shed that it took out. Didn't touch that. So we got lucky, but we got some stuff to clean up and I guess it's given us some stuff to do for the spring for sure. when, when was this? Um, just like three weeks ago. Oh, so it was a winter storm. Okay. Well,

23:44
No, mean, it was well, yeah, when I guess early spring, but yeah, it was just like it wasn't a tornado, but I could see like, like, I called it a dust tornado that came across the field across the road from us. And it was just went so fast. So it was a baby tornado. Yeah, that's kind of what I referred to it as. Yeah. I'm telling you, this weather has been so crazy for the last two years.

24:11
I really, really am keeping my fingers crossed that this particular year is better because it's been rough where we live for  growing anything.  I kind of would like to have a pretty garden again. Right. Yeah. And a productive garden again. That would be helpful.  If I can keep up with the weeds, that's the biggest thing.  Yes.  Yes. And we let our garden go last year. It was so hard to get anything in.

24:41
because we had six weeks of rain.  We just grew some tomatoes. We grew some cucumbers. I think I got three decent cucumbers out of a out of two  20 foot rows of cucumbers. got three cucumbers. Yeah. Yeah, we used to do a huge in-ground garden. And actually next year we were able to salvage some old hog feeders from a farmer around us. And so we put our entire garden into raised beds.

25:11
Um, and so last year was our first year with that. And I just thought, is so silly. We're taking away, you know, all this area that we had and could grow so much food, but then it's like, well, if it's just one of the waste or it's going to the weeds and it's no good either. So, so far those raised beds have been better just as far as me being able to go out and keep up with the weeds and stuff. So. I feel like it gives you more control over what is happening. Yes.

25:39
Because when you just stick stuff in the ground, Mother Nature is in control and you can maybe curb it a little bit.  Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah. My husband is the gardener. I used to garden. I don't love it anymore, but he still does. And he was just so crushed at the end of June last year because he could not get anything in the garden. It was just soup.  And  I said, are you going to blow up at some point? And he's like, no. said next year is going to be better. I said, okay.

26:09
Because you guys are Minnesota, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. I wasn't sure how far up you were from us, but Yeah, we are about an hour north. Well, maybe an hour and a half north of the Iowa border Okay, so not far Yeah, it just it rained for six weeks here from yeah rain basically the first of May through mid-june I think it might have been mid-april through the end of May, but I don't remember but it was six weeks of rain every day

26:38
I thought  we were going to mold. It was so  awful. was terrible. I hated every second of it. My dog. My God, when that six weeks ended and the sun finally came out and dried up the grass,  we let her outside and she realized that the sun was actually shining and the grass was not wet and she rolled for 10 minutes.  She's looking at me like, Mom, look, it's not wet outside.  It was great.

27:06
And then she didn't want to come in, which was not great because, you know, I don't want her outside for four hours. She'll be all gross and dirty and I don't want to have to deal with that. but anyway, so I feel like we haven't talked about anything, but we really have. What's the future look like for your 85 acres? Are you just going to just keep having it make you happy or do you have any plans for it?

27:33
Um, I mean, yeah, as far as like our biggest thing right now is I would say the Katahdin sheep kind of getting that going. And it's something that, you know, we used to do goats and then moved on to the sheep. A little bit easier to keep in fencing and that sort of stuff. So we're building our flock. I think I had 31 last year. So we had 42 babies. Um, and I've only got 17 of those left. So, um, you know, it's

28:00
do we build our flock and make it bigger or I don't know.  And we used to have, kind of reserved one pasture for  the cows that we would raise because like I said, we would buy them and feed them out and then we'd sell the beef.  But because of beef prices being so high, we just, the past couple of years, we can't justify buying them and then passing that cost on to, you know, our customers. So we were just like, well, let's run the sheep down there. And we did that last year and that was awesome. So

28:28
So yeah, I think probably focusing on the sheep and mainly just  it's home. you know, the kids can come back and hunt here and they come back and we process the meat here.  so it just, you know, we're home bodies. I guess that's the biggest thing is like for me is if I'm gonna be home, I've got a lot of stuff to do and it keeps us really busy. So.  Yeah, I have two questions.  One is about the Katahdin baby sheep.

28:58
or  baby sheep, lambs.  And the other one is about why  feeder calves are so expensive right now. So let's start with the calves. Why are feeder calves so expensive? Yeah, I don't know if it's a market thing  or I don't know. It's just cows are outrageous. You used to be able to pick up a bottle calf for like hundred bucks and I just seen one the other day on Facebook. It was 800 to a thousand dollars for a bottle calf.  I wonder.

29:25
There's a lady that I talked to her Facebook page is Clear Creek Ranch Mom, she's in Nebraska.  And she was saying that a couple of years ago, a lot of cows have been put down because there was no market for them. So I wonder  if that's coming back to  bite people in the butt now because there aren't as many calves to buy. Yeah, I don't know.  Some people say it's a political thing. Who knows, but.

29:51
You know, we're not big farmers, so we don't, I guess if you had a cattle farm right now, it's a good place to be.  But  yeah, we're not there. And like I said, we would have maybe eight cows at the most that we would  feed out every year. So just enough for our pasture to cover it. And  that was  kind of a good way to get started on a little bit of farm part of the life.

30:19
Okay, so you've switched to the the hair shape basically.  Yes.  The question I have about the lambs from the hair shape  is do they look pretty much the same as a wool sheep will look when they're babies? No, so the cool thing with the Katahdins is  they're all different kind of colors. So it's almost like raising the goats where you're not really sure what they're going to look like. They can be white, brown.

30:42
We have some that have a Dorper, which is another breed. And so there's black in those.  So that's the kind of the cool part with them too, is you don't know what they're gonna look like. Not every one of them is gonna look exactly the same out there in the field. And  I have numerous of my ewes that are named  because I know who's who. And  so for me, that's the fun part.  With the hair sheep, they shed out so you don't have to have them sheared. So that's a big thing that takes out a huge.

31:10
You know, obviously you don't have the wool to sell, but  it  takes outlacking to do that. There's no market for wool right now anyway, from what I'm hearing. So, right. I don't think so.  Uh huh. So I guess  I phrased the question slightly wrong for the answer I was looking for.  Oh, sorry. The wool sheep when they're babies, they're not like really fluffy. They're soft, but they're not.

31:38
Clearly they haven't grown out their wool yet.  So are the hair sheep lambs like short haired?  Yeah, I mean, it's not a long. Yeah, I would say yes. And then, you know, as they grow, they'll get it gets longer and then they shed it out every year. So, yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure that wherever you have them, it looks like a snow storm hit your field. Yes. When they shed out in the spring, we always laugh that we have the most bougie bird nests around because  they grab all the hair off the fence.

32:07
anything they've  rubbed up against. Yeah, I was going to say, I bet they're great for the birds. The birds probably love having all that to put in their nests. Yep. Yep.  I didn't know about hair sheep until a few years ago.  there was a guy that was raising hair sheep. And we had wanted to go see them because we were thinking about buying one for meat.

32:33
And he was like, come on to the farm, come down, see the sheep. It's really kind of cool. And he was not that  lighthearted about it. was  kind of a gruff farmer guy.  And when we got there, it was when they were shedding and his whole pasture looked like snow. he  walked up and introduced himself and he was a gruff older guy. And I said, it looks like it snowed. And I was not being a smart ass. I was just making a comment.

33:02
And he said, yeah, they're shedding right now because they're not wool sheep, they're hair sheep. And my ears perked up and I said, um, I don't, I don't know anything about hair sheep.  What's,  what's that? And then he smiled and his shoulders came down and he was like,  let me tell you a story and was teaching me all about the hair sheep and the different breeds and da da da. And he said, so basically their hair is worthless except for the birds.

33:31
Right.  Yep. I said, so you're raising hair sheep for the birds? And he laughed. Oh my God. He laughed so deep. was like, huh, I guess that was funnier than I thought.  And, and he says, he says, well, no, he says, I'm raising them for meat. said, but I might as well be raising them for the birds. He said, because every bird nest in the spring has some of their, their hair in it. Yep.  I was like, okay, cool.  And he said, so he said, what do think of the farm? And I said, I think that your, your sheep are a

34:01
adorable  and He said yeah, they eat a lot and I said  good I said because we might want to buy some you know We might want to buy one from you that you send to the butcher and we put in our freezer  He was like  that would be fabulous He said let me know when you want to do that and he said  and thank you for visiting my farm He said I forget that people don't know about hair sheep. Mm-hmm

34:24
And he was very genuine and I was like, went from standoffish gruff to really nice in like a half an hour. This is great. Yeah. He has sparked what he liked to talk about. exactly. So that's why I was asking about the hair sheep babies because I didn't see any lambs because it wasn't the right time of year. Oh, sure. Yep. Which was heartbreaking to me because I love baby animals. I would have been thrilled to be hanging out with baby sheep. That would have been great. Oh, yeah.

34:51
So anyway, we're at 30, well, almost 35 minutes and I try to keep this to half an hour. So, Megan, thank you for your time and keep doing what makes you happy. It pays off in so many ways. Thank you. All right. Have a great day. You too. Thank you. Bye.