Homesteading and Hungry

Today I'm talking with Lisa at Homesteading and Hungry. You can follow her on Facebook as well.

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. Today I'm talking with Lisa at Homesteading in Hungary. Good morning, Lisa, how are you? Good morning, I'm doing well, how about you? I'm great, we have another sunny morning here. I think it's gonna rain tonight, but right now it's beautiful. So tell me about yourself and Homesteading and Hungry. So.

00:29
We just got into homesteading. I mean, I guess it's going on three and a half years now. So I feel it's gone so fast. I feel like we just started, but really we've been doing it for a little bit now. But we first got into homesteading because my husband called me and said, hey, Lise, I bought a farm. Yay. So I decided to make my entire personality.

00:59
And homesteading and Hungry came about because we are a military family. And I was a food blogger and I blogged on my site at the time was called the crunchy sailors wife. And so I would share my recipes there and, you know, just a little bit about our military life. And then when we, I found out we were moving to a farm, I was like, okay, I'm just going to really bloom where I'm planted and embrace this. And so.

01:28
I changed our name to Homesteading and Hungry and started cataloging our adventures there. I love the name. Homesteading and Hungry just made me laugh when I saw it. I was like, that is such a great title. So what do you do? What do you guys do where you are? So we are in the Midlands of South Carolina and we started off with chickens as many do.

01:55
I'd never had a garden before, so we just got started with chickens and gardening. I used to always say that I had a black thumb, and now if I hear anyone say that, I'm like, no, no, no. You don't have a black thumb. You have a green thumb. You just have to cultivate it. You have to find it, but you can do this. I love encouraging people who are like, oh no, I can't do it. One of my favorite things is to get local friends and be like, let's go get you your first plants and get your garden started.

02:21
And I'm still very much a beginning gardener, but I really, really love it. Um, but so we started with chickens and then, um, that really, you know, we're bad at chicken math, so that's really, really fast. Yep. Um, and now we've got goats, we've got chickens, turkeys, goats. We got started with cattle.

02:46
And we thought chicken math was bad, but calculus is a whole nother thing. And so, calculus, calculus. Yes. That, so now we have 11 cows. Oh, wow. And we raise both dairy and beef cows. And we have, I think I said goats, so goats, cows, chickens, turkeys. And we've got a beautiful, sweet, loving livestock guardian dog named Chester.

03:15
And then we've got the worst homesteading dog ever. And his name is Deoshi. Okay, why is he the worst? He's so bad. So if anybody follows me anywhere on social media, they've seen my posts like free dog. I'll put his, you know, I'll just put free dog up there cause he just drives me up the wall. He's a hound. And we had him before we had a homestead. So because he's a hound, he wants to chase everything. He wants to bark at everything. And so...

03:45
He is just like very, very, very obnoxious when it comes to being a homestead dog. And he also loves to just make us crazy. He likes to steal things off the counter. He's a professional counter surfer. He likes to, anything that I'm working on, whether it's inside or outside, he comes, he steals it, he runs away, he's obnoxious, but we love him.

04:10
He's having a hard time growing where he's been planted, I think. Oh my gosh, he is. Yeah. Okay, so back to the black thumb thing. Yes. And when people say, I can't. To me, when I hear I can't, I hear I won't. And if you say I can't, you haven't tried yet. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, well, either that or they've tried and then like not, you know, tried like once.

04:39
and got discouraged and felt bad because they killed the plant and they're just like, I can't do it. So yeah, I agree. Definitely either never tried or just tried once or twice and then gave up when, if they keep going, they'll get it. Yeah. And sometimes they don't. I keep trying to make yeast bread and I kill the yeast every

05:09
is the one who makes the yeast breads, because he just has the magic touch with it. And so for me, I can't do yeast breads, is actually I won't try it again right now. So sometimes I can't, translates to I won't, because I don't really want to do it. Yeah. And other times I can't is I won't, because people are afraid to try. And I hate flying.

05:36
Like I will never be on an airplane again in my life if I can help it. And I have tried, I've been on a plane like three times in my life and I hate it. I cannot get past the anxiety. So when I say I can't fly, I mean, I absolutely will not fly. So, so it's just the way that it's said and the intent behind it, I think. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, okay. So.

06:07
Tell me about why you guys decided to do this because if you were military, I assume you were living all over the place. Yes. We were in South Carolina when he called me and said I bought a farm. He had retired from the military and my husband's name is Charlie, so he retired from the military and he got offered a job.

06:34
in the Midlands of South Carolina. So he was looking, we were looking for a house. We knew we were going to be moving. You know, and to me that kind of, I was like, oh, that'd be cool. You know, if we move, we can just, you know, get like a little house in town where they allow chickens because I kind of wanted some chickens. So it wasn't super far off that we'd have a little bit of land. But when that turned into, you know, I bought a farm.

07:03
I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Because I didn't really think beyond chickens. And I thought we'd be in town. I'm definitely an extrovert. And so I really like to be around people. And so when he first told me he bought a farm immediately, I was like, oh my gosh, we're not gonna be near people. We're gonna be too far away. But then when we came here and I first stepped in,

07:31
out and remember he bought this told me he bought it like I never saw it. Wow. He just did it. But he knows me well enough to know that I would have been okay and this is after looking this is not a easy area to find housing. And this just kind of you know I would say that God just kind of brought this to him because everybody who sees this place is like how in the world did you guys get this place?

07:59
Because it's just gorgeous. And so when I first got here, you know, we pulled up and I was like, okay, it's really pretty. And then I stepped into the house. And the house has this really cute little kitchen. But it's on the second floor. And right off the kitchen is a porch. And so when I first stepped out onto that porch, and the porch is incredibly gorgeous, the architecture of it.

08:28
But when I first stepped out on the porch and saw all the land that we had just acquired, I just started seeing a bigger picture. And from then on, I was really, really excited about all of the possibilities. Now I didn't look out and imagine we'd have 11 cows, but I definitely felt that homestead vibe like, oh wow, I could really have an amazing garden out here. We can do chickens. Like I got really excited about the possibilities.

08:58
Yeah, it's funny how when you step into the picture that you maybe had in your head or maybe did not in your case, everything starts to make sense. When we moved here three and a half years ago, I keep saying this, it'll be four years eventually, like in August it'll be four years. We had been wanting to buy land.

09:25
And my husband really wanted to buy a lot of land and I was like, no, no, no, no, no. We can't afford it. Number one and number two, you have a full-time job. You are the breadwinner. That's how it's always been. I don't see that changing because I've been out of the workforce forever. And we just need something where we can stretch out, but it doesn't take over your life. And he was like, okay. I know, I know.

09:51
I know your dream is like hundreds of acres, but that is not the reality. And so we found this view. Well, we didn't find it. Our realtor found it for us. We love her. We adore her. And she called me and said, I found your house. And I said, I said, did you? And she said, yeah. And we'd already looked at four places that were not great. And she said, you have to meet me at 630 tonight. And I said, that's not going to happen.

10:20
because neither one of us had gotten any sleep the night before because there was a big storm and the weather radio was going off all night and we didn't dare shut it off because the tornado was blah blah blah. So I talked my husband into making the half an hour drive from where we used to live to where we live now. And she showed him the big old pole barn and the flat area where he could put in his huge garden because she knows us, she knew what we were looking for.

10:49
And she said, all right, Mary, it's your turn. And she said, go ahead and go in the house. And I had no, I had a vague idea of what it looked like, but I had no idea how amazing it actually was. I walked into the kitchen. There is one door in and out of our house. That's it. I don't know why, but one door and it opens on the kitchen. The kitchen is like one of those kitchens you see in better homes and gardens and completely remodeled. It had a

11:18
an actual huge island. It had brand new stainless steel appliances and I don't really care about stainless steel, but they're very pretty and they're very shiny. Yes. And easy to clean. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of easy to clean. I wouldn't say easy, but yeah. And it also had like a

11:48
and took a big deep breath and she was like, I found your house. I hope you found my house. So I utterly understand what you're saying about when you step into it, everything starts to open up because the minute I saw that kitchen, I love to cook. And it doesn't have a lot of counter space, but the island makes up for it.

12:11
And it also has a walk-in pantry closet, which, you know, if you love to cook, you want a place to store your ingredients. So the kitchen sold me. The rest of the house is okay, but that kitchen is just, it's just a showstopper. And right now it's not, right now it's dirty, but brand new, it was very, very pretty. That sounds amazing. I, um, that is the one thing. I love this kitchen. It's smaller than the last one I had.

12:40
And it has no pantry though. And so I made a YouTube video about like my homestead pantry staples. And I'm like, in the video, I'm like, it's not really pantry, it's like a cupboard. So it's very organized because it has to be because it's such a small space. But that is the one thing that I really miss from my previous house is the pantry. Awesome that you have a great one.

13:08
It's really great to have a pantry because you can put everything away and shut the door. And it's there, you know it's all there, but it isn't in your face. In the house we had before, we had many, many cabinets in our tiny galley kitchen, but we didn't have a pantry. And we bought one of those tall cabinets with the big doors on it. I don't know if you know what I mean, but it's a big cabinet, but it's tall.

13:36
So it had like three cabinets on top of each other. Okay. And it was pretty and it matched the other cabinets. And that was my pantry cabinet set up. And it still didn't work great because it, when you're trying to build a pantry, you end up stacking things on top of each other. And the cabinets were a good 27, 28 inches deep. So.

14:03
Half the time I couldn't find what I needed and I would think that we were out. So I would put it on the list and then I would clean out the pantry and realize I had six of the thing we just bought. So having a pantry closet is fantastic. And we ended up putting bookcases in it to be able to store things. And so about once every three months, I go in there and I pull everything out and I sweep the floor and I wipe off the shelves and then I put everything back and I make a list then.

14:30
And that way I kind of know what we're low on. It just makes everything so much easier. Especially if you love to cook. Cause I don't, I don't want to eat food that I bought already made from somewhere else very often, we're doing it tonight. Cause I don't have a plan for dinner and my husband has a half day and he's got stuff to do this afternoon and I was like, can we just order out? And he was like, yes.

14:57
But most of the time I really enjoy cooking. So when I'm like, I want to make chicken wild rice soup. And I find out that I don't have any chicken stock in the pantry. I'm like, well, I guess we're going to do something else. So you know what I'm talking about. Yes. Yeah. Okay. That was a very long winded, while we love to cook and while we love our kitchen discussion, I'm sorry. Um, okay. So what's the plan for the homestead? I mean, I'm assuming that the.

15:27
the cattle are for your use. Are you doing that to sell any? Yeah, actually, we've got two of our dexter bull calves going to another family to help them get started with beef. And so that's really exciting. And we've got our, so we've got Angus.

15:57
We've got Dexter and we've got Jerseys. Nice. So, um, so the Angus, once they have their calves, they're both females. Once they have their calves, which, you know, should be soon, we are going to wean them and then we'll be taking them to a butcher and those, that'll be the first beef we've raised for our farm grass bed.

16:23
And then we are right now just like in the throes of learning how to manage two dairy cows. So we've got two jerseys and they've both calved within a month. Wow. So yes. And so we really it's my husband. He is the one who is doing all of the milking. I'm making things with milk. He's milking. I'm making things with the milk. But.

16:50
That has been our most recent adventure, just trying to learn how to manage all that. But he's done, you know, he built a milking stanchion and he's got a really good system with both of the Jersey girls. And so it's been going really, really well. Cool. So are you selling any of the milk? Are you allowed to do that? In South Carolina, people can come to your farm.

17:19
So, but we are not currently doing selling right now, cause we just kind of got into it. Okay. So, but in the future at some point in time, what we might do is we might look into that for the future, but for right now we're just making a lot of things with milk, like I'm making a lot of ricotta, butter, we've made ice cream.

17:46
having a lot of fun with it. And we've definitely shared some with friends. Yeah, your calcium level will be really good. Yes. That's a lot of milk. It is. I don't know how many gallons a day you're getting from them. It's all, well, they're, I mean, they both have a calf on them. Okay. So definitely not as much as we would be if there were, if the calves weren't sharing, but the calves are on them. So, and another thing that,

18:15
is really good is milk is an incredibly good fertilizer. So we're also using it around our homestead in places where we are trying to bring up the pasture and things like that. And we're giving some to the chickens. So it's definitely getting used for good purposes on the homestead. Awesome. We don't have room for a cow. We only have three acres.

18:42
and we don't have anywhere for them to graze, and I'm not buying feed to feed a cow out for a year. Plus, cows are herd animals, they need friends, you can't just get one, you gotta get at least two. And the other reason why we're not getting cows, because we probably could push it and get a mini cow, is because I would want to have the cow have a baby, because I would want the milk, and I would lose...

19:09
the first three months of that baby cow's life. Basically being out there and petting it and snuggling it and kissing its nose because they are so sweet. They're so adorable. They are adorable. That is for sure. We've got four calves right now and they are certainly adorable. Our most recent calf is a heifer calf and her name is Selah. So her mom's name is Hallelujah.

19:39
And then our other, and we got her from Roots and Refuge Farms. So a lot of people who follow Roots and Refuge know that cow because Jess called her Hallie. And so she was the one that was, I think, the first heifer born on their farm. And so when she calved, we wanted to kind of keep up with a biblical name. So we came up with Salah.

20:06
which is actually another friend of ours, that's her daughter's name. And I texted her and I said, we want to name our cow after your daughter. And she loved that. So, but she is a Belfair calf. So she is half Jersey and half Dexter. Okay. Because mom is Hallie, who's Jersey. And then dad is our Dexter bull. So she's Belfair and Belfair are really good dual purpose cows for meat and milk. And so are Dexter's for that matter.

20:36
We will definitely be raising her as a dairy cow. We're keeping her. We're not selling her. And our other Jersey also had a bell fair and he was a bull calf. And we are keeping him as well. And he will be a beef cow for us. And then the two Dexter girls who just had babies, those are full Dexter babies. Those two are going together to another homestead. And as you said,

21:06
You know, and we always stress this as well that if you're going to get a cow or a goat from us You've either got to take two or you've got to already have other animals because they are herd animals And they'll be really really sad if they don't have a companion. Yeah, they get lonely. They get sad. Um Okay, so you're the second person in the last week or so that has mentioned roots and refuge. I have to look them up

21:32
Oh, they're fans. Yeah, they're they're wonderful, wonderful people. And they're they're in our local homesteading community. We happen to hang out with like a bunch of homesteading YouTubers, which I know is kind of interesting that we're all in the same area, but we are. And so they're they're they're awesome people and they've become really good friends. But yeah, they they've got really, really awesome YouTube content.

22:02
Definitely you want to check them out. Okay, I will do that this afternoon because I thought about it the other day when the person I was talking to brought it up and I got sidetracked with my job, which is this podcast, which isn't making me any money yet. That's the key word, right? Yet. I'm growing it. And that was not the purpose for the podcast. The purpose for the podcast was to give me something to do that would keep my attention and give me something to get up for in the morning.

22:32
And I really wanted to talk to people who were doing the things that we're doing, but differently. And I wanted to give all those people a chance to geek out about what they're doing. Because when I talk to people about our chickens, or when we did bunnies, our bunnies, or whatever we're doing, they're real interested for the first maybe five minutes.

22:58
And then they start to kind of have their eyes glazed over because they don't really understand or they're not actually interested. And I needed people who were interested. So that was why I started the podcast and then people seemed to like it. So I was like, huh, I wonder if I can monetize this at some point and maybe, you know, earn a little bit of money doing something that I love doing. So long-winded way of saying we're not there yet.

23:29
But very excited to keep doing this. Someone said to me the other day, they were like, how long are you going to do this? And I said, until I'm dead. I said, I'm in too deep now. This is so much fun. And there are so many creative, brilliant, fun, kind of good people in the world that I'm never going to run out of people to talk to. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. And definitely just, you know, keep on going. We've been, we've had our YouTube channel now for

23:57
a little over two years. And, you know, we kept saying that to, okay, eventually, you know, we're going to monetize this and it's going to be a good thing for us. But it seemed like it took forever, but that day finally came and it's just so exciting. And that's going to happen for you too. So and you, I can tell you're really consistent with your podcast and that is the key to any type of content creation. Yeah.

24:25
If you're consistent, like I think that's the biggest battle. So yeah, so you're, you're well on your way. I'm, I'm busting my ever a love and hiney to stay on top of this. I, I love it so much. And my husband asked me the other day, he said, how many hours are you putting in working on the podcast a week? Cause he's, he's gone during the day. And I said, well, I said, actually working on it.

24:51
I said, an episode probably takes anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours. From finding the person, to scheduling, to recording, to editing, to releasing the episode. I said, and I'm doing four to five interviews a week, so that's, let's say, three hours a piece. So that's five times three is 15 hours. I said, but that doesn't count all the scrolling and trying to find people who are interesting, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

25:22
And he said, you're putting in a full workweek. I said, I am. He said, you're not making a penny. I said, I am not. He says, I'm kind of proud of you. He said, this could have just been a month long. I'll try it, see how it goes. And it died off. And I said, yes. I said, but I really thought about it for a year before I decided to do it. I just had to find the right topic. And this is it. I love this so much. And

25:50
He said, you're so much happier. I said, yeah, I really love it. I said, I get high talking to these people because they're really, really good people. He says, you were lonely because we live in the middle of a cornfield. We don't see people very often. I was like, I was a little bit lonely. I said, but I really love where we live. So this, this helps. And I didn't really want to get into this deep part of this.

26:18
discussion because no one really cares about how podcasts happen. That's not what this channel is about. But I think that there is a tie-in because homesteading doesn't make a lot of money. So many homesteaders are doing jobs outside of their homestead to make money. And then the homestead like supplements that. Yeah. And we have a big garden and we sell it at the farmer's market.

26:46
and we sell on our homestead farm stand property. And that's pretty much it. So my husband has a jobby job, as we like to call them, the jobs that aren't what you really wanna put your heart and soul into, but you gotta have the jobby job to put your heart and soul into the thing on the side. So my contribution to the jobby job part of the homestead is trying to build this podcast.

27:14
and promote the hell out of you guys, because I'm so impressed with you and everyone else I've talked to you so far. Well, I love it. I think that that's awesome. And I think you'd be surprised as to how many people actually do care about what it takes to start a podcast, or just because like what you just said, that you sat on this idea for a year. Think of how many other people that have these ideas, that they don't have the courage to jump on them.

27:43
because they're just not sure what it would look like. And by you saying that, you're gonna encourage someone else and someone else is gonna start podcasting or start some other kind of content creation because they listen to this. Well, that's good. And I think anybody who really enjoys talking and sharing ideas is great for a podcast. The reason I sat on it for a year is because my son, a year or so back from

28:12
from this past August was talking about doing a YouTube channel because he's a gamer and he wanted to try to do something with that. And the problem he's run into is that everyone else is doing that too. And he came to me one day and he said, he said, I was thinking we should do a podcast called Mother and Son Days, S-O-N-D-A-Y-S. And I said that would be really fun. I said, what are you going to do?

28:41
He said, well, you know how we're just kind of shooting the shit during the day when I'm here and we just talk about everything. And I was like, yeah, that's called our life, honey. He says, I want to do that. And I said, okay, well we can try. So we did, we did two. And of course you have to pick a topic to talk about. So we picked a couple of things. We did the thing for half an hour. And after the second one, he was like, I don't think this is what I want it to be.

29:10
And I said, okay. He said, he said, I wanted it to be spontaneous. I said, babe, the whole point of spontaneous is there's no plan. I said, I said, if you want to do a podcast, you have to have at least the framework of a plan. He said, yeah, this is not the right thing. And I'm like, okay, that's fine. But I really enjoyed the process going, you know, going through it with him. And so that's why it sat for a year because I had to come up with something that I would be interested in continuing to do.

29:41
So having said I sat on it for a year, I sat on doing it. I just didn't have the idea yet.

29:50
Gotcha. Yeah. Well that I'm glad you're doing it now Me too. I love it and I love love love talking to you and to everybody else and everyone is just so Helpful and so knowledgeable and so willing to share their knowledge with people who want to learn what they're doing So that helps a lot So I feel like we got way way off topic from what you're doing. So what's the plan for you guys?

30:18
What are you what's I don't want to say end game because I don't think there is an end game when it comes to homesteading. But what are you planning for for 2024? Well, we so we've got, you know, we've got a lot going on with our cattle for sure. My husband used a jobby job. My husband and I both have full time jobby jobs. We are both full time high school teachers. Nice. So we were super busy. So with the all we have going on on our homestead.

30:48
I like to say that we are, you know, we're full-time teachers and we're part-time content creators. So we've got a lot of plans, you know, for like where we want to take our YouTube channel, where we want to take our food blog, a lot of content creation plans. We're gonna be really doing a lot of content within the next couple of weeks because we're both on spring break. And we also have some really fun,

31:16
DIY projects that we want to film. And so I think, you know, we're definitely, our son is still in high school. We've got two sons, one's in college, one's in high school. And so our son that's still in high school, he's a junior in high school. So we're definitely going to be working at least up until the day he graduates. And then, you know, we'll see what goes on from there. But as for homestead plans, you know, we definitely want to,

31:46
get into making cheese. We just bought a cheese making book. And so we're super excited about that. Going back to Roots and Refuge, our friends Jess and Jeremiah just opened up a farmer's market. And so while we're working full time, we can't really do too much with the market, but we definitely want to have a table over the summer. And so I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do there yet. My husband and I are both pretty creative people.

32:15
And so I've done things where I've sold different kinds of crafts that I've done with succulents and things like that. And then he can make any woodworking project. So we may do something like that. Um, we've got two goats that are pregnant. So once they have their babies, we will look into getting into doing some cool things with their milk, like maybe some soaps and things like that. So, um,

32:44
just we're kind of all over the place, I guess, as a lot of homesteaders are, you know, just with all that we want to do. But my favorite thing is, I guess, just being a foodie is I just it makes me so happy. I get like euphoric when I make food that has come from our homestead. And so when I'm making things from scratch, and then I'm going outside and I'm picking fresh herbs, or like last year, I did a video where

33:13
I got squash blossoms and then I made like gluten-free stuffed squash blossoms in my air fryer. Yeah. And they were so good. You know, and then I'm making sauce from scratch with our fresh tomatoes that we grew. We're to the point with our meat where the only thing that we're really buying from the store is seafood. Because we've raised everything.

33:41
here on the homestead. We don't have beef yet, but my husband hunts, so we have a lot of venison. That's what we're using as beef until we have our own beef. I'm really excited to get to that point with cheese, where it's like, oh, I want this cheese for a recipe. I'm just going to go to my cheese cave and grab out a cheese that we made. I just think that that is going to be such a cool thing. That's definitely a goal.

34:09
to get to the place where all of our dairy comes from home. I would love that here. I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous that you're doing it and that we don't have the room to do it. Yeah, the pride and the satisfaction in getting to that point where you don't really have to go to the grocery store is such a great goal. We.

34:37
Part of the reason that we moved where we moved is because we lived in a house where if the power went out, we had no heat. And we had the power go out years ago and it was cold outside. And our youngest was, he was young, I think he was like eight at the time. And the other kids were with their other respective parents. And we ended up having grandpa come down and bring youngest to his place overnight.

35:07
so that he would be able to be warm and sleep in a comfy bed and not be cold. And we stayed at the house and we had lots of blankets. It was fine. We had a couple of space heaters and that really scared me back then because I was like, what happens if something bad happens in January and the power's out for two weeks? This is not sustainable. So when we looked for a new place, we looked for a place that had alternative heat sources.

35:37
And this place has, it has a wood burning boiler outside that pumps warm water into the furnace and then that is the heat source. And we also have a propane tank. So if the wood stove isn't going to propane tank, heat would kick in. And the first winter we were here, it was really, really cold and the power did go out, but we also have a generator that just kicks on.

36:06
and shifts the power to the house by itself. Oh, that's awesome. And I'm telling you, the power went out and I was in that minor blip of anxiety. And then the generator kicked in and everything worked and we had alternative sources for heat. I can't tell you how relieved I was that it all worked. So, it's not the same thing as having your food come from your land, but

36:35
The relief that comes from knowing that if something happens, you're covered is priceless. Yeah, because you're in, are you in Minnesota? Yeah. That's what I thought. So I am originally from Wisconsin. Okay. Yep. So, um, you know, I can't imagine, like I, I've been cold, as you know, because I mean, we, we share those super cold winters. Um.

37:03
with you guys. And so that is just, I can't imagine that. So I think that that is amazing that, you know, that you wherever you find security and that your homestead brings you security like that, because I think that's what it's all about. Yeah. Yep. It's, this winter has been insane with it not being winter. We basically had an extended autumn.

37:30
Spring is, I think, around the corner. I think we're going to be through the cold weather here by the end of next week. And when I say cold, I mean relatively cold. It has not been miserable this year. But back in January, we had a week where it was minus 30 real temperature two nights in a row. Yeah. I was just like, um, that's a little extreme mother nature. Minus 10 is fine. Minus 30 is a little ridiculous. Yeah.

37:59
And I was like, okay, so now we finally hit the winter part of winter. And then it warmed up like crazy. It's like, okay, what the hell is going on here? And so this winter hasn't been really an issue with power going out or any of that stuff, but just knowing that if it does, we're okay, makes me breathe easier. And so.

38:25
That's part of the reason that we decided to move to acreage and had a plan as to what we wanted out of that property. And we have chickens, we have eggs all the time. They are very prolific layers. And so that's our food source if we need to. We would eat if something happened. We would be real bored with eggs, but we would eat. So there is definitely a piece of that.

38:56
just like you're doing the cows and your chickens and your turkeys and your goats. We won't be doing any of that. We don't have room and we don't have the money to pay for the feed because they're not going to graze. We don't have land for them to graze. But we do have a humongous garden in the summertime. My husband just loves the garden and so we always can now. We can tomatoes, we can pickles, we can salsa.

39:25
So our put it away for the winter is produce. That's awesome. I've not gotten into canning yet. I have a lot of friends who we do a lot of bartering around here. So I'll give somebody something, and then they'll give me something. And so I get a lot of canned things that way from friends, which is great. But I've never done that myself.

39:55
want to learn to do. I'm still like using my freezer to preserve all the time. Um, but yeah, canning is something that I want to get into for sure. Can I tell you a couple secrets from a lady who did not want to can up until two years ago? Sure. Number one, once you do it, you'll probably love it. It is work. It's, it's a lot of steps to get everything ready.

40:24
The actual canning process in the canner is probably the smallest part of it. And you will probably never go back. You will probably love it. Yeah, I bet that I will. I do have a water bath canner. And so I will start there. And I am determined to use that this summer. And four jars.

40:52
reached out and sent us some stuff to try. So I'm excited that I know I've got some really good jars and lids too. So I am going to definitely be delving into that this summer. So and that's what I've heard. Like my other friends that had not canned before are totally hooked. So I believe every word of what you're saying.

41:17
Yeah, I, uh, we can't, I did not want to can. I've talked about this on the podcast before, so I'm not going to get into it. But my husband said two summers ago, can we finally can now that we have central air and I was like, yes, yes, we can try. And he, he did it first because he grew up with his grandma's and auntie's canning. So he sort of knew the process better than I did. And, uh, I really wanted relish and we had.

41:45
perfect cucumbers for relish midweek in the middle of August to two summers ago. And I had watched him do the canning and I'd helped and I was like, I can make relish. I can do it. So my kid and I chopped up everything, got everything ready and we water bathed the relish. He helped me and it came out great. And I felt like I had actually done canning and it's not hard. It's just a lot of steps and it takes some time.

42:15
Yeah. And I'll do it again this summer because that relish turned out great. So anyway, I'm going to wrap this up because I feel like we could talk all day and I don't have time and neither do you, I'm sure. But Lisa, thank you for taking the time to chat with me. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Have a great day. Thank you. You too. All right.