Little House in the Woods

Today I'm talking with Dena at Little House in the Woods.
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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 Dena at Little House in the Woods. Good morning, Dena. How are you? I'm great, thank you. How are you? I'm good. So where are you in the great state of Maine? I am about midway. I'm probably central Maine.

00:29
Harmony, I don't know if anybody's ever heard of Harmony, but that's where we are. We're about 20 miles from Skowhegan. Oh, okay, yep. I know where Skowhegan is. I grew up in Maine, so I am very familiar with the landscape. I figured you were. Yeah, so tell me about what you do. Actually, Little House in the Woods is a domain name that I have had for many years, and I just started using it for my website. I actually grew up in a little house in the woods.

00:59
And we grew up about a mile from any neighbors with no power, no none of the amenities whatsoever. When you said run and get some water, you meant grab a bucket and run for it. And that's what we did for a long, long time. It was a great way to grow up. It was wonderful. I can't even imagine growing up the way the kids do now. But my mother did everything. All our meals were cooked on a wood-cooked stove. She would

01:29
phenomenal lifestyle. When I met my husband, we started running an off-grid sporting camp for bow hunters only. And that was more of the same kind of lifestyle. And that was fun, meeting people from all over the place. Our children enjoyed it because they got quite an education from the different people and the different walks of life and the things that they did. And just in the last...

01:56
I know it doesn't sound recent, but in the last 20 years, we've moved to where we are now and our kids are grown. We have grandkids and it was time for us to do something else. My husband is working on his own website and I decided to get this one up and going and I make baskets. I hand weave baskets, pack baskets are my favorite. It's something satisfying about doing them, I guess. And I like working on a bigger project. I've sold.

02:26
I can't even begin to count how many over the years. I started doing it where we previously lived because there was seriously nothing else to do. But I mean, it's good and it's a cathartic process. So I really enjoy it. I have a lot of crafty things that I do. I knit, I crochet, I weave on a loom, I weave baskets. I used to make a lot of soap. I like to bake bread from scratch. I got all that stuff from my mom, make donuts.

02:54
My daughter is the same way. She's in her 40s and has kids of her own. And we just live out in the country and live each day as it comes. I work on my website to get things done and ready and trying to decide the best next thing to put on there that people may be interested in. Fun, so much fun. So you're an original off-gritter. Yes. And you work with your hands all the time.

03:24
Yes. How did you learn to make the baskets? I saw the pictures on Facebook. They are stunning. Thank you very much. I actually learned where we lived before was in Jackman. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it's right on the Canadian border and it's in the Moose River Valley. It's a very small town. It's very insular. There's not much there, but my husband's job took us there. So I...

03:51
As I said, I had to do something besides work and take care of my children. So there was an adult ed class for basket weaving and this wonderful lady taught us how to do it. And she's after the second class, she says, well, you're already way beyond me. She says, you're just natural. I said, well, I just love doing it. I don't use any molds or anything. Everything that I do, they'll never be too alike because I do it all from feel and hand and just the way I like the looks of it.

04:21
I write a lot of my own patterns, but it was fun. We did her class for like six weeks and by the end of it, I was totally hooked. I have been doing it off and on ever since. The off part, I had had a pretty serious shoulder injury where I kind of tore it all apart and had to have surgery. That kept me down for over a year, but I have learned how to compensate for my arm not working quite right. I'm back at it.

04:50
Loving it. Okay, so what are the materials that you use to make your baskets with? I use reed. It is the inner bark of the rattan tree. Okay. And it does not come from the United States, unfortunately, but it is a wonderful fiber. There are many fibers here that you can use, and a lot of the native tribes will use ash, which they cut the tree, pound the tree, get the strips of ash, but I don't have that ability.

05:20
But the reed is nice and heavy duty and it comes in different widths, different thicknesses. I can either dye it myself or buy it already dyed. I have a couple of techniques that I use that are maybe different than somebody else's. My husband makes all the double bases and runners from my pack baskets. And I make all the harnesses or straps for them. Okay.

05:46
So tell me what a pack basket is, because I am not up on my baskets. I actually don't have any in my house. Okay, it is a basket. They used to call it a trapper's basket, if that helps. They, you wear it on your back. It's a pretty good sized basket, and trappers would put all of their gear and goods into them. The ones I make are potbelly, they call it. Have a rounder, at the bottom of the, bottom of them, they're rounder, and they stick out some.

06:16
because it gives you more room to pack clothing or ice traps or anything that you might need to carry off into the woods. I made them for my son and all of my grandchildren and my daughter-in-laws because they all fish or hunt and they all just bring them with them. The traps go in there and everything's in there and they're very strong. They're tough. You put them in the back of the truck.

06:46
And when they get dirty, like I have a basket that I made in class, it's called a napkin basket. It is just a simple square basket that regular paper napkins go in. Now I've had this basket for well over 30 years. It does not look worn, but it has been around. And if I see it getting a little bit dirty, I just put it under the faucet, warm water. I put a little dish soap in the sink and swish it around, use an old toothbrush if I need to.

07:13
rinse it off and hang it up to dry and it's just like new again. And I have no problem repairing them or I've fixed a lot of them that I haven't made. And sometimes that can be a challenge because you're not really sure what the material was, but people are usually happy because they at least get to use them again. Yes. Um, so a pack basket is basically the precursor to the backpacks that we used to wear in school. Yes.

07:40
Yes. Okay. So what other kinds of baskets do you make? I make, oh gosh, I make bread baskets. I make napkin baskets. I make what's called a two pie basket. And when that pattern was created, it literally would hold two pies to take to a function like a Grange dinner or something. And I use it for a lot of things. And a lot of people do it comes out really pretty.

08:08
And what else do I make? Oh, I have one that I made recently to go on the tank, my toilet tank. It fits perfectly on the back of it. So hair brushes, odds and ends get tossed in there, extra roll of tissue paper, that kind of thing. I've made a few custom things like for motel, I made a basket that would hold separate little compartments for their sugar and creamers and

08:36
coffee packets and tea and all that stuff. And I'm trying to think of some of the stuff I've done because I have done so much. Yeah, a bean pot basket. It looks just like a bean pot. And it's just, the only purpose for it is that it looks like a bean pot and you use it as you would any basket. But it has a wire bail with a wooden handle on it. I make some mail baskets, which is my own pattern.

09:02
And usually I have like a wire hanger for those that will be a moose or a deer, a little boy fishing, a farm wall tractor or something like that. Cool. Awesome. I did not know I was going to be talking about baskets this morning. I have not talked to anyone about making baskets. I've talked with people about crocheting and baking and growing food and raising animals, but not baskets. And it's really funny because you know how people are like...

09:31
I should take a basket weaving class when they're stressed. Right. I have never seen a basket making class offered anywhere where I have lived. And so this is really interesting to me because I know nothing about it. So my question is the reeds, are they a flat finish or are they shiny? They are a flat finish. You can buy a cane like you would, you know, the cane chairs.

10:02
Cane chair seats, you can buy that cane on a rock roll, but it's expensive and it's very fragile compared to reed. Reed is quite flexible and quite forgiving of how you use it, whereas cane is not. It's a flat wood, like wood finish and it comes in, I can buy it in round, I can buy it in flat oval, I can buy it in what they call oval oval or just flat flat.

10:30
Um, you can buy it anywhere from like a sixteenth of an inch on actually a 32nd of an inch up to an inch and a half wide. You buy it by the pound or at least I do. And I used to buy it locally, but with all the businesses going out of business, unfortunately, I order it online usually from some Southern companies or out West somewhere. Whatever.

10:57
I watch for sales, but I only have like three companies that I usually buy from. I know their quality is always good. And they ship it to me and it's so much a pound. When I first started, it was like $6 a pound. Now it's $16.95. Wow. Yeah. Which leads me to my next question. I am guessing that your baskets are not inexpensive and nor should they be. Well, apparently they're more inexpensive than they should be, I have told.

11:26
been told that my pack baskets, a 19 inch pack basket is like $190. I've sold them for more than that 275 at times. But I just feel like with the economy the way it is, people can't afford it. And I can still do that. And I can make what I have to for money to replace my supplies. And hopefully when things start getting better, then my prices will go up a bit. But

11:53
like a two pie basket would be $85. And that's a, there is a picture of one of those, I think, on my website, it's not featured because it's, I don't have any right now. But I can't remember what I have on there. I have a couple of pack baskets and what else? Oh, I have a couple that I made last year without a pattern. One of them looks like a small laundry basket, or a craft basket, where you just toss things in and carry it wherever you're going.

12:22
And the other one is similar, but it has straps on it like a tote basket. And you can put a fair amount in it. Like if you're quilting something, it fits right in there perfectly. All your supplies to take to a class or somebody's house to work on or anything, really, or your basket supplies to carry with you. Sure. So how many hours do you put in to make a finished pack basket? Well, that's kind of a weird question. It used to be.

12:50
Before I hurt my shoulder, I could do one almost finished in a day. So I would say two days. Now I'm closer to four days to finish one. And that is if I can continue to work steadily. But that includes staining it and creating the straps for it. And I buy the strap material from a company called Strapworks. And they make all different kinds of strap materials. And this is like a polyurethane.

13:20
It's like, it doesn't bother it to be wet on the ice for hours and hours. It dries right out. And I mean, it would take years for it to deteriorate. And I buy certain buckles for it that I like because they hold and they don't slide. Um, it's like, it's kind of an experiment over the years to what you like best and how you like it best. Um, a lot of people don't stain their baskets.

13:46
On a bread basket, I don't put any actual chemical stain on there. I use mineral oil because it is, after all, a bread basket and I don't want any chemicals sitting near somebody's bread. But it's, like I said, it's kind of cathartic to do. I enjoy it. It's kind of who I am these days. The reason I asked how much time you put in is because that's important.

14:13
People need to understand that handmade things take time. The funny thing is, like when you ask about a pack basket, it takes me that long. The little tiny baskets take me almost as long. Because they're fidgety. I don't do well with little fidgety things. Like my mom used to make Barbie doll clothes for me when I was a kid. I couldn't do those. I would just scream.

14:38
And, but I like, that's why I like pack baskets. I make something big, but I do make some small baskets, one that's called like a weed basket, but I would make that. I should make compared to what other make other people make of that. I should make a couple a day, but I usually only make one a day because that's enough aggravation for that. People don't take your time into consideration whatsoever. It's like, apparently your time is absolutely worthless.

15:07
Yeah, and that's why I asked because I I've crocheted things and when I first started it took me forever to finish a project because I was brand new at it. And then as I got better, it took me less time because I knew what I was doing, but it still took time. Yes. Time is worth something. And so. Yes, it's your time. That's what they don't understand. It's your time that you are putting in to make something valuable for them. Yes.

15:36
And so when you say $190 for a pack basket up to $275, I think you said, that might seem like a huge amount of money. But when you consider the materials, your time, your knowledge, your talent, it's really not. That's actually a really great price. Taken care of, in all honesty, that basket should be here 100 years from now. Yeah. Yeah, it's an heirloom. It is. My son, my oldest son, has one. He didn't realize.

16:04
what he had when I first made it for him. It was when I first started weaving baskets. You know, he was a teenager, get thrown in the back of the truck, there'd be a spare tire on it, this, that, the other. And he didn't want to tell me he broke the corner of it. But his fiance did. And she's like, he's like, got this thing wrecked. He wants to know if you can fix it. I said, of course I can fix it. So he hasn't given it back to me yet, because he decided he doesn't want it changed from the way it is because I made it. So I just made him a new one at Christmas time.

16:34
and sit here. Use this one and you can just keep the other one as a, I don't know, let's keep sake maybe. A memory, yes. Yeah, a memory, but I mean you can only be just so rough on anything and it's gonna break, but if you take care of it, you will have it forever and it will be passed down. Yes, definitely. So were you like a fidgety kid? Were you busy with your hands when you were young? Well, I...

17:01
We lived, like I said, in the woods a mile from anybody else. And I grew up with brothers and sisters, but my closest brothers were seven years older than me. So they were off doing their thing, and I would do mine. I read unbelievable amounts of books. But also, my mom, she taught me how to sew, which I started on a treadle sewing machine, which I still have. It was my great aunt's machine. And

17:29
My mom made a lot of our clothes on it, but I also learned to knit, crochet, embroider, hand embroider, which I really enjoyed even though I was a little kid and that was fidgety. And I liked it. It was just doing anything like that is usually peaceful feeling. And I did a lot of it outside because I could, because we lived in the woods and had a big lawn and I'd go out with a big old quilt under a tree and just sit there and do whatever I was working on. But my mom had a rule.

17:58
for all of us, boys included, if we decided we were sick and we didn't go to school, and she later found out that we really felt okay, we just really didn't want to go to school, we would have to sit down and knit either mittens or socks. So everybody, all the kids in the family knew how to make mittens or socks. And it was a great punishment. It really was.

18:28
have so many feelings about all of this. I am 54 and I grew up in, not the Maine woods, but the Maine woods in Steep Falls, Maine. When I, in the eighties? I don't really remember the seventies because I was a kid kid, I wasn't a teenager. I remember the eighties far more. And I spent an inordinate amount of time outside and that was before tablets and cell phones and

18:57
and all the gadgets that kids have now. And I loved it. I really, really did. And I learned really good life skills because when you have nothing to do, you find things to do, like weed the garden, or I don't know, learn about identifying plants in the acre, well, the half acre behind my house, or go fishing with my dad, or can with my mom, or you know, all those things.

19:25
Right. That's something I do. I do canning and I got that from my mom. And I'm very particular and meticulous about following the rules and the rules change. Yeah. They don't stay the same as they did 60 years ago. They've got new methods, new learning, and it's important to go along with that. But that's all stuff. Like you said, you learn things because you're outside. You're not, you don't have your face stuck in a tablet or phone. And

19:51
I don't think they're learning anything on there. I think they're just playing games most of the time. Well, in the defense of the few children who probably are crazy curious about the world, there's some that are actually learning some things that might be important. But yes, a grand majority of kids are playing games on their tablets. I agree. I think they're a wonderful tool. They're a wonderful tool. And I wish I had had them when my children were younger because we homeschooled and they would have been invaluable.

20:21
that. And but two of my grandchildren are very, very outdoorsy, woodsy kids, they fish, they hunt, they never want to just sit inside here. They're always out running around looking at things, finding animal tracks, you know, different, just different things. And what is this bug? And what is that? And I'm like, Ooh, and they're all excited about it, or bringing me a frog, they know better than to bring me a snake, that would be the end of the world. But, but they do.

20:50
all the time. And my granddaughter, Kayden, she's just turned 14 this summer. And she's like, I just don't want to sit inside all the time. I said, you know, if you're unlucky enough to have a desk job somewhere where you have to, then you'll get plenty of time to sit inside more than you'll ever want. And she says, what do you mean? I said, the worst job I ever had in my life was a bookkeeping job where I sat all day. And I hated it. Absolutely hated it because I couldn't move around.

21:20
I don't mind working and moving around and doing things, but I told my boss one day, I said, you know why secretary's butts are that wide as wide as the chair? Because they're sitting on that chair all day. He laughed at me, but I said, no, it's true. Yep, absolutely. I agree. So I guess what I was trying to get to in a roundabout way is that I am really glad that I grew up the way that I did.

21:47
And I'm really glad that I had that experience because then I got to share it with my kids. And my kids grew up as cell phones and tablets and things were coming into, you know, everyday use. Right. And they had cell phones. I don't think any of them had tablets. They weren't really a thing yet. And we couldn't afford them because they were really expensive when tablets first showed up. Yes. But we took our kids camping. We took them hiking.

22:17
We made sure that they got outside time. And we were lucky enough to live in an area in Minnesota where there's all kinds of state-owned property, like state parks and trails and stuff. So we'd take them out on the trails and they'd be like, what's that? And it was a plant and we would tell them what it is and what it's for. And we found wild asparagus growing and they were like, can we taste it? And I'm like, of course you can taste it. It's probably not gonna kill you.

22:45
And so they got to taste their first Everest variegus shoots from a hike in the woods. Nice. When I was visiting my parents, there was a little cemetery, like an old, old, old, small family cemetery next to their property. And there were wild strawberries growing. My kid, my youngest, his first ever strawberry was a wild strawberry. Oh, nice. That's wonderful.

23:08
His face lit up like a Christmas tree. He's like, mom, it's so yummy. I'm like, yes, of course it's yummy. It's a wild strawberry. Right. You'll never taste anything better. No. So so we've we've tried really hard. My kids are all grown now. Youngest is 22, oldest is 34. But when they were growing up, we lived in a little tiny town in in Minnesota, in town.

23:33
And so we would purposely on the weekends take them and go do something out in the woods because we're like they need something besides the library and the comic book shop, you know? Right. So it's important that kids get to experience as many things as they can. And I'm absolutely not saying that kids growing up in the city can't grow up to be fine human beings. I think that that's not, it's fine.

23:58
But I also think that if they have the opportunity to experience other things, that that's good for them too. And I think too, that it's good for the country kids to experience a little bit of the city. Amen. Me too. Well, when they need to go to the city, they know what they're doing. Yep. You're it's funny. I was just talking to somebody on another interview last week and I had a conversation with my dad back when I was in my mid twenties. And I said, I think that people who live in the country,

24:27
should go live in the city for at least six months. And I think people who live in the city should live in the country for at least six months. And he said, I think you're wrong. And I said, oh, he's saying anybody who lives in the country should ever have to live in the city. That would be terrible. And I was like, okay, that's fine. We can agree to disagree. But my point was that I don't think anyone should live in a bubble of sameness their entire life. No, no. I know when the first time

24:56
we ever went anywhere away from Maine, my husband and I, my husband had been everywhere before he met me, but I had never gone anywhere really. And we flew to Florida. It was my first flight. It was everything. And I was terrified to fly. And then after that, I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. I like this. But when we got down there, the trees, the trees were really through me. And after three or four days, I said, I want to see real trees. I want to see real trees, like they weren't actual trees.

25:26
And it's like, but I still feel that way. I don't know how people, many people from here have moved down there, obviously for the weather, you know, I mean, Maine is a rough climate, just like Minnesota is a pretty rough climate and we, I mean, we're used to it and I appreciate the four seasons. I just don't appreciate the length of winter per se. Um, our winters are extremely long, but I do appreciate the differences and the ability to just.

25:55
go anywhere and do anything down there at any time, because the weather is almost always great. And that was a change for me, and it was a great thing to be able to see something totally different than what I'm accustomed to. My daughter just moved to Florida with her husband over the wintertime. And she got there and she was like, it's so nice and warm and there's a pool where we live so I can swim every day. And I was like, that's great. Just wait till July.

26:23
And she said, what's wrong with July? And I said, you just wait. She says, is it going to be miserable? I said, I don't know. I'm not you. And I was just kind of teasing her. And she called a week or two ago and she was like, it is so freaking hot. She said, I can't step outside without being drenched. And I haven't done anything yet. And I was like, that's why I said, wait till July. Yes. And that's why we have snowbirds. That's why we have snowbirds.

26:52
And she's like, I don't know if I can do this. I said, I don't think you have much choice at this point, but you guys might want to rethink your life choices come winter. And she was laughing. She said, it's not that bad. She said the house has AC and the pool helps. And I was like, yeah, I said, honey, I couldn't do it. Could not do it. I would be so sick with headaches from the heat. I would just die. Uh-uh. So anyway, she's she's experiencing a whole new climate while she's there.

27:20
Well, that's nice. I mean, it's fun and she's getting to see what something else is like and that it's not all so perfect to go somewhere else. Yep. And visiting, visiting is always perfect. Visiting for a week or two is always perfect because it's new and you know you get to go home at the end of the week or two. Yes. I fell in love with St. Pete Beach and then it was like, I don't want to go anywhere else. I want to go there with the white sand beaches and the blue Gulf water. And then we talked about trying to move there, but I couldn't.

27:50
I couldn't because I have grandchildren and I don't want to leave them for anything. Nope. That's kind of how that is. My girlfriend lived in North Dakota for about four years and she took the most, they traveled around a lot and she took the most amazing pictures out there. And every time she would fly out or back, they would fly in and out of Minnesota. And she'd say, I've never been someplace so cold. I said, well, that's saying a lot coming from Maine. And she said the wind.

28:20
And I was like, what do you mean the wind? She said it's the same way in North Dakota. In North Dakota, there's hardly any trees. There's nothing to block it. It just blows. Yeah. It's a bit like all the roads in North Dakota because it blows off. Yes. I couldn't visualize that. Yep. Where I live, it's all open corn fields and alfalfa fields and soybean fields in the wintertime. And farmers...

28:48
used to put in tree lines to break, have a windbreak. Yes. Every farmhouse has a tree line for a windbreak. We have one. And that's great when the wind is coming from the west. Yeah, the west. But if the wind's coming from the east, we get drifts six feet tall when it really snows. Oh gosh. It didn't really snow this winter. I think we got a foot total.

29:13
It's been the strangest year here for weather and I keep talking about it and I probably should just shut up about it because people have heard me talk about the weather for months now about how nuts it's been. But it just depends on where you are and how your property is set up and where you are in the state. I mean, up north, it's very much like northern Maine. It's a lot of trees. Yeah. When we lived in Jackman, we lived right next to the airport.

29:38
and the wind would come down across there. And I said, if we didn't have that line of trees, we'd be in the lake. Yep. Because, oh, it was just tremendous. You step out the door and it would just take you right away. And the climate difference in just like 70 miles is incredible. And it's probably the same way there. It is. It's unbelievable. It's like you think you've gone to a different state or something. Yeah, we've had that happen. We've, it's...

30:07
We've had days in Minnesota in the winter where up north they got four feet of snow and we got rain. Yes. So, yeah, it's very weird. But Minnesota is a very tall state. It's a long tall state. And Maine is, I don't think Maine is as big as Minnesota. It's not much smaller, but I don't think it's as big as Minnesota. It's huge. People don't realize when they come here. They'll say,

30:33
Oh, it's only up in Holton there in Portland. It's only up in Holton. That's only a couple hours. I said, okay, go do that. No, no, that is not true. Holton's quite a ways from Portland. It is a long ways. And it's a gorgeous drive. It is, it is. And, and the state is, is beautiful. And I am a big fan of back roads. I love the back roads. Me too. And dirt roads, you know, like in the summertime or.

31:02
In the fall, that's the place to be. But on the interstate, I just get so bored. It's monotonous. And people drive like they're on the raceway. And it's like, I can't say that I drive real slow on the interstate because I don't. But it's like, I just want to get there and get back because I'm not enjoying my drive. Yeah, I am.

31:26
I don't really like driving and if I'm going to try to enjoy driving, it's back roads. It's the longest circuitous route I can take that keeps me off the highways because I do not like highway driving. In Minnesota, it's crazy highway driving. My parents came to visit back when my youngest was a baby and my dad had a class in Minneapolis.

31:53
and they had to drive like half an hour to get back to our place from Minneapolis. And my dad came back from class that first day and he was like, you people drive like freaking maniacs in Minnesota. I was like, what was your first clue, dad? He said, when I got cut off three times in the first five minutes, I said, oh, that's nothing. You haven't even seen it all yet. And he was just laughing, but he was visibly shaking from his drive and he loves to drive.

32:22
Yeah, people drive like nut bars and I don't like it. And so I try not to go into Minneapolis for any reason whatsoever. I can't actually remember the last time I was in Minneapolis. It has to have been at least seven years ago. I never thought I would be such a hermit or recluse, but I will make any excuse in the world not to have to go anywhere. And it's like, I love the fact that I can order my groceries online, drive in.

32:51
and they come out, put them in my trunk and I drive away. I don't have to go into the store and I order most everything online. And I know that that's a sad thing in a way for businesses because a lot of regular retail businesses, it's put them out of business. But it's wonderful for someone like me that doesn't like to drive in the city. I have a back problem, a back issue.

33:17
And I have a hard time walking around very much. So getting groceries was a job. So now it's just simple. And it's like, I love some of the new things that we have acquired over the years like that. But driving, I can't even imagine. I've seen pictures in Minneapolis. I can't even imagine it. Yeah, it's a little much. And when I first moved here, I had a job that required me to actually drive in Minneapolis.

33:43
because I had to deliver things for my boss now and then. And I didn't mind it then because I was young and dumb and didn't realize how dangerous it was. But as I've gotten older, I'm like, I don't want to be on the road with all these crazy drivers. I do not appreciate it at all. And one of the things that happened years ago, my husband was driving. My two youngest boys were in the car in the back seat. And he was going to...

34:09
He was going to pass the car in front of him and he was doing everything right. He wasn't speeding, nothing, put his signal on. He looked back to go to pull out in the left lane and he looked forward again, started to pull in the left lane and two cars went flying by him on the left at like a hundred miles an hour. They were, they were drag racing on a highway. We could have died. I shook for two hours after.

34:35
I was so scared. I didn't ever want to drive again. I didn't ever want to be in a car again. I got over it, but I was really scared. Just very selfish and unconcerned for anyone but themselves. Yeah. And not really concerned for themselves because they could have been killed. Yeah, and they could have taken out a whole bunch of people with them. So, if you're a driver and you drive, please be aware that what you do impacts other people too. And if your kids drive,

35:04
Please let them know that they are driving a one to two ton bullet and that it can hurt people. Yes, definitely. I used to drive all the time. I did on road sales, but I worked coastal main and the coast highway is not fast by any means. Nope. It's stop and go, stop and go. And it takes a lot of patience and make sure you have a lot of bottled water with you because it's going to take some time.

35:31
I didn't mind it because the views were so good and I just planned for it. And I don't know how it is driving down through there now. People are probably just as crazy as they are everywhere else, but people don't take into consideration that not everyone sees them. Yeah. Yup. It's, I don't want to make this into a people suck discussion. Let's not do that.

35:58
True people people are people and some of people are very very considerate of other people and some people are not and that is true I try really hard to surround myself with a considerate ones because they're much more fun to be around Yes, I spend a lot of time with my family which are obviously my favorite people And a friend of mine and I in 2017 we started a food pantry here in town nice We have worked

36:25
hours and hours and hours on that. And we have built it up to a lot. And it was so funny because some people think that we get paid to do it. And I'm like, no, we pay to do it. It cost us a fortune and gas just to go places. But it's very satisfying. And the people that come in, people will think, oh, they don't need anything. I don't know that we've ever had anyone come through that door that didn't need something.

36:54
You just can't judge by how someone is dressed or what they drive or anything else. And I, my friend and I were talking about, I just love when the elderly come in and then we started laughing. We're like, we are the elderly, you know, but there are some people like in their eighties and they come in and it's, it's as much of a social hour as, as it is to get food. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, we get wonderful things. We get.

37:21
organic produce and stuff like that that we, I mean, I couldn't afford to buy the stuff at the store. And, but we have some local farms and stuff that all donate and people can be very, very generous when they want to be. Yeah. So people don't suck. Okay. Good. We're going to end this that people don't necessarily suck. They're not all bad people. Good. They're not.

37:43
Because I just, I hate ending the podcast on a bad note because I've had it happen a couple of times and I listen to it back and I'm like, oh, ended on not a great note. So let's keep it positive. You're doing a fantastic thing with that. We enjoy it. My husband and I work at it, her and her husband, and we have the most amazing volunteers you've ever seen in your life. They're all older and they all work hard and they are.

38:07
extremely dedicated which apparently is very unusual from what I hear from some of the other pantries and it's like You just got to let them know that it it's theirs. I'm not the boss. You know what to do. Go do it You have to let them know that they are not at a job this is something that's important to them too and They are fantastic. They're always there. They're willing to help they come in and do everything We could not do it without them

38:36
Yeah, because no one person can do it all. We all need to make teams of people to help out. Right. Awesome, Dana. Thank you so much for your time and everything you're doing and teaching me a little bit about basket making today. Well, I would love a chance to show you, but I guess you're a distance away. But my daughter-in-law says I should do some YouTube videos, which I'm not very confident about, so maybe someday. And if I do, I'll send it to you. All right, that would be great.

39:05
Okay, thank you. Thank you so much, Dena. Have a great day. You too. Bye-bye.