Minnesota Farm Living

Today I'm talking with Wanda at Minnesota Farm Living. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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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 Wanda at Minnesota Farm Living and by the name of the farm, you know it's Minnesota. So good afternoon, Wanda. How are you? Good, good. I'm glad to be here. I'm happy to have you. And I'm really glad you're in Minnesota because when I ask you about the weather, we can just grin because it's sunny and it's warm.  Oh, know. It's crazy. And it sounds like this next week. I mean, the next like seven days is going to be like a roller coaster. And I mean that literally almost.

00:58
Highs near 70 and it will be down to lows in about the 30s by the end of the weekend and probably snow again. Yeah, but not much not much snow and will melt next week.  Yeah, exactly.  can't Considering the winter we've had and how little snow we've had I would be very happy to not have three feet dumped on us. That would be great. I'm in Lasur. Where are you? I am in Welcome, Minnesota. So I'm actually right along the I-90

01:25
In fact, I can actually see I-90 from my house and yeah, just south central Minnesota. Okay. I have no idea how far away that is from me in Lesor, like an hour. I'm going to guess an hour and a half. Okay. Cause I think St. Peter for us is like an hour and 15 minutes. So you're a little bit north of that. So yeah, we're about 10 minutes due north of St. Peter. Yep. We go to St. Peter all the time. It is such a cute town. Oh my city, I guess. I think it's a town.

01:52
But I think every town is a town other than Minneapolis. So  yes, I had a daughter that actually went to school there for a year. So it gets Davis. So familiar with that. So  yeah, my son and I, a couple of springs ago went down to the campus and there's this really pretty like park area and they have some walking trails and it's really, really gorgeous. So we, we enjoyed that cause we moved to Lusore.

02:18
little over four years ago and we really busy getting things set up in our new home  and getting a garden plotted out and getting a chicken coop set up and you know things you do when you buy 3.1 acres in the middle of cornfields  and so there's hadn't been a lot of time to go familiarize familiarize there we go  ourselves with the area and we went down to St. Peter and I was like  I want to live in St. Peter this is so pretty and then I got home

02:46
Then I got home and went, no, I want to live in the middle of  I hear you.  So anyway, yeah, the weather is going to be a little nutty  starting Friday and be nutty into Sunday. And then I think we might be through the worst of this winter. think we might be on our way to spring. I would be okay with that for sure.  Me too. So Wanda does a whole bunch of stuff, but I think the biggest thing is, that you guys grow.

03:16
pigs to supply Hormel, is that correct? That is correct. we've been- Okay, tell me about that. Yeah. So we've been raising pigs for 47 years. So that's how long we've been living on our home site. And so we've always raised pigs. We started off with actually having sows and boars and they would feral, which is another name for giving birth. had 24 farrowing stalls.

03:44
And so we could have 24 cells actually giving birth at the same time.  And so then at first we just started raising them up just a feeder pig weight, which is about 40 or 50 pounds, because we didn't have any room for them to grow up to like 280 pounds, which is what we do now. And then we would sell them, we'd go to Windom, Minnesota, and we sold them on a feeder pig auction.  So that was how it started. And then eventually we got into,  we actually,

04:12
built what we call gestation barn, which is where our cells actually were housed.  And the reason we did that, if anybody really knows much about pigs, they can be pretty aggressive towards each other because what they have to do is they have to figure out their pecking order, you know, who is going to be king sow. And so the way they do that is they can kind of fight with each other. And that was kind of hard to see at times. I mean, we actually had a sow die because another sow attacked it because they were just trying to figure out

04:41
Who's going to be King Sal? So we built a gestation barn so they could all have their own individual areas. And I tell you, was like night and day difference. They were awesome. They were calm, you know? And so we could take much better care of them. So we brought them indoors and then eventually we built some barns that we could fill them, you know, to actually grow them out to market weight. And we have always sold to Hormel. So Hormel is located in Austin, Minnesota.

05:08
It's about an hour and 15 minutes from where we live. yeah, I sometimes I call myself a grocery store farmer  because if you go into the grocery store and you go to the meat counter and if you see the Hormel label, those pigs could have came from our farm. So. All right. Well, the next time I buy Hormel pepperonis, I'll know where maybe some of that came from. Absolutely. Because we do occasionally buy those for making homemade pizza.

05:37
And honestly, we actually  take our pigs locally to a locker. I have three freezers in my basement and it's just my husband and I here. But we have three freezers, but we have three daughters too that are grown, but we have lots of pork and beef on hand.  And the pork is from the pigs that we raise. Nice. It's really funny we're talking about pork because guess what's on the menu for dinner tonight?

06:00
Ooh, hopefully pork, huh? Pork chops and tater tots and green beans. That's dinner tonight.  lunch, we had pork patties.  yep. So we eat a lot of pork.  Yeah.  I was never really a pork fan until I got sick of beef.  bought a couple halves a  while back. Like we bought a half. We ate most of that, bought another half of beef.  And  I've said this a bunch of times, my husband and my son would eat beef

06:30
breakfast, lunch and dinner if they could. And I'm just over it. I'm so over it. And I was like, okay, I kind of like pork chops. I guess we could put that in the lineup.  And then my  other son, all my kids are grown. They're all adults.  One of my adult sons who doesn't live here came to visit and I said this not three episodes ago, but he made  sausage, gravy and biscuits for us.

06:58
Okay. And he made it super black peppery. You know, he put a lot of black pepper in it and it was so peppery. I couldn't eat it. And so I was like, I think I actually would like it if it just wasn't so peppery. So I made some last winter, not this one, but last year. And I put the smokehouse maple seasoning that we get at the store. don't know what brand it is.

07:24
And I put that in the, in the gravy and some salt and a little bit of black pepper.  And it was fabulous. So right now the only pork stuff I really, really like is pork chops and sausage and gravy biscuits. I'm, I'm good with those things.  And honestly, if I could get away with it, I would probably be vegetarian because I'm just so sick of every dinner having, having to have meat with it. My husband is a big meat and potatoes kind of guy,  but

07:50
I do like what I just said, so I'm glad that you provide pork to people. Okay. So can I give you a hint? Sure.  Um, so we actually use the seasoning. It's very popular in our County kind of South central Minnesota. In fact, I think they even use some of the seasoning up at the twin stadium.  Um, so it's called Martin County magic seasoning  and everybody just raves about it. So that's what we use when we grill pork chops or do anything with pork.

08:19
again, Martin County  Magic Seasoning and you can guess where I'm from, Martin County.  So yeah, so it's a very, very popular seasoning. People can get it into their local grocery stores.  You can order it online. I think it's like martincountypork.com.  So yeah, so that's very popular around here.  I will have to look that up and see if I can find it because that might help my case about meat.  I just, didn't grow up having meat at every dinner.

08:49
And so for me, it's weird. I'm just like, aren't you sick of meat yet? And my husband's like, I will never  not want a steak. And I'm  like, okay, babe, that's fine. okay. So I do not want to put you on the spot, but I do want to talk about  factory farming  because I've talked to one lady,  she's a rancher in Nebraska.

09:18
I've interviewed her, love her, she's fantastic.  And  she had kind of  a not great reaction when I used the term factory farms.  And  she was telling me that they have many, many, many cattle steers  and that they take really good care of their steers. They love their steers. They're not best buddies with their steers because steers aren't friends like that.

09:46
I'm paraphrasing badly. Please Leah. Don't be mad at me.  Um, but basically that factory farms have gotten a bad reputation  and that  That factory farms are not evil. Yeah, and I believe I believe her. So what is your take on that? Okay. All right. So let me just let me go back a little ways here So I started my blog over 12 years ago

10:11
and the in Minnesota farm living. And the reason I started it was because I was so frustrated as being a farmer, but all the misinformation that was out there in the media, you know, and one of the terms of course was factory farming. And I'm like, and to this day, I don't even know what a factory farm is. And the reason I say that is because  when I think about factory farm, I'm thinking about  massive producing, you know, whether it's,

10:38
crops or specifically livestock and that you don't have that connection with them, that you don't care about them, I can tell you that that is the exact opposite.  So we have one employee, so between my husband and our employee, they're out in those barns multiple times a day checking on those pigs, making sure that everything is working fine, making sure they've got water, making sure they have feed, making sure no one is sick, no one is injured.

11:06
They're constantly monitoring them. Yes, there's quite a few  in a barn,  but there's really not part of the factory part of it.  And I'll just give another example of how  we're so connected to our animals.  This was a number of years ago, and not in a personal sense, but just knowing that this is our job to take care of these animals. This happened quite a few years ago.

11:33
And this was when we had the sows and the sows would feral give birth. Well, there was a virus that was going around. It's called TGE. Nowadays we don't have it. They have eradicated it. But at the time, what would happen is  when the pigs were born, they were healthy, but then they would have this virus and they would almost immediately die for about three weeks,  100 % pig mortality. Nothing to do.

11:59
what would happen is that the salus would build up a natural immunity to it and then actually pass it down to the pigs. So after three weeks, then the pigs were fine. So  anyway, it happened to be Thanksgiving  and had the girls, we were all going to go to my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving because this is what we do. And he said to me, he said, you know what? He said, I'm going to stay back because I am bound to determine that I'm going to keep these pigs alive. And I said, okay.

12:27
For one thing, this isn't something you do. My mom and dad is like,  no, you come to our house for Thanksgiving. This is a holiday, you know? And I said, okay, you do your thing. So he stayed back. You know, the girls and I went to my mom and dad's had Thanksgiving dinner. But like I said, he was bound to determine, I'm going to prove the veterinarian wrong. I'm going to stay with those pigs and I'm going to keep them alive. Do you know what happened?  You know what I mean? I mean, that just shows you just the connection that we have as farmers to our animals.

12:57
Yes, we don't have a personal name for them because there's too many, but we are completely 100 % committed.  Our animals are actually, you know, have a higher priority a lot of times than what our family is, unfortunately. But, you know, we just are just so committed to, you know, to raising those healthy animals. So. Thank you so much for answering my question because I get real twitchy when I ask questions like that because I'm afraid I'm going to make people angry.  And I feel like I gave you an open door.

13:27
to talk about it. Yes, yes.  And that's one of the reasons, like I said, that I decided to blog because what I want to do is I want to create that connection  between agriculture and consumers. And hopefully if they have any questions or, like, why do you do this? And why are you doing this? And what about this?  I can just have that open line of communication to explain, OK, here's what we do. And this is why we do what we do. Another example, just to kind of, you know, not the factory farm, but

13:55
We have volunteered at the Minnesota State Fair a number of times in the swine barn.  And if you've ever been there, you go in there and there's a sow  in a fair ring stall with the baby piglets. So we, my husband and I, we would get in the crate with them.  And then  people would come and take a look at the  sow and see how big the sow was and how little  the pigs were. And then they could ask us questions. I love that because the questions were wonderful.

14:23
What I found is that, for example, someone might say, why do you cut their tails? They kind of say it really kind of a negative aspect, like, why are you doing this? But once you explain why you do what you do, 90 plus percent of the people go, oh, yeah, that makes sense. It's just that they don't know. So I love that kind of communication. Yes, absolutely. since you brought up cutting their tails,

14:52
We have an Australian shepherd dog and she's been really well behaved lately. She has been barking in the background,  but she has a docked tail. Okay. And  I, because I didn't know anything about this breed, didn't know that they aren't born with docked tails.  I thought she was just a naturally short tailed dog.  Okay. And then I was talking with our friends that have the mom and dad dog and they were like, Oh no, no.

15:22
No, she hurt, she had a tail, but we dock their tails when they're like a day or two old. Yup. Yup. And I said, but why?  And I wasn't mad. I just didn't know.  Yeah. And she said, because most of our puppies are going to be adopted out to be working farm dogs. Okay. And they really like to wag their tails. And if they wag their tail too hard, they can smack it on something in the barn or in the barnyard.  Okay. They can break their tail.

15:50
She said, and she said they are the dogs that get up real close and personal with the  livestock  and they can get their tails stepped on and broken. It's just a thing that's in the way. So we dock all the puppies' tails unless we're asked not to by the potential new owner. Okay. And I didn't know we were getting Maggie until she was like,  oh man, I think I met her when she was two weeks old.

16:19
It was way too far past to not have her tail dock.  So my lovely, beautiful, classic Australian shepherd girl  has a nubbin  and we call her a nubbin wagger because when dad gets home, she is wagging that tail,  that non-existent tail like it's a full length tail.  So there are reasons for the way that things are done with animals. And if you don't ask, you don't know.

16:47
Exactly, that is absolutely correct. So again,  the reason that I do the advocacy work I do for agriculture is just really to open that communication and answer people's questions. So, yeah.  When I started doing this podcast, I really thought that it was going to be more of,  okay, so tell me about pigs, tell me the lifestyle, life cycle of pigs, tell me about how many babies they have, na na.  It's really not. It's become this overview of what you do.

17:16
And then all these philosophies and lifestyle things that come up and I really love it because  if it was just about a life cycle of a pig, it would be one episode about pigs because why would I do more?  So it's great that I get to talk to people like you and find out your take on how you do things and your perspective out into the world on how other people do things.  Uh huh. Yes.  Okay.

17:44
So I was looking at your website literally when you signed on to talk to me. Okay. And you have recipes on your website and  you have gorgeous photos to go with those recipes. So  I didn't have a chance to really dig into it. Is it just one recipe per photo or is it like if you click on that, there's a bunch of recipes under it?  There should be a bunch there.  I put recipes on there even though it's probably not my main focus.

18:14
of my website, but I do put some out there. And again, pork related, you know, recipes and you know, when people, for example, I know one that I've got out there is like, well, what happens if you go into the grocery store and you buy this 13, you know, 10, what, 11 to 13 pound pork loin? What do I do with it? You know, I mean, you know, unless you're going to have a huge crowd at your home, what do you, what do you do with it? And just kind of give some suggestions. Here's how you cut it up. And then you can.

18:41
actually freeze it up and use it for pork chops or, you know, just other, you know, things in your recipes. And, you know, that's just one example of something I have out there because I was in the same situation. What do I do with this big, long piece of pork loin? You know, so,  And  we do that. We buy a pork loin from Sam's like once a month and we, and we cut it up and we use it for pork chops.  We used to do pork roast, but we're kind of not.

19:09
into that right now so we haven't done one in a while.  And the end pieces where they're not the same thickness, we will chop those up and do pork stir fry with them. Oh sure, that'd be perfect. Yes. And it's way less money if you do it that way. You know, if you're trying to save a buck on groceries, it's a really good way to do it. Yeah.  And some of the other recipes I have out there are just family favorites. I mean, these are things that my mom's recipes,  they'll go pretty special to me.

19:38
I actually have, she had the best handwriting. I have the worst handwriting. I will tell you straight up, that is nothing I inherited from her, but she had the most beautiful handwriting. So I have all of these recipe cards with her handwriting. And of course, a lot of things were made from scratch. And so I like to duplicate that and follow her recipes. And I still make a lot of the food that she used to make when I was young. So, and those are some things I shared on there too.  Nice. I love that.

20:07
Did you happen to put a photo of one of her recipe cards up so we can see her handwriting? That's actually a good question. I'm not sure if I have one out there or not, but I definitely have them in my house.  I think you should take a photo of one of them and put it on there because handwriting is so distinct. Oh, it is. And when you have really beautiful handwriting, people really love seeing that.  Yes, yes. It's good idea. I'm going to take your suggestion and do that.

20:35
Yes. Yeah. My grandmother on my mom's side had the most beautiful loopy handwriting, but it was small. So, know, consistently rounded, beautiful handwriting. And I was digging through my, my keepsake box when we moved here four and a half years ago. I'd go through stuff and rearrange and I found a card from her and it said, it said, love you, Mary Evelyn, grandma on it. Okay. Oh, and I'm going to tear up. didn't think I was going do that. Um,

21:04
Anyway, I was looking at it I was like, I need to take a photo of that. Yes. need to get a necklace made  with that on it. Fantastic idea. I  haven't done it yet, but I still have the card and I keep saving it thinking that I'm going to do it.  Yes, absolutely. Yes. Those things are very special. Yeah. And her, her grandma, you know, her written grandma is just so pretty.  Okay, sure.  So yeah.

21:33
handwriting is really special and it is absolutely a representation of the person that wrote it. Yeah, part of my side interest that I have right now that I really want to start getting into is the genealogy. So when you mention that story, those are the stories that you need to keep, you know what I mean? In saying those for future for other family members or just for yourself, you know? And so, you know, we talked about the recipes that my mom did.

22:01
that will definitely go into my family history and I will definitely share those. But I think those are very special because,  you know, if we don't share them or save them, they're just gonna go by, you know, gonna go away, you know, and I don't think that should happen. Yeah, and it's so easy to just  not see how important it is. I  live like five miles from this really beautiful cemetery.  it's one of

22:30
the two oldest cemeteries in Minnesota, supposedly. Oh, really? Okay. There are Civil War soldiers buried there. Oh my, yes. And it's up a hill and it's in  an oak grove, basically, and it's just beautiful. And  some of those gravestones are super duper old.  Oh.  And there's kids, you know, there's kid gravestones up there from 1800s.

22:55
And I went up there and I wandered around because I'm weird. love cemeteries. They're quiet. They're usually very pretty. They're calming. And I was looking at these headstones and I was like, man, I wonder what their story was. I know. That's exactly what I was just thinking. I mean, each one of those has a story and you wonder what is that story? Yeah. And unless they were famous, nobody knows about what they did. Yes. Yes. So yeah, history is really important. you know, I mean,

23:25
There's a saying about if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.  And it's a terrible saying. mean, it's true, but it's very negative. But history is also full of life and brilliance and fun.  Oh, yeah. And you just, don't know, I just feel like people are so focused on moving forward. Yes. That they don't entertain what came before. Yes. No, I agree completely. I love history. Actually, I might

23:55
My  college degree is in secondary education social studies. So history falls underneath that.  And so I hear exactly what you're saying. There's so many great stories that I would just love to write about all of them, you know, so.  Yeah, exactly. OK, so  agritourism, you were telling me something about you're starting a new blog or you did start a new blog. Yeah, I have a new blog. It's not been out a real long time. It's called the Minnesota Traveler.

24:25
Basically kind of focusing on Minnesota travel, road trips, solo trips, that sort of thing. But I also go  beyond  Minnesota if there's some things in the Upper Midwest. That's really what I'm going to focus on.  And I love agritourism  because again, that connection with the farm. I think it makes a lot of sense.  So I will write about that and share those stories. I guess the first one that comes up to my mind is like the Spam Museum that's in Austin.

24:53
And I love that because this Hormel and that's where I sell our pigs, you know, so there's a special connection there,  you know, and just kind of  kind of really just really focusing on some of the small towns  right along the I-90 like Fairmont. So if you're into pigs, if you ever go to Fairmont, Minnesota, they have over 100 pig statues placed around town and around the community. Please stop and check them out.  You know, so I've got that, you know.

25:21
best things to do in Fairmont, Minnesota. It's a town of 10,000 people, but there's five lakes and it's just, you know, it's kind of these places that nobody thinks about, you know, like, why would I go there? But there's a lot of really cool things there. I did one on Blue Earth and one did one on Albert Lee in Austin and you know, working my way to the West and doing something with Jackson. On my bucket list is Laverne, Minnesota, because I guess they have a Nutcracker Museum there and I want to check that out.

25:49
So yeah, so just small towns, agritourism.  In Iowa, there's actually going to be a, I don't know, celebration in Clear Lake,  Iowa. It's called Evolution of the Heartland, and they really focus on agritourism and really what's, you know, how these small towns were created based on the, you know, farming backgrounds of the area. So that interests me. so,  so. Fine, you should come to Lasur.

26:17
And I will tell you why  the Jolly Green Giant  thing got started here.  Oh, yes. Yes. And you can see that in Blue Earth, right? To the statue or no, that's the Jolly Green Giant. Yes. But yes, yes. Uh huh. Yeah. We have a big billboard coming into town that has a Jolly Green Giant and Sprout. Sprout. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They just repaired it like last summer or the summer before, like it was torn apart and then they redid it because it was  falling apart. So.

26:47
I need one. There's a brand new billboard up for that.  Yep. And, the Mayo M A Y O house is here and it's, I have not been in it. I have not figured out a time to get down there, but they have tours that they do. You can go in that little house and see where the guy that started the clinic stuff live. Okay. Way back when. Yes. That'd be very interesting.

27:15
And I live like four miles out of town. So if you decide you're going to visit LaSalle, we'll have to set up a coffee date. All right. That sounds like a deal. That would be fun. Yeah. It's really kind of fun because I grew up in New England. I grew up in Maine. Okay. And moved to Minnesota back over 30 years ago, kicking and screaming. Did not want to go. And it took me probably 15 years to realize that I actually love Minnesota.

27:44
It's not that different from Maine.  Okay. Okay. It is and it's not.  I call it a lateral move. Okay.  And  I  saw like a baby when I realized that I actually loved Minnesota because I had been fighting it for 15 years. I felt like  a traitor if I embraced where I lived, you know?  Minnesota has so much going for it. It's so beautiful.

28:14
And there are so many different quirky little things about every single city in town.  Yes.  It seems like every town, no matter how small, has some kind of little festival they do every year.  Absolutely. Yep. They do. They're all different.  I haven't spent hardly any time up north. I think the furthest north I've been is Duluth. Okay. Yeah. So I know nothing about  northern Minnesota.

28:41
I keep being told that I should take a road trip. Oh, yes. That is one of my favorite, favorite places to go  is Duluth and up to harbors and Grand Marais.  We go up there fairly often or when we can kind of get away because that is one of our favorite. I love Lake Superior. So  yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful area. Yes. The one thing I can say is I had never seen a lake that

29:09
big in my entire life in Maine.  Yes,  that's for sure.  There are some beautiful lakes in the state of Maine and there are some beautiful rivers, but I don't think any of them are as big as Lake Superior.  it's taken me a while to embrace my situation of living in Minnesota, but  we had the choice four and a half years ago to move,  to leave our house in Jordan and move.

29:39
And we debated moving back to Maine. And  Maine is expensive because of the tourist state.  sure. Sure. And they have really good lobster, right?  Yeah. Yeah. Much better than what we can get here. Yes.  The problem is  land and houses are fairly, or they were at the time, fairly reasonable. Uh-huh. But the cost of living is really expensive.  Ah, okay.

30:07
All right. And so for about a month,  I was convinced that we were going to move back. And then I looked into it and I was like, no, we're staying in Minnesota. The cost of living here is way less money.  Okay. So I made a choice when I had the choice to stay in Minnesota. That's how much I have decided that I love it. Okay.  It's a hard choice, but that's where I'm at. Yes. Well, I think it's a good choice. So  I do too.

30:35
I really do. It's a lovely place to live. Yeah. Yeah.  I have no story to compare that to. I've only lived in Minnesota. In fact, I tell people and I know this sounds very unusual, but I've only lived in two houses my entire life.  Wow. I was born and raised in Fairmont and I stayed in that house until I was 18 after I graduated. Shortly after I graduated, I got married.

31:00
And we moved out to the farm about eight miles northwest of Fairmont and I have been here ever since. So I have a pretty boring life. you're happy. can hear that. Yes. Absolutely. So I've got one more thing because I was thinking the other day that I needed to find someone who was older than me. Not old, but older. I'm 55. Yep. And talk to them about what it was like when they were teenagers because I was a teenager in the eighties.

31:30
Yep. And the 80s was a really silly time. No, no one's going to argue with me about that. Uh huh. When, what, what decade were you a teenager in? Yeah. So I would have been in the seventies. Yep. So I'm about 10 years older than you are. Um, so yeah, I mean, the things that we, I don't know, trying to think you're in, that's like a long time ago. Um, but I know that we had definitely, whether this is good or bad, but we had a lot more freedom. mean,

32:00
Like parents weren't worried about where you were at. I mean, you would have to have a curfew. You would need to be home at a certain time. Um, but there was no, course, definitely no cell phones, nothing like that. You know, it's just, you just said, well, I think I'm going here to  one friend's house and okay, sounds good. But they would never, you know, they would never know if you changed your mind or not, you know?  Um, but one, one story when I think about when I was young, you know, especially with the farm and everything. So, um,

32:29
And I laugh about this yet today. So my best friend actually lived on a farm right outside of Fairmont and they had pigs. They had a few pigs on the farm. And so like best friends do, we would stay overnight at each other's house. And so this one night, Friday night, I stayed overnight at her house. Saturday morning came and her dad said, you need to go out and clean the pig pens. You've to go do pig chores. So I told her, I said, you know, I said, I'll come out, I'll watch.

32:56
I'm not going to help. I'll come watch you."  So we went out and did that. So she did her chores. And when she got done, I looked at her and I said, I will never marry a hog farmer.  So we laugh and we laugh. it's like, I bet you God was just rolling on the floor when he heard me say that. like, you have no idea, Wanda.  So we laugh about it. So this is kind of funny how that was. But  a lot of time we spent  as a teenager,

33:26
We did have like a place that we would have dances that we would go to. We would do a lot of just driving. know, that was back when you had that kind of the hot rods. My husband to be at the time had a 1969 yellow Roadrunner. You know, the back end was jacked up and you'd go up and down the main street of Fairmont and hang out at the mall parking lot. And that's kind of where you would talk with friends and other people. And you know, that was kind of what we did. You know, it wasn't.

33:54
Drive-in theater was in Fairmont. We could go there.  So yeah, was nothing too exciting beyond that.  But it seemed exciting at the time. Oh, definitely.  definitely. Yep,  absolutely.  I wonder if hanging out at the mall is still a thing for teenagers. Yeah, I don't know. know in Fairmont it's not. I don't even know where they even hang out, be honest with you. They just go to...

34:20
each other's homes and kind of hang out there, but it's not like it used to be, you know? So yeah, that's actually good question. But I know I have been at the mall like on a Friday or Saturday night and it's not a thing locally, but maybe some other places it is. I'm not sure. Yeah. I have no idea. My kids, my youngest is 23 and my oldest 35, so they don't know either. Yep. And you wouldn't catch me dead in a mall these days. I haven't been to a mall in years.

34:49
years and years.  I see no reason to go.  They're a dying breed. mean,  it makes me sad because  the Fair Mall was like, it was the place to go when I was young. mean, they had restaurants, had grocery stores, all the  stores were full. And now you go in there and there's maybe two retail stores left. I mean, it's so sad. You you go in there, it's like, this is not what it used to be, you know? So it's just kind of a change in times, you know?

35:20
Yes, it is astounding to me how things have changed since my dad was a teenager. I mean, he's 81. Uh-huh.  And he's so like with it. He's so up to date on stuff and he's in great health. He's in great shape. He's smart. Oh my God, this man is so smart.  Awesome.  And I asked him what it was like when he was a teenager.  And  he has this story about his foster mother because his mother died when he was two.

35:50
Okay. And his dad, his dad worked for the state of Maine fixing roads. That was his job. Okay.  And, uh, my dad tells this story. He can't stand corn. My dad will not eat corn to save his life.  Okay. Part of it is that when he was growing up and spending his time with the foster mom, when dad was, was working,  she made a lot of corn recipes because they grew corn. Oh, sure. Yep.  And,

36:19
He can't handle it. And I'm not a big fan of corn either, but that's just, I don't like it. I don't like too much of it. And I'm like, there's gotta be other stories. And he's like, well, he said, I spent a lot of time fishing in the creek behind the house and watching the eagles come in and lay their eggs. You know, they had nests in the trees and in the, um, the rock walls, going up the side of the creek. And he said, I just spent a lot of time out in the woods doing boy stuff.

36:49
He said, and if a girl wanted to hang out with me, she had to like do him buy it boy stuff too. Sure. Yes.  And I just he's so far removed from that that talking about it is  weird for him, think.  Uh huh. What a great life, though. What a great life.  You mentioned that. And I think about back when I was young, too, I used to climb a lot of trees. I mean, that's what we did as kids. You know, you'd go to the neighbors or friends or whatever. Let's go crime. Climb a tree.

37:18
I don't even see that happen anymore, you know, but you know, we don't have phones in front of our faces and that sort of thing. So that's what you did. But that just sounds like a wonderful life of your dad. Yeah. And us kids kind of followed in his footsteps because we lived  quite, I mean, we lived a good half an hour away from a lot of our good friends.  So we spent a lot of time playing in the woods that were behind our house when we were growing up  and going out.

37:46
the creek and catching brook trout and  I don't know, just the stuff you do hanging out in the woods as a kid.  I don't know that a lot of kids have that experience right now. Yes, I know.  It kind of makes you sad really when you think about it.  Yes. But I was just curious, I'm trying to find somebody who's like  90, who is still in good health and still capable of having this kind of conversation with me.

38:13
Just have a nostalgic conversation about what it was like when they were growing up So if you know anybody, let me know I will definitely do that. Yes,  because a lot of what we farmers and homesteaders and ranchers are doing  It's based on what those people did too. Uh-huh. Yep So that's of where I'm trying to go with that But  either way I grew up in the 80s the 80s all I can think of is Madonna and Prince I listen to a ton of music

38:43
And back in the eighties, that's when MTV came around. Sure. Sure. And if I wasn't out in the woods screwing around or riding my bike, I was in front of the TV watching MTV and  all the lyrics to music. That's what I was doing. Yeah. I'm a huge music fan too, especially live music.  Sticks is my favorite band. So anytime I get a chance to go see them, I love that. So classic rock, that's kind of, that's my thing. So  that makes sense for the seventies. Yep.

39:12
Absolutely. Yeah. And I grew up on all the weird overtly sexual strange music.  The stuff you couldn't get away with in the seventies, you could get away with in the eighties. So,  all right. Thank you for entertaining me on that question. It's really not necessarily homesteading, but it's sort of within the realm of history. So  thank you so much for your time today, Wanda. I really appreciate it.

39:40
Absolutely, I loved it. So thank you for asking me.  Oh, absolutely. And you'll have to come back and visit me in a year and we'll see what you're doing and where you're at. good. Thank you.  Thank you. Have a good afternoon. Yep, you too. Bye.