Rawly-Mae Farm

Today I'm talking with Daniel and Joni at Rawly-Mae Farm.

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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.

00:25
Today I'm talking with Daniel and Joni at Rawly-Mae Farm in Tennessee.  Good morning, guys. How are you? Good morning. Good morning, we're good. How are you?  I'm good. And as we just said before I hit record, you guys have been up all night getting ready for things going on in your life. And I have  some pretty good allergies kicking my ass this morning. So we're going to try to make this as good as we can.  So you were saying that  it's really  muggy in Tennessee this morning?

00:54
It is. It's very humid and muggy and we're, it's dry enough for us to our hay. So we're getting our hay done right now. So. Says it feels like it's 87 degrees. Ugh, gross. Well, it's raining here. Just so listeners have a weather update from Minnesota to raining. Nice soaker. I'm really happy about this. This is good. So tell me about yourselves and what you do. So, um, we.

01:22
of course, own Rawly-Mae Farm. We started that in 2021. We are a first generation. We've both been around agriculture, our whole lives. But when we got started, Daniel was a police officer with the city of Cookeville and I was a special education teacher in White County. So we have

01:52
We both put in  over 10-year careers in those before we were both able to step away to just doing the farm. We have  two  children, Eliza who is nine and Ralston who is seven.  They are big into rodeo. We travel a lot with them and  try to support them the best we can  with all of their endeavors.

02:19
I think we have too many pets to actually name  as far as the livestock and the  dogs and stuff. But  that's just kind of like a short snippet of our life. Okay, awesome.  And I don't want to,  I'm going to do the opposite of burying the lead on this one. You said that you are getting ready to sell your farm. So does that mean that you're getting out of this?

02:48
No, it means we have outgrown where we're at currently. So we are landlocked where we are at. The airport in our area owns the land for the majority around us. So there's nowhere for us to expand. And with the amount of animals that we currently house,

03:17
needing hay and just the production of it all, we're needing to expand. So  we've been looking in White County for a farm that offers more acreage.  Okay, good. Cause I was,  I was afraid this was going to be a sad episode because I just talked to somebody last night and she did end up selling her farm,  um, year or two ago and she's moved on to a new thing and she's very happy doing it, but she misses her farm a lot.

03:46
Yeah, so I was like, oh no, not a second one selling no  Right  No intentions to stop  Good. Okay. So what do you guys do at Raleigh May?  So  we sell  various livestock  we focus mostly on menter cattle  and highland cattle  as well  as  various exotics like llamas alpacas,  especially chickens

04:14
Polish, Silkeys, know, stuff like that. Mature donkeys are a big thing that we sell. And we do little bit of everything. I we travel all over the United States. I think we go to several livestock sales across the country. we recently, the first of last year, started doing our own deliveries, which has expanded to, you know, we're delivering to, I think we're up to 23 different states that we have delivered to or sold.

04:43
livestock to over the past three and a half four years Wow, okay, and did I see that you guys take in animals that that need a home as well We do we've got Various rescue animals a lot of times when we buy animals to resell They just stay here. We all fall in love with them and they don't go anywhere. So that's

05:10
One of the perks of the job is we get to see all kinds of animals and sometimes we like them too much for them to go anywhere else. They become part of your family? They do. They do. They're a large family. Yeah, it sounds like it. It sounds like you are overrun with family. Yes. We have new members of our family coming sometime in next two weeks. We have three barn kittens coming to live with us. Awesome. We just actually might.

05:38
My cousin just gave us, she was going to give us a couple of her barn kittens and it turned into six barn kittens. we've recently found homes for four of them. So we're down to just the two. Well, we are the home. Our friends have three mama cats and the first one had babies about seven and a half weeks ago. All orange striped kittens. Oh wow. The whole litter. Oh yeah.

06:08
And my son says that orange cats have  one brain cell spread amongst all of them. So  we're getting dumb cats as far as  my son's concerned. He thinks that they're all stupid.  I don't think they're stupid. I think they're pretty. So I'm good with this. And then her second cat had all orange kittens,  but one was black and they were born, I think five weeks ago. So they're not ready to leave mom yet.

06:36
And I really want that one black kitten, but I don't want to wait another three weeks to get it. So,  so we're getting two females and a male because, um, luckily these kittens are free, but to buy barn cats is expensive. It's at the, at the humane society here in Minnesota. It's like $50, $50 for a barn cat.  Oh, wow.  Here in Tennessee, cats, you can't hardly give cats away.

07:06
Uh huh. Yeah, well, I thought we were going to get one female and two males and my husband informed me yesterday that he wants two females and a male. And I said, um, that's a lot of kittens to find homes for. He said, we've lived here for almost five years. He said, how many cats have we lost where they've just flaked off or they've gotten him by a car  or a predator has picked them off. And I'm like,  um, more than I can remember. So probably a few.  said,  yeah. He said, do you really think we're going to have a problem with.

07:35
with having too many cats. was like, we might. He said, well, we're going to get two females and a male and we'll see how it goes. I said, okay, that's your choice. I said, cause it was my choice, it would be two males and a female. So we'll see how it goes, but we're very excited to have new kittens on the property again, cause I love kittens. They're so cute. So does our daughter. Yeah. And that's about the only thing we, we home here where we bring in cause

08:03
We have chickens, have a dog, we have two male barn cats right now and that is it. There are animals on the property.

08:11
Wow. Yeah. Little tiny space and not a whole lot of critters. And I'm good with this. I'm really good with this. I understand that when it comes to taking care of all of them. Yeah. But so excited that you have so many different kinds. Like I looked at the photos on your website and I was like, wow, they have got to be tending to animals from sunup to sundown and probably past midnight. It's a lot.

08:39
I say that our house gets neglected because we're never in it.  So we plan to downsize  house-wise. So  we spend all of our time at the barn. It's a never-ending  job, but  the kids are really good helpers. They each have their own favorite to take care of. Good, because you are teaching them responsibility and pride of ownership and all the good things. Yes.

09:08
Yep. Good.  So do you have milk cows? We don't currently have milk cows. We have had some,  um, miniature jerseys before.  Um, usually we get those per request for people that are looking for certain specific ones.  Um, I would love a milk cow,  um, of my own,  but  Daniel seems to think that we don't exactly have the time.

09:37
Poor milk cow. Daniel might be right. not, I don't know, I to get in middle of your marriage, but you guys get a lot going on.  We do, yes, yeah.  Okay, so  I don't want to ask a nosy question. I always feel like I'm being nosy when  I bring this up, but  is this all you guys do? Is this your job? It is, yes.

10:02
You know, most of what I do  is, you know, like, so we go different livestock sales, we buy from... A lot of times we'll buy out small farms. So there'll be farms that are just either they're elderly and don't want to  or unable to maintain their farm and want to sell their animals  or they have a large ranch  and they're looking for folks to bring a trailer and buy in bulk. And so a lot of times I will buy and then we'll do a lot of deliveries.

10:31
And then Joni  is  usually here feeding, helping with  the rodeos.  And in September of last year, we decided to homeschool our children, which is  another full-time task that she has taken on.  So  that's our full-time  gig.  It sounds like a good gig. You get to be with your family all the time. That's fabulous.  Absolutely. Great. And Joni?

10:59
Good job and congratulations on the homeschooling thing. It's a lot of work. I did it with my two.  It's a lot of work. It's a lot of time and patience and good on you for doing that. Well, thank you.  It is a lot of time and  I, you know, I taught for 11 years and  I just, we kind of had the realization I'm spending seven hours a day with other people's children.  Our son is a top one diabetic.

11:28
So we  felt the need for us to be more readily available to him  was a priority as well.  for sure. Yeah, definitely. You guys are good parents. I love it when I get to talk to people who take parenting  seriously and as  the joy and the honor that it is. Yes. Yeah. Well,  they're definitely a blessing  from God.

11:59
We wholeheartedly believe  they're only ours for a little while. They belong to our father and we're honored that he chose us to be their parents.  And, you know,  we only get the blessing to  raise them, to turn them out into  a world where hopefully they're going to be, you know, warriors for him. And  we do take a lot of pride in that. Good. Good. I'm glad.

12:25
I have four grown kids, youngest is 23 now, oldest is 35. And I lived, I like literally lived to raise them to the age of adulthood so they could take care of themselves. That was my one goal after I had my first daughter, my first child who was my only daughter. And now that the youngest is 23, I'm like, huh, I did my job and I kind of worked myself out of a job.

12:53
And that's how the podcast got born because I needed a job. needed something to do. Yeah. It's kind of, it's bittersweet that you work your whole life as a mom and a dad to raise them, to take care of themselves. And then it's bittersweet when you've accomplished that. Yeah. It's a weird thing. Like I've said it a couple of times on the podcast already, when they put my daughter, my first born in my hands.

13:19
After she was born, I looked at her and I thought, oh my goodness, 18 years is a long time. Because I was really young, I had just turned 20. And  it looked like a very tall mountain to climb. And  she hit 18 and I was like, oh my God, 18 minutes went by in a blink.  sorry, it's not a  18 years went by in a blink.  And so for anybody out there who's in the trenches with their kids right now,

13:47
try to enjoy every moment of it, even if the moments are hard because they go so fast. Yes, yeah, they do. They go so fast. it's, you know, something we get caught up in is the hustle and the bustle of, you know, the farm and there's always something to do and something to get done. But  it,  it's nice when the kids can come along and  you're teaching them

14:15
while making all these memories with them.  yeah, they're never going to forget this stuff. They're going to talk to their great grandchildren about it. Yes, yeah. And that's the other thing I hang on to is that everything we do as parents, if we're doing it right, it's going to be a happy memory that gets passed down. Yeah, yes. I know I was just  was reading something. I just posted something on Facebook this morning.

14:44
And it was like something about my mom was always, I never understood why my mom was always irritated and now I'm irritated junior. And I got to giggling because I never really thought my mom growing up, my mom passed away the same year we moved here. And I never really,  I always tend to compare myself to her because she was such a good mom and  Daniel, he can vouch for this. I'm hard on myself because she always

15:12
went through life so gracefully raising us and we never knew her struggles. And I've recently found some of her journals and I have been reading them and I have, I'm fixing to be 37 and I've just realized, oh, well, you know, my mom, struggled too. Like she has all these feelings that I had and you know, she, so I hope and pray that my, we're passing on the memories that the kids will remember all the good and that we've kind of shielded them from most of the struggles.

15:42
Yeah, and don't beat yourself up too much, Joni. We all see our parents as like not human.  They're not people. They're just our parents.  And I'm just as guilty of it as you are. I have called my mom and my dad many, many times in the last 30 years and said,  I was thinking about this thing when I was 12 or when I was 13 or when I was 15 or when I was 17 that I did. And I'm so sorry.  And they laugh because they don't  even remember it.

16:10
It was just a blip for them. Yeah.  So yeah, we don't see our parents as actual human beings that have their own thoughts and feelings and lives. We see them as the boss, think.  So,  Okay. So,  what else can I ask you?  What's the best thing about what your life is?  What do you think the best experiences that you've had in doing what you're doing? Well, I think one thing is

16:39
You know, there's,  if you read the news and you see the stories about  farmland disappearing and you see everywhere, you know, farmland is disappearing. There's, you know, subdivisions coming, businesses coming. What we get to do is we supply  many farms  all over  the country. And it seems like many farms are popping up everywhere, small homesteads.  So we're getting to help.

17:09
agriculture, you know, we're helping establish many farms, we're, you know, walking people through the process. And that's a lot of fun because we're seeing a lot of like-minded families that are trying to do, raise their children, do what's right. And so even though farmland is disappearing, we're seeing more mini farms, more hobby farms pop up with, you know, people having the right intentions of raising their family and trying to get back to, you know,

17:38
taking care of animals and going through the process that we've got away from. So that's sort of rewarding on our end.  awesome. And  since you brought up farmland disappearing, here in Minnesota, if there is a big tract of farmland, I  think it has to be over 40 acres before you can sell any part of it. Like if your property is only 40 acres, you can't subdivide it.

18:06
Really? that how it is in Tennessee or not?  It's not, no.  They have tax incentives here.  If you have 15 acres plus, they consider it as farmland.  You get some tax exemptions for certain things, but there's no requirements of certain acreage before subdivision or any requirements like that. Okay. Well, I think part of it is that half of Minnesota is

18:34
forest land and half of it is farmland. The top half is forest, the bottom half is farmland really. And Minnesota is interesting because it has so many different geological  features. Like we had the prairie lands, had the  oak savannas, we had the  evergreen forest stuff.

19:00
I think Minnesota has been really trying to preserve what they can that's left. And I think that's why that law is in place.  And also Minnesota is part of the heartland. We may be upper Midwest, but we also grow a lot of food here.  So I think that Minnesota knows that we've got it pretty good. We probably ought to take care of it.  think. then  what's the, what's the worst day you've had at your place? Cause I'm sure there's been a bad day.

19:31
Every other day. Oh no. It's very stressful. know, because the expenses have gone up, fuel has gone up, know, feed prices have gone up. You know, there's always, you know, something that needs to be repaired or something fixed, more equipment you buy. You know, so it can be very stressful. You a of times we have social media accounts and

19:57
you know, all the positive things get shown on social media, but not necessarily all the behind the scenes.  You know, we want to show the best of the farm and the best of the agriculture.  And of course we, you know, we follow several of our farm pages, but everybody wants to their best.  And most people don't realize that I think every farm out there has a stress and struggles that we don't often share with each other.

20:25
Yeah, I feel like we should probably share it more. Like we've  had bad days here at our little three acre homestead, but it hasn't been anything earth shattering. It's just been sad.  But I know I follow some accounts where people have lost horses they've had for 20 something years out of the blue and I have watched them cry on camera. You know?

20:51
And I really think that more people should be just slightly more transparent about the bad days. Because I've said this before and I will stand by it. I think that you have to be a certain kind of person to raise animals. You are putting your heart and soul into them.  And if something bad happens, it really hurts your soul. And so  I think that people need to know that because everybody posts all these beautiful things.

21:20
of these gorgeous animals that are in the prime of their lives, running around, having the zoomies, eating great food, doing the thing. And he was like, Oh, that looks like so much fun. I want to do that. And then you see the stories of an animal dying and these people just sobbing. And it's like,  I might need to think about that a little bit longer. Yes. Yeah.  And I think I posted one time. So the kids and I hatched some goslings last summer. We hatched  geese eggs and

21:50
We had three that hatched out of all the ones that we and we  Those little things would follow the kids around like they were their parents  Hand raised them they got big enough to where they could go to the barn so we had them in like a cage and one of the  horse stalls  and I came out one morning. This is probably the most  One of my worst days here Daniel wasn't here. He was off. He was hauling livestock and

22:20
Um, I went out and I thought, man, that little  one looks  different. Something's not right with it. So I got over closer and it's lower mandible of its jaw, like its beak,  um, was gone. Yeah. Entire bottom portion of its beak and I found it and something through the night where we suspect maybe a raccoon  reached and tried to pull it out.

22:48
But it had pulled  its tongue, its jawbones, like off of its face and it was still alive.  in my head, I knew that it could not survive because they had no way to eat or drink. But dealing with that  and losing that one.  And then we had  a dog that,  some pups that we had rescued.

23:17
that  their livestock, like they were blue healers  and they didn't fare well with my chickens. So  that was another bad  day. So you don't see the raw  of it.  And sometimes I wonder if people are prepared for  what is the raw of farm life.

23:44
Yeah. And I don't think everybody needs to be prepared for it because it's going to hit you whether you're prepared for it or not.  Like if you want to buy land and you want to have animals and you want to grow a garden,  do not let me discourage you from doing that. But listen to people who already doing it.  I think my saddest day here on the farm in the last four and a half years  was we had a mama cat who was basically a teenager herself.

24:14
and she had four or five babies. And when the kittens were about three and a half weeks old, mama cat disappeared. Like we couldn't find her. We didn't, we don't know what happened to her. We had three and a half week old kittens.  They are not, they are not old enough to take care of themselves. They still need mom's milk and  they were starving to death. And we gave it a day to see if she would come back and she did not. And  my husband said, we are not raising kittens.

24:44
We're not doing it. We're not bottle feeding them. He said, we have enough going on. We're going to be up every hour and a half feeding kittens. This is not going to work. And I said, you're absolutely right. I said, but I can't watch you put them down. I can't. Yeah, it's, it's hard, but we, we bottle fed one kitten that didn't even have its eyes open. So I fully understand not wanting to do that.

25:10
Yeah, that was probably the saddest day and I didn't actually cry then because we'd already lost barn cats to cars and they just disappeared but the mama cat was such a sweetheart and I was more sad that she had left her babies like like she something must have taken her because  mama animals don't leave their babies for anything if they can help it and the next day my husband was like are you okay and I'm like I'm just sad I said that's

25:39
something bad happened to her.  he was like, well, something bad happened to the kittens too, obviously. We dealt with it. And I'm like, no, I know. But mamas don't leave their babies.  It's not natural for them to just leave.  I said, so something must have gotten her. And he's like, I think you love mama cat more than kittens. I said, I hadn't even gotten to know the kittens yet. I knew the mama cat. Right.

26:05
So even that, I mean, I always know that if we have cats on the property, they are here for a limited amount of time. That's just how I look at it.  But that one kicked my butt.  was very sad for about a week and a half about it.  And I know what I'm getting into. I mean, we knew when we moved here what  we were looking at. So it's okay. But there are just hard days. And there are also days that just make you want to

26:32
I don't know, get on your knees and thank God that it went the way it went, that it was great, that it worked out. Yeah, absolutely. So, I don't know, it's a hard life, but it's a good life, I guess is what I always come back to. Yes, yeah, it is. All the good outweighs the bad. Hopefully, if we're really lucky and the Lord is shining his light upon us, we are going to have that result. There are also people that that doesn't happen to.

27:02
You know, and if you're lucky enough to be in that situation,  awesome. It's fantastic. It's a freaking miracle.  Yes. Yeah. So,  um, so you guys are moving to a bigger property. Have you already found it?  Yes, we have  put an offer  contingent on the sale of  the current farm.  so we're just waiting for this one to go on the market. Probably.

27:32
this week sometime, even as early as tomorrow and start the moving process. Awesome. Awesome. Are you going to bring in anything new or are you just going to continue with what you're doing, way that you're doing it, just on a bigger property? Well, I'm voting for a zebra. Yeah. There's a zebra running around Tennessee right now that is loose. It's quite the stir, but yes, we've

27:59
We've had some exotics.  We've had water buffalo. We've had an e-lend, which is like an antelope.  And so we're open to maybe bringing a few more exotics and we  try to locate exotics for folks as well. So if there's different exotics that people are looking for, we can help them locate what they're wanting and  facilitate that as well.  But my vote is a zebra or a camel. Yeah, camels are a

28:28
Big, big animal, Joni. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Or a kangaroo maybe. How about a wallaby? I hear wallabies are friendlier than kangaroos. I don't know. Daniel had a bad, they, Daniel and the kids had a bad experience with a wallaby not too long at a,  a live dog tail. It got loose and was like  running or got into a pen with some of the,  what was it? Black-tailed deer  and the deer and the, when it was a disaster, they had stuff running everywhere.  Oh no.

28:58
Okay.  When you guys talk about exotics, would you consider like, um, I don't know, parrots or cockatiels or, you know, those kinds of birds, would you consider an alligator or are you just, are you just talking to- Our kids would. Yeah.  There's a certain states have different laws on exotics.  And so there are certain exotics you have to have permits for, and we would probably never get to the point of having to be a permitted,  um, exotic dealer.

29:28
you know, our law stock dealer license is a little bit restrictive on what we can and cannot sell. We're registered through the state of Tennessee and we have to, you know, our records get inspected by the state and we also have to be bonded through Packers and Stockyards through USDA. So there's, we're limited a little bit on what we can buy, purchase, you know, and sell. So can't go too crazy with it, but we can still get.

29:57
you know, various exotics, which is basically anything other than your cows, horses, you know, stuff like that. Okay, cool. I just, hear exotic and I think of the exotic, um,  veterinarian lady on TV. don't remember her name now  and she does, she does all kinds of stuff. like, Oh my God, I can't believe you're treating that animal. That's crazy.  Um, okay. So where can people find you guys? We have, uh, we're on Tik TOK,  uh, YouTube.

30:26
Facebook, we have a website that we keep trying to update and keep running out of time. know, have a Google, the phone number and all that's on there. Okay. Are all your accounts Raleigh May Farms? Yes, ma'am. sure are. Okay, cool. All right, you guys, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today and sharing your stories about how hard this stuff is because it is hard, but it's good. And as always, got any...

30:55
As always, you can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  I hope you guys have a great day. Thank you. too. Thank you.