Red Dog Ridge

Today I'm talking with Tina at Red Dog Ridge. You can follow on Facebook as well. If you'd like information regarding the documentaries mentioned, click here. 

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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. Today's Homestead Holler is a shout out to O'Connor Family Acres in Le Sueur, Minnesota. They offer duck eggs, goat milk, and soaps are coming soon. You can find them on Facebook at O'Connor Family Acres. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment.

00:26
Today I'm talking with Tina at Red Dog Ridge. Good morning, Tina. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well. Okay, first thing I wanna know is why is it Red Dog Ridge? Well, because we have sheebas and we live on a ridge and we were trying to figure out a name for the farm and we at that time had a litter of puppies and then we were overrun with red sheebas. So the sheeba in you. So.

00:54
My son was like, what about Red Dog Ridge? Okay. Awesome, I love that. I hear really good things about the Shiba's, but I've never met one in person. Are they really nice dogs? They're temperamental dogs. They're a bit of drama queens. They can be nice. There are ones that are very nice, but ours are not. They're not real friendly to others, but they're real loyal to their families. Nice. I know they're beautiful.

01:23
That's about all I know and I've just never known anyone who has one. Everyone I knew or know has German shepherds or labs. So, so those are the ones I'm exposed to the most. Okay. We also have a lab. So, labs are usually pretty cool. The ones I've met have been really friendly and really silly and I love them. Okay. So,

01:52
Tell me about yourself and what you guys do at Red Dog Ridge. It's my husband and myself and I have three children, two daughters and a son. We own 20 acres in the Houston, Missouri area. We raise mini jerseys, red bourbon red, red bourbon turkeys, chickens, cooney cooney pigs. We sell meat.

02:22
or chicken, pork and beef. We just opened a farm store where we sell milk and eggs and a few little homemade items. We just have been here about four years trying to get established with the communities.

02:38
Okay, was this a COVID decision? No, no. We had bought the property. It was completely raw. We bought the property in 2019, right before COVID had hit. And then during COVID, we were we traveled full time for 20 years before this property. And we always knew that we were going to buy property, we were looking, we have been, you know, back and forth across the United States and up and down.

03:07
probably 14 different times. So we looked all the way from New York to Arizona for what we were wanting. Finally settled on Missouri because it was pretty middle of the country and my husband's an electrician and my son's a lineman so they can get to the bigger jobs anywhere pretty quickly. But settled on Missouri and then during COVID we were over in Nebraska working.

03:36
And we came here on weekends just to kind of make it, you know, we put in an RV park for our RVs because we knew that, you know, we weren't going to be having houses for a while. And we just started building it from there. Nice. So what had you traveling for the previous 20 years? My husband and first off, my husband's work, he only did like oil refineries, coal plants.

04:05
large hospital jobs. So I mean, we went to the big jobs all over the country and we homeschooled our three children. And then my son, he wanted to go into becoming a lineman. So he took three and a half years into his apprenticeship and then we traveled together once he graduated and he went to transmission jobs and you know, we took smaller jobs, but we went to places we wanted to see and explore.

04:35
Well, I'm going to say that sounds like fun. I don't know if it was, but it sounds like it was fun. It was a blast. For 20 straight years, we were just nothing but tourists. So, I mean, it was no responsibility. We didn't have a home, you know, back in the sticks and bricks, we just were full-time RVers. And we saw, I mean, we've seen, we've been to every state except for Hawaii. And we've seen a lot of amazing things, met a lot of good people.

05:02
So I'm going to stick with fun. That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm, I'm, I couldn't do it. I am such a homebody. I love coming back to the same place when I leave. So, so for me, it would be really strange. So that leads me to my next question. Is it really strange that you've been in one place for four years? Oh yeah. It was a, it took a lot to get used to, but that was originally why we started RVing was my youngest daughter. She did not like.

05:30
packing up and moving and changing friends. So we got RVs, so her bedroom, her house, was always the same. It was just outdoors that was different. Yep. And we loved coming back, that our home was always with us. But yeah, coming back to a sticks and brick house and staying put for a while, it was really organic. We came back in 2021 to build my son's, he built a shed house, half shed, half house.

05:59
We came back to just oversee that project. They were putting the shell up and we never left. We were supposed to leave three weeks later to go to, I think it was back down to Texas, but we were like, you know what, we're just gonna kind of hang out here for a little bit longer and haven't left yet. Wow, okay. So you've been doing a lot in your interim stay for four years. Tell me what you've been doing.

06:27
Oh, well, we've built four different residences. We've built three tiny homes. And like I said, my son has a shed house that's over 2000 square foot. We have the cows, so we've fully fenced in our entire property. We've put in water, our septic, electric, built chicken coops, built turkey coops. We've, you know,

06:57
put in roads, cleared pasture. We've been busy. Yeah. Busy is an understatement, I think, because I looked at your, um, your website and your Facebook page and, uh, busy seems like a very weak word for what you've been. You have been straight out go, go, go. And, uh, the one picture that really stood out to me, I think it was yours was the pregnant pig laying on her side. Oh yeah. Yeah. She looks very uncomfortable and I don't know when that picture was taken. So I'm assuming those babies have been born and already.

07:26
They're in the world. She had her babies, well, she had her third litter with us three days after Christmas. And so we have 18 piglets that are just a little over a month old. They're just the most adorable little things. But yeah, she was very, very, pigs are only pregnant for three weeks, or three months, three weeks and three days. So it's a short gestation, but she was very uncomfortable at the end.

07:56
Yeah, my second baby when I was pregnant with him, he was a big baby. By the time I was due with him, I was done with being pregnant. It was a good thing too because when he was born, he was 9 pounds, 12 ounces. Oh my goodness. I was very done the day he was born. I can relate to your pig. It is not easy at the end. Honest to God.

08:23
No, she barely did. She doesn't want to move. She didn't want anything. Bring me my food. That's what she wanted. Uh huh. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing I want to say about pigs is piglets may be the most adorable baby animal ever known to man. I say the exact same thing. I love my cows. I will literally take a bullet for my cows, but piglets are the most adorable babies and the cooney cooney piglets with their big ears and their short little snouts. Adorable.

08:53
Yeah, and then they just grow up to be pigs and I don't have the same feelings about adult pigs that I do about baby pigs. Yeah, yeah. The girl pigs are like, man, you guys are ugly. Adult pigs are not nearly as cute as the babies. And I always joke that babies are cute so that we don't eat them, even human beings. And with the baby piglets.

09:18
I know that that's an end that piglets can meet from their moms. So I don't think they're cute so their moms won't eat them. No, that's true. That you have to be careful that the moms squish them and then eat them and that's kind of sad. But yeah. Yup, exactly. So I've asked this of a couple of people in the last year or so I've been doing the podcast and I don't always necessarily get an answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Can you tell me about an average day at?

09:48
at the Ridge? Well, everyone else here goes off to work. They still have regular nine to five jobs. So it's just me. I keep it kind of flowing here.

10:05
I check fences, I collect eggs, I mean we have a lot of animals, 67 chickens, just those, so you know someone's always got something going on. I milk cows, that's you know every day twice a day.

10:30
Bake, we have, we offer baked goods in the store. So I bake the special of the day. Today it was garlic pull apart bread. So that was this morning. We eat pretty, what we grow. So a lot of everything is homemade, which takes a lot of effort and time. It's just, you know, mundane chores. Uh-huh.

10:53
Garlic pull apart bread sounds wonderful. We're having pizza and salad for dinner. And I was like, hmm, I don't think I have time to make garlic pull apart bread. But boy, if I did, we'd be having that too. It smelled so good this morning. I was like, you know what? I think I'm gonna whip up spaghetti for lunch. Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of garlic. Everybody who knows me knows that if they're like, we're gonna do Alfredo, I'm like, okay, put all the garlic in it. All the garlic, yes.

11:20
We keep trying to grow it and I found out from somebody on the podcast that the reason it's not doing well is because our Dirt is too dense. We need more We need more peat or sand in our our lovely loam. Yeah, we didn't we couldn't grow garlic either I mean for like three straight years, I never got a garlic crop and then I had to put it in a raised bed That's what we're gonna be working on this spring

11:44
because I would really like to grow our own garlic. I'd like to really grow a lot of our own things looking at the way things are going with inflation right now. So. Yeah. We've got a really nice, lucky hero. We've got a great guy down in Houston that goes to the farmer's market every week and he is just like a green thumb and he grows everything. So what I can't grow because I'm a struggling at best gardener. I go and get it from him.

12:14
Are you a struggling gardener or are you a learning gardener? I'm on the struggle bus. It does not come easy for me. I'm learning, but I'm definitely struggling sometimes. So a little secret, even the most fantastic successful farmers are on the struggle bus sometimes growing things. So you're not alone. I promise you.

12:37
I had a question when you were talking and I forgot it because that's what happens to me. I keep saying this, I'm listening to you guys when you talk and I'm like, I have a question and I hear what you were talking about and I lose the question. I should keep a notebook beside me, but I really don't want to hear. I'm bad at this. Okay, so the store that you guys have, did you build it and then stock it and then open it? Is that how that went? We

13:06
We got a, my, it was, I mean, it was really kind of her, but my cousin gifted us a cabin. I think it's like a.

13:18
maybe a 12 by 20 cabin, a shell of a cabin. So we put it out front and we separated it into three separate areas and framed out some walls. And we just put a, it's just a little store. It's only about 150 square feet. But I mean, we are met with a lot of happiness from people around us. We're out pretty far. We're about 17 miles to the nearest small town. Oh wow.

13:46
hour and a half to anything with decent shopping. So there have been a lot of positiveness that we've received with that you know that they finally have some you know good choice of meat. Eggs sell out every morning by nine o'clock. Doesn't matter how many I said out there they are always gone. It's a

14:13
It was a struggle there for a little bit trying to get it built in the ice storms and the snow storms and everything, but we did it. Yeah. So it's on your property? Yeah. Nice. So it's like a farm stand, but it's a store. Yeah. Well, we can only sell raw milk in Missouri off our property, either deliver it or on farm. Yeah. And I was going into the farmers markets for two straight years. I've been going to the farmers market in town and taking orders and then having people

14:42
come out here to buy it. And I was like, you know, it's just easier if I, it's stocked in the fridge, what we have every day, and people just come at their leisure to pick it up. And on their way, I mean, people have become such introverts that the unmanned farm stand is really popular. So they, there's a cash box or they can Venmo their payment and they go and get what they want and then they leave. Okay, now I have a question. In Minnesota,

15:09
If a farmer wants to sell the raw milk, they are not really allowed to bottle it and just sell the milk in the bottle. You have to bring your own container and they will fill it for you. That's different in Missouri? Yeah, it's different. We can sell raw milk. I sell it in glass jars on farm only. So it can be bottled in whatever we have and then they can pick it up. Okay.

15:38
I think what I said is accurate about Minnesota. I may be wrong, but every time we've gone to get raw milk, which doesn't happen often the last time we did it was three years ago, we brought our own mason jars so that the farmer could just pull the milk from the tank. I would have to look into it again, but that's typically how it's done here. So does he pasteurize it or he just puts it in a holding tank, a cooling tank? It's just a clean holding tank.

16:08
And the last I checked, like three years ago, the farmer has to be really sure that his tanks are clean, that the little stick that he draws the milk from the tank with is clean. It's a thing. So there's some real regulations here in Minnesota about it. Yeah. Thankfully, Missouri is pretty free on most things. That was one of the reasons why we chose Missouri. Not a lot of restrictions out here where we are at.

16:38
Mm-hmm. Are you in the southern part of Missouri or the northern part or the mid part? It's more mid-southern. If you're riding, riding between Springfield and St. Louis and you go down.

16:54
south a little bit. Okay, so what's in an average winter? I mean, we haven't had an average winter in three years, but in a normal winter, what is the average low for you guys? We have, you know, we've like I said, we've only been here all going on four years. And every year we've hit one year we hit an actual negative 13. This winter so far, we've had a negative two.

17:24
maybe two or three weeks of real cold temperatures. So do you have a longer growing season? Is the frost date? The frost date is still, which I think is we're in zones.

17:39
Zone six? Yeah, we're in zone six. I think our frost date is February, February 15th. Wow, okay. All right, so you have a far longer growing season than we do up here in the Arctic tundra. Yeah, we can usually grow into, everybody says, you know, until late October, but really I think until early December. I was still getting peppers in December. It's still 40, 50 degrees out there, so.

18:10
You know, every time I talk to somebody like you, I think we picked the wrong state to stay in when we moved over four years ago. Yeah. We moved half an hour from where we lived before. And we threw around ideas. We threw around Wisconsin. We threw around Iowa. We threw around Northern Missouri. And we just couldn't leave Minnesota. For some reason, just could not drag our feet out of the state. Well, it's beautiful out there. Yeah.

18:39
We were in Clinton, Missouri for a while. We were going to go up into that area, or Clinton, Wisconsin. But, I mean, we traded. You know, Missouri's not, in my opinion, it's not real pretty, it's not real mountainous. So you trade that for the niceties of the weather. Yeah. And I keep hearing from people who live in Missouri that they really like it there.

19:07
I said to my husband like a month or so ago, I said, I think we picked the wrong M state. And he said, do you mean we should have moved back to Maine? Because it's where I grew up. And I said, no, we should have moved to Missouri. And he looked at me like I had three heads. And I said, honey, I've talked to a bunch of people from Missouri on the podcast. And they all say, it's really pretty and it's a good place to grow veggies. And he says, too late now. He said, I can't move again. I'm like, okay, that's fine. We don't have to move again.

19:37
So when did, I'm sorry, when did you open the store officially? Officially in February 1st, but we were, two weeks ago we had, we were kind of accepting people coming in, but officially it was open February 1st. Okay, and how did that go? Was it fun? Was it exciting? It was, yeah, it was a lot better turnout than what I thought. We were very steady. I mean, I guess people would say it was real busy, but it was, we had about 22 people show up.

20:06
So, I mean, it was a steady flow in and out, sold out of almost everything. Like I said, we tried to meet people the first day to just, you know, the people we hadn't met before. And we just got really a lot of positive feedback that people were wanting what this had to offer. Well, congratulations. I'm very excited for you. That's really good to hear that people understand that what you're doing is important.

20:36
Yeah, I think that, I mean, I really do think that there's a need. And I mean, I think across the country, if, you know, we just shorten the supply line from our food to our actual tables, you know, we'd be better off. Absolutely. Amen. I can drive, I think it's a 20 minute drive to a place that sells chicken and beef and lamb and eggs. And

21:04
It's a farm. I can get all that in one spot and we have a garden. So, you know, from, from mid June till the first part of October, we're pulling veggies out of the garden to eat all the time and we will have our own chickens again here in the spring so we don't have to buy eggs. Oh my God, Tina, I hate buying eggs at the store. I know. And we put, um, why, you know,

21:32
I didn't know a lot about chickens when we first started. Thankfully, it seems like God put the right people in my path that I needed. I talked to this old Amish woman that she runs a store just maybe 10 miles down from us. And she said the best advice she could have with chickens is add to your flock every spring. That way in the winter you don't buy eggs. She's like, it's like, it's a dagger to your heart to go and buy eggs when you have chickens sitting outside.

22:00
Oh yeah, absolutely. And we made a poor life choice. We got rid of our chickens back in September or October because we had like 10 or 12 chickens and they were getting old and lazy and they were only giving us a couple of eggs a week. And my husband was like, I'm not feeding chickens that don't produce all winter. And I said, that's fine, call them. So he did. And this is before the egg prices really spiked and we're really regretting it now. We should have just gone and gotten some laying heads.

22:30
to build up the flock, but we didn't do that. So this spring, we're gonna get six chickens that are already laying, and we're also gonna get like six or eight chicks. Baby chicks. And raise them, so they'll start laying 22 weeks later. Yeah. But my point being about being able to drive 20 minutes to get most of what we need is if I knew somebody closer and I probably could find somebody, you can.

22:59
You can stock your house and your freezers and your pantry without having to go to a grocery store, but you have to know where to go. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, like I said about that farmer's market in our downtown Houston area, there is the guy that sells the vegetables. And I mean, he has everything, everything you can think of, he has it. Wintertime, he's growing lettuces. He's got high tunnels. So I mean, if you go to the farmer's market there, you can stock up on all your veggies.

23:28
There's a lady that goes there, she has a wonderful beef and dairy herd, and she just got accreditation to do dairy products. So she makes her own raw milk cheese and other dairy products. She sells it there. She brings beef, she brings cheese. You could literally do everything at the farmers market, stock your whole pantry, and buy a birthday gift.

23:55
But people, you know, they just seem reluctant to want to go there.

24:02
How come?

24:06
I'm not sure. I mean, we are so maybe indoctrinated that we have to go to Walmart. We have to go to the local grocery store that, you know, that's where our food comes from. I don't know. I'm not really sure. They run ads. I think people are aware it's there, but I don't know. Huh. That actually surprises me because we have a very small farmers market in the town that we're part of. And people come to that every Saturday morning. I mean,

24:35
If there's something else going on, like if the state fair is going on, the farmer's market's going to be slow. Yeah. There's no question. But, you know, on a normal weekend, there's a lot of people who go to the farmer's market and they spend money. It's crazy to me how much money they do are willing to fork out. And it makes me really happy because we have a very robust, thriving, and we're going

25:02
bunch of people who are creative and who either raise animals or grow produce or make things. And they come and they sell their wares. And it's such a nice little community of people who are trying to help each other, you know, symbiotic relationship thing. Yeah. I mean, I never really kind of experienced, we didn't frequent farmers markets a lot while we were traveling. I wish we

25:30
But yeah, it's beautiful that everybody there and they're so helpful to each other. Any one of those people, if I needed assistance, they would come and help me. They might not know me very well, but they're just really amazing, nice quality people that go there and just try and sell what they're creating or growing. I wish that more people would frequent it. Yeah. I'm just blown away that they don't.

26:01
It's in your town? Yeah, it's in Houston, Missouri. That's the closest small town. It's about a half hour away from us. They do have a good amount of people that go there, but really not the amount that should. Huh. Okay, I'm going to have to chew on that and see if I come up with any ideas for you to get more people to come because I love games like this. I love puzzles. Okay.

26:30
So what's your plan? Are you going to keep doing what you're doing? Are you happy staying in one spot? Oh yeah, yeah. We are definitely happy. We are, I mean, we've been looking at other properties, maybe growing. You know, when we bought this property, we did not realize how much we would like the, we always knew that we'd have animals for our own consumption. But we, I really enjoy the cows and I love the pigs. So we're thinking maybe a larger property.

26:59
Maybe one day or you know, I don't know. We're not sure expanding probably bigger. This is the plan

27:10
Awesome. Awesome. I'm glad to hear that because we need people like you to keep doing what you're doing, especially right now. And even if the world wasn't as topsy-turvy as it is right now, we would still need people like you because we need good, locally grown food to keep ourselves healthy. Yes. Yes, I agree with that. I agree 100% with that. I think if just more people would just grow a little bit, you know, maybe we could get rid of

27:39
a lot of the problems that we have. Yeah. And honestly, I feel like people like you and people like my husband and I and all the people I've talked to on the podcast over the last year are very good at bringing people together, whether you do it on purpose or not. And we just need people to talk to each other and hear each other right now. Yes. Yes. We sit there and say that all the time. I don't have to agree with you. I mean, there's several people that surround us that are doing what we're doing. We don't have the exact same.

28:09
reason that we're doing it. But I don't care. You know, I'll work with you. You need help. I need help. You know, let's just make a community and let's back to more, you know, God's design of life. Uh-huh. Yes. Where people do things that they're good at and they share and they barter their services and they learn from each other and they get along to a point. That would be really, really nice. Yeah.

28:37
I don't have to be your best friend, but we can get along. We can agree on certain things. So, find common ground. Absolutely, Tina. I agree. So, I want to end this podcast, number one, by thanking you for your time, Tina. I really appreciate it. And number two, people, listeners, whatever, if you would like to buy things like Tina is doing and selling.

29:06
or the people at the farmer's market are putting out, all you really have to do is ask around, ask the people that you know, because I know that somebody you know, knows somebody who either sells at the farmer's market or makes things or grows produce or raises animals for meat, you just gotta ask. Yeah, contact your Chamber of Commerce. They know where the farmer markets are. So, yes, go see what they have to offer.

29:32
Yeah, I just realized that for the last year, I have been talking with people all over the United States and two people, one person in Australia, one person in New Zealand, one person in Canada. And I have never actually said, hey, if you want to get into this, here's how, how dumb am I? So anyway, that's how you do it guys. So if you want to support your local growers, you got to find them. Find them. Yes, find them.

30:00
And they're usually at the farmers market trying to build up their clientele. Yep. Or they have the little roadside stand or the little farm stand or the store and they usually have a sign at the end of their driveway with an arrow that says go that way if you want good stuff. Yes, stop here. Stop here. Turn here sweet corn. Exactly. And stop. Stop and patronize them. Yes, please.

30:25
All right, Tina, thank you so much and good luck with your future endeavors. All right. Thank you very much. Have a great day. You too. Bye.