Secret Farmstead

Today I'm talking with Heidi at the Secret Farmstead.

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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. Today I'm talking with Heidi at Secret Farmstead.

00:29
in Texas. Good morning, Heidi. How are you? I'm good. How are you?  I'm good. I would normally start off with questions about the weather and things, but  I was reading your introduction on your Facebook page  and are you sure you want to talk to me in a public forum because it's a secret, farmstead? Yeah. No, I'm not worried about it at all. Let's do it. Okay. What I'm alluding to for the listeners is that

00:58
Heidi lives on a couple of acres from what I gathered, but there's something about an HOA situation. Do you want to elaborate, Heidi? Yeah, I can do that. We live in a super bougie neighborhood. Our houses in this subdivision range from probably the high 700,000 up to close to $2 million homes. We bought this

01:25
location because we left the house and it has a guest house or casita and initially my parents had moved with us. So we were told that we didn't have an HOA when we purchased our land and that is technically true.  However, we do have what's called an ACC, an architectural control committee that thinks they're an HOA and we do have deed restrictions. So  despite living in the county and

01:52
The county allowing, you know, so many  heads of cattle or livestock per acre and those kind of rules,  our little subdivision technically does not allow anything like that except for your household dogs or cats. So while I have a couple of acres that is flat and completely usable, technically I'm not supposed to have anything like what I have. And it started with maybe a couple of chickens from

02:21
uh, tractor supply. Um, and now I might have 24 chickens.  Um, and then I thought, well,  uh,  I want dairy. So  now I have maybe a few goats. So  anyway, it's just kind of expanded from there and where we live, we're on a kind of a corner lot at the entrance of the subdivision. So we don't have a neighbor behind us and we don't have a neighbor on

02:50
the other side of the property where the animals are kept.  It's next to a frontage road. So  no one's disturbed by our animals. And really most people don't even know we have them. We don't advertise them,  but we also are respectful and don't advertise that we're breaking the rules either. Uh-huh. Except for being on a podcast that anyone can listen to.

03:14
You know, I used to be really concerned about being more open about it, you know, because I'm, you know, I have a career in law enforcement and I was always a rule follower and a rule enforcer.  But my  neighbors all love my animals. So the ones that are directly  adjacent to me basically across the street or next door, the opposite side. So that's not been an issue for us. And I  routinely provide them, you know, fresh baked sourdough or goat milk or

03:44
eggs, you know, so  they really do benefit from it, even though they're not quite willing or able to break the rules themselves, they are kind of reaping the benefits of my break in the rules.  And I did a lot of research  as far as how the laws work and,  you know, an ACC is architectural control. So really that  is they can dictate, you know, the size of your home and what is built out of and your fencing and things like that.

04:12
As far as the deed restrictions that they have put into place for our subdivision, technically, in order to enforce those, a neighbor would have to take me to court. And if I thought, you my husband and I had this conversation initially, if we thought that truly this bothered any of our neighbors, we wouldn't do it. I mean, I don't want to a bad neighbor. But also, I want to be able to use my land and not have people tell me what I can and can't do because it seems silly.

04:40
that I have a couple acres that I'm not allowed to utilize in a way that would allow me to be a little more self-sustaining  and a little more, you know,  organic in my approach to my, you know, skincare and my food. So anyway.  okay. Thank you. Thank you for elaborating. Because  once I realized what was going on when I read your, your about you thing, I was like, Oh boy, I don't know if she's really going to want to talk to me, but clearly you do. I'm very excited about this.

05:10
Um, so what, what brought you to doing this? Well,  you know, I always have kind of tried to be on the healthier side of things once I had kids and my kids are grown now, but you know, I like made my own sandwich bread for my kids. I just didn't like the idea of preservatives and fillers and, and all these things being put in what we, we eat and put on our bodies. And so I wasn't perfect when my kids were young because I work shift work and

05:39
So we did have little Debbie snacks here and there, different things like that that aren't the healthiest. But generally speaking, for the most part, I tried to make everything from scratch. And then as I've gotten older and a little more educated in different things, I just lost trust in all of commercialized products pretty much in general. So especially learning what ingredients are  put in things and how they're modified to be addicting.

06:08
I remember it's been brought up recently by some pretty popular people in the media, but growing up, I would look at pictures of my parents and my grandparents and all of the family, and there were never any obese people. It was rare to see someone that was overweight or  super  morbidly obese. And then it just kind of started to make sense to me that

06:34
with the way things are being made addictive,  you you're eating more and more and you're in this cycle of, you know, this metabolic dysfunction and it's creating this problem. so just  as time goes on, just,  I tend to inch more and more  on that conspiracy side of things. And I thought, well, you know, why can't I make this or why can't I make that? Because then I have complete control of what's being put in my body and what we're eating. So

07:03
And that's just kind of how it's evolved. You know, started with the whole bread thing. read somewhere that  I think Subway puts  an ingredient in their bread that's also put in yoga mats. And I thought, well, that's really weird because bread should only be, you know, flour and water. And so,  and then I started my sourdough adventure and that was challenging, but I've got it down now. So,  and then soap kind of became a thing. I thought I had an interest in making it.

07:33
little intimidated. I like bought the things but didn't do it until I actually took a soap making class. And I thought, well, that's not as hard as I thought it was going to be. And I loved it.  The lather, the  way it felt on my skin, just I really enjoyed my own soap and I shared it with friends. And then  I started hearing stories about how their kids' eczema cleared up and how much they liked what I was making and I should sell it. And I'm like, yeah. And then it's just kind of

08:02
You know, evolved from there and here we are.  I have a bunch of soap curing right now  anyway. So yeah, and now I'm doing lotions and body butters and sunscreen and  just trying to be as healthy as I can be and be in complete control of what is going in and on my body.  Okay, I'm glad you brought up your sunscreen because I was  was scrolling through your Facebook page and I saw the sunscreen post.  What do you?

08:32
You listed the ingredients for the sunscreen bar or whatever it is.  What is actually keeping your skin from getting burned in that?  the coconut oil and the tallow both have some properties that  are protective from the sun,  but it's the non-nano zinc oxide that also. So I don't know if you have looked at pictures of like old lifeguards back in the  50s or the 40s, like they would have the white on their nose or whatever.

09:00
That's  the zinc oxide except  it wasn't the non-nano zinc oxide. So  what I have is white, but as you rub it in it, it goes clear.  So that's why I use the non-nano version. But those are all skin protectant.  Okay. I didn't see the zinc part in the post.  I was like, how is she making that work? Because I've made some too with the same kind of zinc and it actually does work. It's amazing. Yeah.

09:27
And I personally really don't use sunscreen because I don't typically burn. I just kind of have a natural olive complexion. if I do get a little red, goes, gone the next day. But my husband and my daughter are both very fair skinned and they both burn super easy. So I'm like, well, look at all these chemicals in these sunscreens that we're buying. You know,  I'm going to make you sunscreen. now that's  whether they like it or not. That's what they use. It's my stuff. So and then again, it's like, well,

09:55
friends were interested and I'm like, well, there's no reason I can't make this as a part of the product line as well. So that's what I did. Yes. When  I made ours, I had a couple of friends who were willing to be guinea pigs  and I said, you're trying this at your own risk.  Do not sue me if you burn.  And they were like, no, we trust you. And I'm like, don't trust me. I'm new at this. I'm just trying to see if it works.

10:20
I said, I tried it, but I'm not out in the sun a whole lot, so it's not going to have the same impact, you know?  Right. And one of the people came back to me and said, I'm going to need like three more sticks of that stuff. It works great. And so anytime we create anything here for sale, we always say, your mileage may vary.  You're doing this at your own risk. Right. Don't come burn my house down if something goes wrong, you know?

10:50
Yeah. And I love that I have a group, you know, my family number one, and then I have a select group of friends that have young children too. And they have been super beneficial to me because they'll test anything I make and give me some feedback before I actually put it as a product and, at my vendor events or at the store we have in Harker Heights that carries our products.  Because that way I can make modifications. Like I'm now doing lotion bars because

11:17
I have some friends out of state that want me to send them my body butter, but it doesn't have any stabilizers and it doesn't have any really emulsifiers other than the beeswax in it. And when it does separate, we learn this the hard way.  It doesn't go back together. not, it's never right again. Yep. And so  I won't ship it because I can't guarantee with the heat that it's going to get there and it's going to be usable, but I'm hoping my lotion bars.

11:42
are going to kind of be the happy medium that maybe I can ship those to other people that want those products with the lotion  and not have it be a separation issue that it's not going to be good when it gets there.  Yeah, I love lotion bars. I started making them maybe 10 years ago.  And  the only thing I didn't like about them is I made them in little tins. So basically you would tip the lotion bar out into your hand and then you would have it all over your hands.

12:10
And so you had to have paper towels or something nearby to wipe your hands on.  And I finally got smart and they make these little half-size  twist up, like deodorant shaped containers.  And I've been putting the lotion bar stuff in that and then you don't end up getting it all over your hands when you're trying to put it on your arms or on your feet. Right. Yeah. I haven't gotten, I haven't done the tubes yet. I just have them in molds and I put them in little boxes.  Um,

12:38
I think they'll work out well. might have to explore that tube ID at some point. That might be a great option as well. Yeah. And when I started making them, my youngest was, I don't know, 10. And so there were a couple of times where I was trying to put lotion on my elbows, because you get ashy, dry elbows in the wintertime in the Northern States.  And he needed something. And I was like, you're going to have to give me a minute, because I had lotion bar all over my hands.

13:07
And I was like, I got to find a better solution so that it's not all over my hands when I'm using it. Right.  So, and I also don't like the lip gloss pots. I would much rather have the tubes. So I'm just like that. That's just me. Yeah. No, that's a great idea. hadn't even considered that. I know they do it for deodorant and I haven't made my own deodorant yet. I know that's kind of like  on my radar, maybe the next thing to try.  But

13:34
I kind of have to also pick and choose because it's just, you know, it's a rabbit hole. Once you get started, it's like, man, it's, you get pulled in so many directions, making so many different things, you know, jack of all trades. But a master of none is kind of where I feel like I'm at right now. So I want to, I want to get comfortable and good at what I'm doing before I, I add to the mix and maybe, you know, overextend. Cause I don't, you know, I don't, I just do this kind of mostly for fun. I'm not doing it as a, as a career. So,  um, mostly for me and then.

14:04
or like I said, our friends and family. then if I can make money on the side to pay for my hobby, even better, know? Yeah, for sure. Definitely.  I started mine out out of necessity because I really can't use store bought soaps. And I had bought the  the cold process lye soaps at a farmer's market. I bought them from somebody who made them  and loved it because my skin didn't itch. I was hydrated. It smelled good. The lather was great. And I was like,  honey.

14:34
husband of mine and he said what and I said can we try making our own soap?  He's like what's  how you do it? And I said um Google it. And he pulled it up and looked at how to do it and he said yeah I can I can make this in the garage and we did it when the kids were smaller we were concerned about  doing it around them  and  ever since we made ours it's been a thing and it's been at least 15 years of us having our own homemade soap in our house I  freaking love it.

15:04
And that just sent us down the rabbit hole on lip balms and on lotion bars and wax melts and candles and all the fun things, you know? Yeah. You don't realize how much is in all of that stuff. I before this, you know, most of my adult life, was Victoria's Secret lotion. I'm not Victoria's Secret Bath and Body Works lotion. Like I love their cherry blossom and like I just I would go on their sales and stock up and buy a gazillion of them at a time.

15:32
And I actually still have a few tubes like buried in the back of my cabinet in my bathroom that every time if my daughter has friends come over, I'm like, hey, he wants some bath and body works lotion because I'm not going to use it. So, but yeah. And then like when we started doing the soap, the whole goat thing came into play because I couldn't find goat milk anywhere.  number one in Texas, you can't sell it for consumption, which is fine.  I didn't need it for consumption. I just needed it for my soap making.

16:02
Um, but I kept trying to find places, whether through Facebook groups or  on Craigslist. And I couldn't find the closest one I could find was an hour away. And I thought, you I'm not going to drive, you know, two hours every time I need to get some goat milk. So  it just made sense. I mean, we got the Nigerian dwarf goats. We've got them, they're on about  half to a three quarter of an acre area where they, where they live.  And, um, that it's,  it was a problem solver and they're easy and they're

16:31
our entertainment. Honestly, they're so much fun. We just adore our goats and had no idea. I grew up in a city in the Bay Area.  I was always a city girl. I never grew up with anything other than a couple of dogs and cats my whole life. So never thought I would be living in Texas on a couple of acres raising livestock. So  it's been a complete turnaround for me that I never saw coming.  And then I tried the goat milk. I thought,

16:59
I had goat milk years ago.  Some friends of ours in the state that we were living in had goats and I tried it I'm like, I don't really like that. That's kind of gross. But I also didn't realize because I didn't know that the kind of goat, the breed of goat, what you're feeding them, if you have any bucks nearby, like there's  so many different factors that contribute to how it tastes. So  with our goats, I thought I'm going to try this. And I tried my goat milk one day and I was like,

17:28
Holy cow. This is amazing. It is delicious. I cannot differentiate between this and whole milk. Like it may be richer even. It was just better. now that's all we drink is goat milk as well. So.  Yeah. When I tried goat milk the first time, I didn't like it either.  And friends of ours have goats and I got to have goat milk cream in my coffee at their place.

17:56
If I could buy stock in goat milk cream, I would do it. It's so yummy. Yeah, I so now I'm making cheese with my goat milk. I made ice cream recently with my goat milk.  It's just, I never would have thought in a million years that this is kind of where I would end up being  on this whole life path. it's been really neat. So I'm enjoying it. Good.

18:21
Good, we need more people to do these things and learn to enjoy it because then we would have a better world.  I had a question and then I said that and I completely forgot what the question was.  So you didn't foresee yourself making soaps or lotion bars either then, right?  Never in a million years. Nope.

18:45
And like I said, I had a career in law enforcement. So I worked 40, 50, 60 plus hours a week, you know, and so did my husband. And so, and then we had kids where, you know, sporting events and different things, different obligations. And so I never was in a position where I even really had the time. What little time I had, I kind of committed to baking like the breads and things like that from scratch. Yeah. But yeah, now I got medically retired a few years back due to some injuries sustained and couldn't

19:15
couldn't do law enforcement anymore.  I mean,  we do real estate on the side for kind of fun as well.  But yeah, I just like I have this time, why not venture in doing some of these things? And I'm not artsy at all. Like I don't, I can't draw, I can't envision things, but soap, I can kind of get a little creative and be like, okay, this turned out really pretty, you know? So  it gives me that little creative outlet, even though I have zero creative ability in the big picture.  So.

19:45
It's kind of fun. Yeah, the honeycomb bars. I don't know that was soap or lotion bars or whatever it was on your Facebook page are so pretty. Yeah, those are my I have  it's my  my oat and raw honey. get my raw honey from a place here nearby called  Walker Honey Farms  and  I buy it by the gallon and I go in there and I spend too much money on all of the all of the honey things.  But I love that it never goes bad. And so I thought, well, with my

20:15
raw honey bars, my oat and honey bars, I'm just going to do those with those, those bumblebee molds. It was perfect to me. And so even my lotion bars, I'm doing with those molds too, because they're so high  in beeswax. So I feel like it's kind of appropriate. It's, you know, bee based. So it'd be molds anyway. you should change your name to secret hive farmers did.  Yeah, I would maybe if I had bees myself and  I'm just not brave enough. So I'll just buy from

20:44
my local source here and I appreciate that they're doing all that hard work for me. So. Yes. And how thankful are we for local sources? There's a guy down the road from us, maybe two miles that has honeybees. He raises honeybees and his bees come visit our garden every summer and pollinate everything for us. And at some point we're going to have to take some of our produce to him and be like, here, this is what your bees provided for us. So we're giving you some.

21:13
Yeah, yeah, I love I feel like our country or at least my area in general is kind of venturing towards the more handcrafted homemade locally sourced items,  whether it's food or, you skincare or or, you know, whatever.  And, you know, the product that the store that carries our product in Harker Heights, which is a neighboring town, it's called Solstice Studios.  And they that all they carry in their store is

21:41
local handmade products. And so  it's just neat to go to these things and see what all kinds of people can make, you know, that you can get here. And then to  meet other vendors, you know, I was at a recent vendor event  last month for Mother's Day and the vendor next to me  does also honey  bees and sells honey and other honey tinctures and products and whatnot. And then I found out, well, shoot, she's like 15 minutes from me.

22:11
So, you know, she grows, she grows luffa and I'm just growing luffa now for my soaps, but I'm months out before it's going to be usable for my soaps. But now I have, you know, an even closer source for local honey and for the luffa and other things that I can incorporate into my products. And so it just, I like that we seem to be going that direction versus a big commercialized, you know, made up product with chemicals and things. I don't know. I just feel like

22:41
It's bettering our community by keeping things local and having a partnership with people in the area that have kind of like a similar mindset. Yeah. And when you do that, everybody in that community wins in some way. Yes. You know, a rising tide raises all ships. It's been said a bunch of times on the podcast in the last year and a half. And it's true. You know, when you buy from a local grower,

23:09
You're supporting them in their continuance of their business. When you are a local grower, you are helping feed your community or sharing whatever it is that you make and everybody wins. And I don't mean to beat a dead horse over this, but you are literally proving my point with what you said. Yeah, no, I, I more and more am going that direction. If I can get it here, I'm going to get it here. I don't care if I have to pay a little bit more for it. It's worth it to me.

23:37
to know where it comes from. even we have a local source for beef  and I started out with a quarter beef to try it out. And then we're like, oh, this is amazing.  And then it's like, and we increased, increased. Now we get a whole cow once a year from this family, but they're the next town over. And I can look at their cows and I can be a part of what they're doing. And I'm supporting their family and they're giving me grass-fed, grass-finished beef.

24:06
product that is far superior than anything I've bought in the store. Even like round steaks and that was what surprised me because I grew up, know, where we  ate the cheaper cuts of meat because, you know, the times were what they were and you were when you're raising a family cost is everything. And so my parents would buy a lot of sirloin steak and I like would chew it and chew it and chew it and like wouldn't break down and I hated steak as a kid. So we got this whole beef and

24:33
Even like the round steaks, which normally you have to tenderize the heck out of to get them really  where they're tender enough to eat. I don't have to, I can barbecue that just as is and I can cut it and it's just like, almost like a New York quality in this, in  the tenderness. so the quality of what I'm getting for what I'm paying as well is far superior than what I was getting in the grocery store.

25:00
Yeah, and if you're anything like me, the security feeling that you get from knowing that you have that beef in the freezer and it will last you quite a while is probably helpful too. That's what I love about it, about when we get a half. When I fill my freezer with that meat, I feel like I'm the richest woman in the world. And I know that's the dumbest thing to say, but like, man, I've made it.  It's not dumb. And I say that all the time. When I say things like that, I go, and that's really dumb.

25:29
It's not dumb and I have to stop saying it too. It is seeing the benefit of planning ahead, using your local resources and having the means to do it. It's not dumb. Well, I, you know, we moved out to Texas in 2020 and we went back and forth as far as what we wanted. Like, did we want a house in a subdivision with amenities? Did we want a house with some property?

25:57
We went back and forth and then this house popped up and like I said, it had the guest house, which was going to be perfect for my parents.  So that's kind of where we ended up where we ended up. And we also had factored in our age, you know, I'm going to be 50 this month. And so how many years do I have that I can really work land? But now I always grew up in a subdivision. I never lived on land my whole entire life. And so we were always sandwiched into a neighborhood where you had no room in between. And now that I've had a couple acres.

26:23
I can't imagine going back to a scenario where I have a neighbor,  like neighbors right on top of me, number one, and number two. Now,  you know, between,  I don't know if you follow like Joel Salatane, the lunatic farmer and people like that, but we've kind of gone that route as well. And I'm like, man, we're looking for more land, actively looking to like, how can we get enough land where we can grow our own beef and have our own dairy and

26:50
be able to move paddocks and do the sustainable farming and regenerative farming  to properly support our land and have a water source. That never was important to me. And all of a sudden right now with some obstacles that we've had with our water provider, I  would probably donate a kidney to have a well. So I didn't have to rely on a water service provider.

27:19
Maybe, I don't know,  at some point, the right time we can look at upgrading our space.  But for now, I feel like what we have,  it's humble, but  I feel like utilizing it pretty well.  I think you are from everything you're saying.  We have a well here, and I am so thankful for it  because there was a summer or two summers ago, last summer we had all the water we could stand, like it ruined our garden. But the summer before that,

27:49
Basically from the first July until the first of September, it really didn't rain here.  And  we were very thankful for the well because  the problem with it raining a lot is you can't suck the water back out of the garden. But if it's dry, you can water a garden. Right. I would rather have a drought situation because we have the well than what we dealt with last summer with the endless rains for six weeks.  Right.

28:17
Yeah, our  scenario is a little bit different in that we have what's called a water service corporation. It's technically a member owned thing, but unfortunately it's kind of  got a corrupt leadership  and office. And I just am at the point where I don't want anyone to have control over my resources. So,  you know, I don't like, they had threatened to disconnect our water.

28:46
because we don't have a second meter for this guest house on our property, which was built over a decade before we bought it.  anyway, so  just, I don't like the ability for nefarious activity that someone could cut me off of a resource or have control over my access to that resource. So  for any reason other than non-payment, of course, because you need to, you  it is what it is. You have to pay for what you get, but.

29:14
Yeah, if I could get a well,  would absolutely. And that's one of my criteria. If we do end up moving, we do buy land somewhere, it's got to have a well, or we have to have the ability to put in a well  so that we can be in control  of our resources. So I'm jealous of you. I would give  anything to have a well  for our water.  Well,  I'm always saying I'm jealous of people too, so I get it.

29:43
But it's really weird when we moved here. It was so weird to not have a water bill because we had lived in town and had a water bill for 20 something years.  And my husband was like, I'm going to go water the garden. And he hooked up  the hose to the spigot thing on the well.  And he watered for an hour and a half.  I was like panicking. I  was programmed to panic because, you know, I was used to having to pay for the water.

30:13
Right.  And I came in and  he came in and I said,  that was a long watering. And he said, yes, he said,  it's a well, we don't have to pay per  the gallon anymore. Yeah. He said, you're going to have to get used to this. He said, remember when we paid off the house that we used to live in and you  panicked  the first three months because you were like, did you pay the mortgage?  And I said, yes. He said, you're going through the same thing.

30:43
I was like, oh yeah, I am okay.  So it's really weird when stuff that you've been doing forever changes because your body and your brain  are so programmed  to the thing you used to do. It takes a while to get used to the new way of doing things. Yeah, no, it definitely does. you know,  my sister-in-law her husband live in North Texas up in the Panhandle and they live on a lot of acres and they have a well and we

31:12
We have a water filtration system set up  for our water because I just, don't, the water doesn't taste good. I don't like all the chemicals in it.  So  we only use the filtered water. But when we went to my  sister-in-law's house recently,  my brother-in-law was funny because I was drinking a bottle of water and he's like, why don't you drink our well water? It's  delicious. And so I'm like, okay. And so I gave it a try and I'm like, man, this is amazing. You don't have a filter, you don't have anything.

31:42
And this is just straight from the ground, you know, and you're in your well and it was fantastic water. So  just amazing how much what we do consume is altered.  Um, you know, and I, it's supposed to be for the health and benefit of the community and safety and all of that. But like just straight natural from the ground was far better than even my filtered stuff. So anyway, yeah, one day, maybe one day I'll have a well dreaming of a well.

32:10
I will keep my fingers crossed for you,  All right, I try to keep these to half an hour  and I always feel like half an hour isn't enough. I'm going to have to consider making them an hour long.  But  I really enjoyed the conversation with you. I have one more quick question. Do you grow any produce? Yes, we do. We have a garden that seems to expand every year. So,  you know, between kale and peppers and corn and tomatoes and

32:39
Yeah, all of the things we grow as much as we can. And have a greenhouse that we put in last year to help us get through  the colder months. So we don't have to lose a lot of stuff and  we can start things early. But yes, we we grow our own produce. So and it's been hit or miss on success. We have a lot of problems with squash bugs and things like that. But  this year we learned about beneficial nematodes  and

33:03
applied them and that has made a world of difference this year already. So we're excited for our garden this year.  Nice.  I've got to look that up. keep reading about that, but I haven't done enough research yet. And the other thing is that we've been trying the diametaceous or however you say that  earth, I guess it is  on the ground around our tomato plants.  And it seems to be keeping the pests away. So I'm hoping this is a new thing.

33:33
Yeah, DE works great too. We use that in various places. I kind of use it in  the goat shack area to help keep flies down. And yeah, I use the heck out of that too, but the beneficial nematodes have been for us a game changer this year. So maybe give it a try. Hopefully you'll have a success that we've had with that. I'm going to have to look it up and do some digging about it because I don't know enough about it yet.  All right, Heidi, thank you so much for your time. Where can people find you?

34:03
So I'm on Facebook and Instagram under secret farmstead. So I don't have a website as of yet. I kind of intimidated by that, but maybe eventually or my email at secretfarmstead at gmail.com. All right. Awesome. As always, people can find me at a tiny homestead podcast.com Heidi. I hope you have a great day. And again, I've said thank you three times. I'm going to say it again. Thank you so much for talking with me. I appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me. It's been my honor to be on your podcast. All right. Have a good day. You too. Bye.