Wild Ones Homestead

Today I'm talking with Michelle at Wild Ones Homestead. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
Did you know that muck boots all started with a universal problem? Muck? And did you know that it's their 25th anniversary this year?  Neither did I. But I do know that when you buy boots that don't last, it's really frustrating to have to replace them every couple of months.  So check out muck boots. The link is in the show notes. The very first thing that got hung in my beautiful kitchen when we moved in here four and a half years ago was a calendars.com  Lang calendar.

00:26
because I need something familiar in my new house. My mom loves them. We love them. Go check them out. The link is in the show notes. 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.

00:56
You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Michelle at Wild Ones Homestead and Michelle is in Wisconsin. Good afternoon, Michelle. How are you? I'm good. How are you?  I'm good. Has the sun come out there yet? A little bit. We had thunderstorms earlier, but the sun peaked out and I was able to clean up some of my garden beds with the kiddos, which was nice. They don't have school today, so.  Uh-huh.

01:25
Yeah, the sun just came out  maybe 45 minutes ago here in Minnesota where I live. And  I didn't think my husband had any time off because of Easter. And he texted when I was doing an interview at 10 o'clock this morning  and it said, I'll I'll be home. I'll be leaving at noon. And I was like, Oh no, did you get fired? And,  and I said, Oh, question mark. And went on to do other stuff. And he texted me back and he was like, it's good Friday.

01:54
the company closes at noon.  was like,  Oh, okay. So of course I was busy with stuff, not thinking and didn't tell him I had an interview at one.  And he got home and he was like, so do you want to do lunch or you just want to wait till dinner? And I said, I have an interview at one. He was like,  Oh yeah, no, we're not doing food right now. said, no, I mean you can make food, but I can't, I can't eat right now.  So, so big surprises around here today after 10 30 in the morning. That was very weird.  Um,

02:23
Okay. So tell me about yourself and what you do at Wild Wands Homestead.  Oh gosh. It might be more of a question of what don't we do.  But so we have,  it's about 63 acres here  and we raise beef cows. I actually just started  milking one of them. They're  Angus Holstein Cross. So they do have a little bit of that dairy genetics in them. And I really wanted to attempt to milk a cow. I'm actually not.

02:52
a cow person. My background is in horses. But it's like, we have cows here. We have bred them to have babies. Why would I not milk the cow? Like this? Well, yes. So my husband thought I was crazy. He grew up with cows and he worked on dairy farms a lot when he was younger. But he was like, you're nuts. That cow's never going to let you milk her. And ha ha.

03:16
I actually got almost a full gallon today and her calf has 24 seven access to her and I'm doing it loose in the pasture, which is really fun. But so on top of the cows, we also raise chickens, which I always joke that I have a chicken retirement farm because we have about 50 chickens, but  probably 20 of them are really old hens that are pushing 10 and don't even really lay anymore, but I get attached. they just kind of out.

03:44
We do multiple gardens.  We do a really big garden where we plant like corn and hot peppers and  potatoes and melons and squashes and anything that we want on term. We actually did two years ago, we had so much corn. We had a bunch of friends come over and help us process it all. And we had enough corn for us and three other families to last two years. So  we do a lot of corn.

04:13
And then I've got my smaller like potage style garden behind the house where I've got, you know, like my tomatoes  and  my garlic is my favorite thing to grow.  And, you know, asparagus and strawberries and zucchini and my herbs, the things I like closer. We planted an orchard a couple years ago, but those trees are not big enough to start producing yet. We collect maple syrup and I turn a lot of that into sugar. So I almost exclusively use maple sugar in my baking.

04:43
Um, what else do we do? We forage and we love mushroom hunting and wild berries and any of that.  We do hunt and fish  and we both have our trapping license. I don't  use mine.  Mine is mostly so that I can legally check my husband's traps if he were to get injured or something,  but he does all like trapping of nuisance critters. And then I tan the hides, which is really fun. So  we just kind of stay busy year round jumping from.

05:12
One thing to the next, you know, he grows and harvests most of the hay for he feeding the animals. And obviously we've got the horses here too.  That was my lifelong passion. Even when I was in  high school and riding and training horses, I said, you know, one day I want to move out West to like Montana and just have a little homestead where I have my horse and some chickens and a cow and raise as much food as I can.

05:39
I kind of took a roundabout way to get here and obviously I'm in Wisconsin still, not Montana, but I did live out West in Washington for 10 years. So  I had my out West experience and I'm kind of doing what I always wanted to do, which is fun. And my husband definitely is more of the farmer side where he wants, you know, let's make a profit on it. And I'm like, I don't care about money. I just want to do it cause it's fun.

06:05
I kind of wish that we could not care about money. Wouldn't that be wonderful to really not care about money? We,  you know, we barter a lot, which is handy. We've got the sawmill here too. So he's a logger by trade and then people know that. So they'll be like, oh, we have this tree or this, you know, giant log. Do you want it? And he's like, oh, of course. So he'll bring it here. And then if we're having a slow day of something else, we're spending it in the sawmill.

06:32
milling all this lumber and we trade it for people or we use it in our various projects like with the house we're building right now.  And  it's great to trade off to people if they need lumber for projects and be like, Hey, you want to come help us fence  or you want to help us rake hay in the summer or harvest this giant  field of corn by hand. So that, that definitely works out knowing the right people. And he's lived here in this area his whole life. So he knows.

07:02
Literally everyone and they're all the same kind of balloon collar tradesmen that all have different skills that are all really handy. So it's like, it takes a village to do it all and we all love helping each other and it's great.  We, just have a lot of fun. mean, it's not all fun all the time, but I'd say overall, I couldn't imagine doing anything else really. Yeah. There's a lot of truth to the saying about it's not what you know, it's who you know.  Yes, absolutely.

07:32
I hang on that a lot because  I definitely don't know everything. I know just enough to be dangerous,  but I always say I know a lot about a little and a little about a lot. And that way if I can help, I do. And if I need help, I can reach out and ask. Right. Anytime I'm sharing like what I'm doing  online on all the platforms, I'm always like, this is how I'm doing it because it works for me. It might not be the correct way to do it, but you know what?

08:00
This is how I'm doing it and it works. And I really like winging it and just seeing, and if it doesn't work, oh well, try something new next year. Uh-huh. Your mileage may vary is the other one that I say a lot.  Um, so I saw that you just had a new calf like six days ago.  Yes. So we've got three that were all born within the last two weeks. These are our first babies born here. We've done bottle calves for several years, but.

08:30
I don't know if you've seen the price of bottle caps right now.  I hear they're really spendy. It is so high. And then by the time you get them off of the milk replacer, and we always also give ours  grain while they're little,  at least the bottle caps that we're buying just to help, you know, supplement, make sure they're growing strong and everything. By the time they're done with that, and then let alone feeding them and caring for them for two years, the profit is just,  it's not there.  So.

08:58
It was like, we've got these heifers. We might as well try to breed them because we are going to end up getting priced out of buying bottle caps was what was going to happen. So  yeah, the first babies that were actually born here. So I'm not having to bottle feed them, which Dan's like, that must be nice. You don't have to bottle feed. I'm like, well, I actually really like bottle feeding the babies. Even when we had like 12 at once, I thought it was great because they're just so cute.  But.

09:24
Now I have less to do in terms of taking care of them, but that also means they're not as friendly. So I'm trying to like butter them up and be like, look, this one like scratches and this one lets me milk her and she gets cookies. Don't you guys want that too? But there's still a little squirrely about everything at this point.  Well, keep trying. They'll probably love you eventually. I hope so. One, of course we have one cow that's just not friendly  and she's

09:52
one that dropped a heifer this year, the other two are bull calves. So I'm like, I really need to try and make her baby friendly because I do not need two crazy fence jumping cows. Yeah, no, no, that would not be great.  So I have a question about this because  I have never owned  a cow and I certainly have never been part of the breeding process or the birthing process or anything else.  When

10:20
When I was watching the video of the baby be born, vicariously through you, I'm watching this beautiful animal give birth to a beautiful baby. And in my brain, I'm like, it's all going to be good. Mama's going to what she's supposed to do. Baby's going to be healthy. It's all going to go fine. In my little nervous system and in my heart, I'm like, God, I hope everything goes okay. So when you're in the middle of that,

10:50
Do you have like  opposite emotions warring in you because number one, it's exciting, but number two, it's scary? Absolutely. Especially when it was my favorite cow giving birth, because I'm like,  I don't want anything to go wrong. if it would go wrong, it's always the favorite that something goes wrong with. And it's her first time calving. So you really have no idea.  But  you know, they all did such a good job. I was really impressed. And we do have like the chain.

11:19
the chains on hand that you wrap around their legs to help pull if something goes wrong. And again, we have all those friends that have cow experience as well and live close. So Dan was actually at work when my favorite cow was giving birth and he was like, you got it under control? And I was like, I think so, because she's so friendly. If something were to happen, I'm pretty sure I could. She'd let me pull it on my own. No problem. But we also have all of these wonderful, knowledgeable neighbors and friends that live close by that could have helped. But yeah, it's.

11:49
It's nerve wracking. want, you know, healthy mama and healthy baby at the end of the day. as everybody that has livestock knows, if you have livestock, you have dead stock. it's,  it's gone good so far, but it's always, you're waiting for when your time to experience that is going to come. Yeah, exactly.  And the reason I even ask is because there's a lot of people who are starting to get into homesteading. They're starting to lean toward the idea of it.

12:18
And I never want people to think that it's all sunshine and roses and candy. It's not, it's work.  And I don't want to discourage anybody, but I also don't want to be like,  oh, if you do it, your life is going to be perfect for the rest of the time you're on the earth, because it's not. There's things that you have to learn. There's  experiences you have to have.  Right. And I say, if anybody is really wanting to get into homesetting, start with plants.

12:47
start with something that if you kill it accidentally, it's not a creature that's suffering for lack of knowledge or experience. A plant is easy to restart and you really don't have to feel bad about it. Is it a bummer still? Absolutely. But an animal is a lot bigger deal to lose whether it was just to lack of knowledge or just fate made it happen that way. That's, it's a big deal. And I've always been really anal about

13:16
any animal that I want to bring in. I do so much research online and really make sure that we have the good facility set up for them. I know a lot of the home setting way is to kind of work with things where you're at, but in terms of animals, you really have to have the proper setup. Do you need 20 acres to have a cow?  No, but you also shouldn't be putting them in a 20 by 20 pen and thinking they're going to live in it under a tarp shelter for five years.

13:46
There needs to be a little bit of preparedness when it comes into taking care of another living creature.  There sure does.  We have, we have 12 chickens here. They're like,  I don't know, they're like 30 weeks old now. So they're new laying hens.  And yesterday it poured. And of course the chickens were out in the run and some of them were actually out in the yard because they figured out how to fly out of the run. Cause that's what chickens do.

14:16
And my son went out to put them back in the coop because it was really windy after it rained. And he said, I could only find 11 of the 12. And my son's an adult. It's not like he's a five-year-old going to camp, find a chicken.  And I said, well, she's probably sheltering in  the tree line because it was really raining. And he's like, well, okay. I said, look, I said, she's either sheltering in the tree line or something picked her off. We know this is how it goes.

14:45
Last night when my husband went out  to try to find her,  she was over by the shed. And I asked him this morning, said, was she soaked? And he said, oh yeah. And so I'm waiting to see if she gets sick because chickens can actually get sick from being wet and cold. So we'll see if that one survives. They're pretty hardy. know, as fragile as chickens are, I've seen them survive some  absolutely.

15:14
gnarly things. I've actually got one I'm nursing back to health right now.  She's I could probably turn her back out. I'm just babying her because she's old. were babysitting my in-laws dog who's been here all the time.  And for some reason she decided she wanted to attack some of my chickens. And I thought it was dead when I found it. But she like blinked at me and I was like, Oh, you're alive. Okay, now we get to do chicken emergency care. But

15:43
It's been three weeks since that happened and she's doing good. just got her hanging out in what I call my baby coop. It's where I put any broody hens to hatch out the babies.  Mostly so that the roosters are not harassing her  while she heals. But  I really didn't think she was going to make it, but here we are. She's not laying eggs, but like I said, chicken retirement farm.  I love it.

16:09
Okay, so do you do like baking or any of that stuff too?  Oh yeah, I mean I have a huge sweet tooth especially and the kids love  any type of homemade bread that I make. I don't do like a ton of sour bread. I know a lot of homestead people like sour bread, sour dough bread. We're just not, it's kind of hit or miss. Sometimes we like it and we'll eat a bunch of it and then we'll go for you know, six to eight months without eating sour dough. So my starter is currently in the freezer.

16:38
for whenever I feel like it's a good sourdough time again. But yeah, we love to do as much homemade cooking as we can.  And  all the snacks and stuff are things that I make. I don't like buying junk food from the stores. One, because I'll eat it all. Like  there's no stopping me. If I get Oreos, I'm gonna eat all the Oreos. So it's better to just not buy them.  And then I think homemade stuff tastes better too. we really, we like.

17:07
snacking on all the homemade things. I made some cheddar biscuits to go with our eggs for breakfast this morning and the kids devoured those.  how many kids? Two. Okay.

17:20
All right, and how old are they? My daughter will be 10 this summer and my son will be eight. Oh, so they're the perfect age to be learning all this stuff and helping out. Yes, and the school that they go to is really fun because they do a lot of hands-on like gardening and they've got farm animals and stuff there and they've actually tapped trees and done syrup at the school and the teachers are always talking to me. They're like, your kids know so much of this stuff already. And I'm like, yes, because we do it at home. you're just

17:49
Engraining it in them even more because it's stuff they already do which is fun  I bet that when they when when the school introduces a new thing to the kids your kids are like  hold my beer I got this  pretty much  there's not there's not too much that they haven't tried They're really excited to try and milk the cow with me this weekend They wanted to try it this morning, but I was like I need to run out there between thunderstorms So why don't we pick a different day  for you guys?

18:18
because I just need to hustle today. Yeah. Isn't it amazing how the weather predicts what you can and can't do on a homestead? Oh, absolutely.  With the animals, you're doing it  no matter what the weather is. So that's again why plants are easier. Cause if it's now, Oh, I don't have to go out and take care of that plant today. You do with the cow.  Yeah. Cause they get really cranky when they don't get milked.

18:47
and loud, they get really loud. Today  was day five and she already sees me coming with my bucket and I just have, I put little horse cookie treats in my pocket and that's how I'm getting her to stay still. I give her a cookie to start and then halfway through I give her another cookie and then when we're done she gets her third cookie and then she just wanders off. She wiggles a little bit because we're doing it loose so the other cows will distract her and she'll get up and walk a few feet and I'm following her on like, come on Tula.

19:15
sit in one spot so I can finish, but she's actually just a really, really sweet cow, so it's gone well. That helps a lot.  The reason I was being kind of snarky about the weather, my husband is trying to get our high tunnel ready to go to move  seedlings from our greenhouse into the high tunnel, because  our greenhouse is an actual hard-sided greenhouse.  And he and my kid have been, our kid, I keep saying my kid, our kid, have been getting all the framing in and all the

19:46
the cattle panel arches on it and all that. And the next step is to get the plastic on it. And every time he's like, I want to get the plastic on it at this point in time, it's raining or it's really windy. And so he was looking at the weather for this weekend. He's like, keep everything you have crossed that it's not windy Saturday.  Yeah, I've got all of my plants are actually up in the office where I'm sitting right now  because

20:16
It's easier to keep this heated. It's inside of our shop than my greenhouse. So, but I'm looking at how the weather is going to be at night over the next week. And I'm like, Ooh, maybe it's going to be warm enough that I'm not spending a million dollars on electricity, keeping my greenhouse warm because my tomatoes really need to be up potted. I'm like, this is a ticking time bomb. don't have space  in the office for this stuff anymore.  Yep.  I'm right there with you. The greenhouse is packed.

20:45
full. Like he sent me photos and I thought,  um, you are  out of room.  And he said, yeah, he said, that's why I need to get  the plastic on the high tunnel so I can move stuff over. And I said, is it going to be warm enough? And he said, I think so.  Okay, good.  But, uh, did you plant extra plants this year so that you can sell seedlings? Cause that's what we did.  I did  last year and I did.

21:14
Pretty good, I ended up making like 600 bucks, which basically paid for what I put into the garden for the year.  But we're so busy with trying to get the new house,  I call it a cabin or a new house depending on the moment. It's going to be our new house, but we're making it look like a cabin, so either one. But we're just a busy with that right now. I'm like, I don't know that I want to take the extra time  to.

21:41
do extra plants. I've got a bunch of like dahlias because those sold really well last year and you know, the tubers multiply every year. So I'll go off my extra tubers. And then I took some elderberry clippings because people love to buy elderberry and those are so easy to take a clipping and root them and sell them for five bucks at a pop. Yeah. Okay, I'll do dahlias and I'll do my elderberry and then everything else I'll just do for myself. So. Yep. That's a really good idea.

22:11
And this is one of the things that I love about homesteaders and gardeners and farmers and people who raise animals and they all kind of fall under that homesteading umbrella.  We are, if nothing else,  ingenious because we will find stuff that's that's easier, not easy, but easier to make our lives easier. Yep.  And  he was planting.

22:38
basil seeds like a month and a half ago in the kitchen in the little tiny cells that you start seeds in on my kitchen table. And I said, how many seeds are you planting? Cause it was a lot. And he said, Oh, there will probably be at least 150 basil plants. Nice.  And I said,  um,  what are we going to do if people don't buy them? He said, we're going to plant them.

23:04
and we're going to sell cut basil at the farmer's market. He said, and we will be drying basil every day from the point that we can cut it until it's time to put it to bed.  So and stick it in the freezer. I do with mine. If I get hordes of it, I just make pesto and pop it in the freezer. And then I've got an easy pesto for  whatever when I need it. And I have some in there that's like three years old and it still takes. Yeah.

23:32
Yep. I just didn't realize he was going to plant that many. mean, the tomato plants will sell, the squash plants will sell, the cucumber plants will sell. But most people think that basil is just for spaghetti sauce and it's not. I love basil. That's one of my favorite things to grow. And I end up with a lot of pesto because I grow a lot of garlic. I think that's probably my very favorite thing to grow. Last year I planted

24:03
600 and some garlic cloves in the fall. So I will have a lot of garlic to play with here. I do all the hardneck varieties. So they should up the garlic scapes, which are edible. Yeah. Do you find the right market? You can sell those for like $16 a pound. Wow. Yeah. So I'm like, I think I might have to sell some garlic scapes this year. Usually I keep them all for myself because they're so delicious. But I'm like,

24:29
You know, 600 plants, I can probably  sell some of them. I'm glad you brought up the scapes because I've never eaten them. Are they a milder flavor of garlic than the actual garlic bulb? Yes. So it's like a slightly garlicky, maybe a little bit oniony flavored,  kind of crunchy, like a raw green bean. I like to just saute them with like

24:55
some butter and salt and pepper or put them on like an Alfredo pizza. But I've seen people make pesto with them. I've done garlic  scape butter. You can do salt. Like there's a million uses for it. it's  basically you're getting a bonus crop from the same plant. So why not? I may have to pick up some from the co-op because they sell it. They sell scapes when it's that time of year.

25:23
I want to dice it up or slice it up and put it in Alfredo sauce. Yep.  Do it. I think that would be great.  I really love to cook, but I really love to cook things that are like half an hour from beginning  to eating  because my husband has a half an hour commute home and that way I just have to start cooking the minute he calls me and then food's ready when he gets here.  Right. That's what I try to make sure dinner's done about when my husband gets home from work.

25:49
because that's nice we can eat and then we can go do whatever projects we're doing because he does not sit still ever.  So it's like, okay, we can eat quick and then go do whatever we need to do next. So it worked. Are you a fan of the one pot meal because then you're not busy trying to do dishes after dinner?  It depends because sometimes my husband can be a picky eater. He says he's not,  but he can be.

26:18
I'd say the biggest thing we run into is, we've got a freezer full of beef and then we butcher hogs. We've got, he's got a buddy that raises pigs and we can buy them from him for, I think last year we got them for like $180 a hog and then butcher them here at home. So when you have a freezer full of beef and pork, you're mainly just eating beef and pork because why would you buy meat from the store? So.

26:41
Things get a little old sometimes of eating the same thing over and over and over again. But yeah, if I can get away with one pot meals, definitely, especially  when the kids are here, it's like pot roast, casserole, perfect.  Yep. My husband  is like meat and potatoes dude.  And I am not meat and potatoes girl.  I really am kind of over the meat with every meal thing.

27:09
Oh yeah, I take a for a week without eating meat and it wouldn't bother me at all. Uh huh. And I was going to make spaghetti sauce last week for having spaghetti. And he was like, do you want to pull out some burger to cook up and throw in there? And I was like, no, I do not. And he looked at me and I said, I need a meal without meat in it tonight. I said, can you just have marinara sauce?

27:35
He was like, wow, you are really over it. said, I am really over it. said, I am so sick of meat and starch that I could just die.  I said, so can we just have marinara sauce and pasta? And he's like, yes, we can. And I said, oh, you caught the tone of voice. He's like, yes, I did. I said, I'm sorry. said, me too.  So  resolved. Right. Yeah. There was definitely nights where I'll just have like a bite of meat or whatever. And I'm like, eh.

28:02
I love that about having the garden right behind the house in the summer. I'm out there snacking on fresh putties all day. like,  don't need to eat anything else. I'm just going to snack on whatever is growing right now.  I do not want to wish away May, June, and July, but I'm not kidding you. am so  looking forward to having a cucumber a day with my dinner because we don't let the cucumbers get huge if we're just going to eat them.

28:31
I can't wait. That too. My husband gets so sick of it because we'll eat zucchini and like a garlic scapes every meal for so long that he's just like, I don't want to see another one. But it's so good. It is. And honest to God, I didn't even know that you could saute zucchini until maybe 15 years ago. And every summer, as soon as that first perfect zucchini comes in,

29:00
And it's usually like when the husband is at work and he won't eat zucchini. He does not love green veggies, which is crazy because he loves to grow them. But every summer that first really nice zucchini comes in the house and my son and I chop it up in really thin slices and we put olive oil in the pan, a little bit of garlic powder or actual garlic diced up and just fry it up. And it does that caramelization thing. And that is our lunch. And it is the most lovely

29:30
zucchini we will eat the whole summer, the first one. Yep, I like to do that. And I put a little bit of red pepper flakes on mine too to give them like a little bit of a spicy pop. So good. A little bit of a zing. Yep. I really want it to be gardening season and we still have a month and a half. Well, we have a month before we can get anything in the garden. Right. I normally like my tomatoes and peppers and I not until June.

29:57
And sometimes it's a week or two into June, depending on how the forecast looks, because I've done it where I'm running out there trying to find buckets or pots to cover everything. Cause there's a frost warning and that's just not fun. So I'd rather wait a little bit longer.  Where are you in Wisconsin? Like mid state, like the driftless region, I guess.  Oh, okay. Cause we plant  basically we don't plant before May 15th because of the frost risk. Okay.

30:27
And then we do, and if they die, we just replant them. We just put more in.  Yeah, know June has been pretty consistent for me forever,  and that's what my mom does as well. She's like,  she lives like an hour from me, but she's like, yeah, no, just wait.  Yeah, give it time.  And this year we probably could get away with waiting until June 1st because of the greenhouse, because the tomatoes are already growing and they're going to continue to grow, whether they go out.

30:55
gardener this day in the greenhouse.  Right, yeah, we just got my greenhouse last year. That was the new addition. So that was really nice. And filled it up and was like, okay, now I need one twice as big.  Yeah, that's the problem with this stuff. You get the thing you want and then you're like, oh, I could have gone a size up or I could have gotten two, you know.  We  go through that every year. There's always something or like,

31:24
Wonder how we could make this new idea happen. Right. It's all about figuring out what's going to make your time management better and everything run more efficiently. And what can you, how do you get more of this or the other thing? And like, we're in the middle of building this new house. And once that's done and we're moved out, we're like, okay, once that's done, we want to tear out the trailer house and build a summer kitchen there because  why not? We need another project immediately.

31:53
One thing after another, projects never end, but it keeps us busy, I guess. I'd rather be all these random physical labor projects than watching TV all day. So. Yeah, I'm always saying on the podcast that it takes a special kind of person to be a homesteader.  And I don't mean that in a negative way, but it really does. It takes a very specific kind of personality to handle  this, this life.

32:22
of,  so we got this project done and you take a breath and you're like, okay, what's the next thing? Yep. Always looking ahead.  How many more things can we accomplish this year before winter is back?  Yeah, I just got my renewal form in the mail for the cottage food registration here in Minnesota. And I have to sit down and get that started because this is the year.

32:48
Michelle that I'm actually going to bake cookies and things for the farmers market and  I have to have that registration or I can't sell them. See, I would bake them and eat them all because  I love my sweets.  Yeah, I'm  I'm at the point in my life where I eat a cookie and I'm like, that's good because sugar really does kind of make me feel yucky. Try it with the maple sugar. Get your hands on some maple sugar. That's why I if I eat any sweets with like a

33:18
white cane sugar, I almost instantly get a headache. I love maple sugar. I do not get that problem. And I seriously cut back the sugar amount from any traditional recipe. We are so ingrained to eat so much sugar. It's insane.  And if you just slowly cut back over time, you'll realize, oh, this is still really good without two cups of sugar. Like I can have a cup or half a cup, but it's still sweet.  Yeah.

33:45
I don't know, like a year ago, I started just putting a tablespoon of sugar in my coffee to start my day because at that point in the day, I don't care. I don't care if it gives me the buzz. I need the buzz.  And then I don't put any more sugar as I keep adding coffee to my cup over the next two hours. And by the time I'm done with that first cup of coffee, quote unquote, cup of coffee,  it's just black coffee. So that's, that's my sugar.

34:12
Basically for the day, I figure a tablespoon of sugar is probably not going to kill me. It's okay. And I mean, you're buying stuff from the grocery store, which I mean, we all have to they put sugar in everything. So  another tablespoon is not going to hurt you whatsoever. Yeah, I wish I could drink it black, but I just I don't love it enough to drink it black. It's got to be really expensive, really fancy coffee for me to drink it black. Yeah. When I was drinking coffee as maple sugar,

34:42
and cream, but in like the last six months, my body has decided that it really does not like caffeine anymore. Oh no. I will get like nauseous and dizzy and be down feeling sick for half the day. So no more coffee for me.  Oh, sad. I'm sorry.  And I love the taste  to drink it in the morning and come and give me a kiss. And I'm like, my taste of coffee on you and I smell it and I want it and I can't have it.

35:13
Yeah, you're probably going to laugh, but I don't drink alcohol because I don't love it. It's not because I can't. It's not like I have a problem with it. I just don't love it. But I love the smell of whiskey. I hate the taste of whiskey, but I love the smell of it. And my husband will have a snort on the weekend, you know, just a little bit. And he'll kiss me and I'm like, Oh my God, you smell like booze. And he's like, I'm sorry. I'm like, no, no, no, don't be sorry. It's That's same thing how I am with the coffee. So I get it.

35:44
Yeah, it's weird. I don't want to drink it, but just the smell of it. like, oh, that's so,  I think there's something comforting about it, which is weird. I don't know.  I'm not a big  beer drinker  or really any alcohol drinker. just, if I can taste the alcohol in it, I don't like it. So if I drink anything with alcohol, it's gotta be sweet. Cause otherwise I'm like, Yeah.

36:12
But one of the people that really likes to be like in control and aware at all times so like alcohol that's just not my jam. It was doing the exact opposite of what I want.  Yeah, I think what happened is the last time I had anything to drink that had alcohol in it.  I thought I was being smart and I was drinking some  bourbon,  real sweet bourbon, and I would have like a little bit and then I would drink a 12 ounce glass of water  and then I would drink a little bit more bourbon and drink a little

36:41
to drink a glass of water because supposedly the dehydration is the thing that kicks your ass.  And I was trying to be so careful because I hadn't had any alcohol in a couple of years.  And I woke up the next morning with the most horrible headache and I was so angry about it because I was like, I was being smart. What happened here?  And I just haven't had any inclination to want to have any alcohol since. So I'm over it. I'm done.

37:11
Also, when you live on a homestead, you probably don't want to be snuckered because, know, if an emergency happens, you got to be on it. Exactly. There's no time to be hungover. You know, you've got stuff to do. I lived in Washington. I used to joke to all my friends out there that I got kicked out of Wisconsin because I was like, well, I don't drink beer and I don't really like cheese. So they actually kicked me out.

37:37
Yeah, I don't drink alcohol, but I definitely like cheese. So I guess I would be okay in Wisconsin. I got older, I think I appreciate cheese more, but I'm not one of those people who can just sit down and slice a piece of cheese and eat it and be like, this is delicious. I'm like, no, I'll pass on. So maybe charcuterie? Charcuterie? How ever you say that, boards are not your jam? No, I would go for like the sausage and crackers.

38:06
Yeah, me too.  All right. So now we have we have  devolved into small talk and silliness because it's past 30 minutes and I try to keep you to half an hour.  Michelle, I really did enjoy this conversation. Thank you for your time.  And  I really wish you luck in getting your calves to love you because  that one who's a heifer is going to need to be milked.  Oh, I know.

38:33
I will keep everything. I've got a lot cross for a lot of people right now. I'm amazed I can walk straight.  All right. So you have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend.  right. You too. Thank you.  Bye. Bye. If you like this podcast, you would probably love Amy Fagan's grounded in Maine podcast.  You can find her on  all the platforms grounded in maine.com.