Latest / Barnyard Language / Melissa Nelson loves you more than $7 corn.

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Melissa Nelson loves you more than $7 corn. · Barnyard Language

• 0:13
  Welcome to Barnyard Language.
• 0:14
  We are Katie and Arlene, an Iowa sheep farmer, and an Ontario dairy
• 0:18
  farmer with six kids, two husbands, and a whole lot of chaos between us.
• 0:23
  So kick off your boots, reheat your coffee, and join us for
• 0:27
  some barnyard language, honest.
• 0:28
  Talk about running farms and raising families.
• 0:32
  In
• 0:32
  case your kids haven't already learned all the swears from being in the barn,
• 0:35
  it might be a good idea to put on some headphones or turn down the volume.
• 0:39
  While many of our guests are professionals, they
• 0:41
  aren't your professionals.
• 0:42
  If you need personalized advice, consult your people.
• 0:46
  Welcome to another episode of Barnyard Language.
• 0:48
  We're happy that you're joining us here on the podcast again today.
• 0:51
  Katie.
• 0:51
  What is
• 0:51
  happening in Iowa this week?
• 0:55
  It's cold.
• 0:56
  It's real fricking cold.
• 0:57
  It's actually warmer today, but it's been real fricking cold.
• 1:01
  Um, what?
• 1:01
  February and Iowa lot.
• 1:02
  Lots of of snow.
• 1:05
  I, I know, right?
• 1:07
  Um, and my passport finally came, so I bought some plane tickets cuz I'm getting
• 1:14
  the hell out of here and because I apparently don't understand how to get the
• 1:18
  hell outta here, I'm going further north.
• 1:21
  Um, so there's that.
• 1:23
  That's right folks.
• 1:24
  Do you wanna tell I go in Darlene's house where you're going?
• 1:26
  Yeah.
• 1:27
  We're gonna actually meet each No, I'm going each other in person.
• 1:29
  In the real, in the real.
• 1:31
  I'm outta here.
• 1:31
  I'm going to Arlene's.
• 1:33
  Um, yeah, for anyone who's missed this, we've only spent time together
• 1:37
  in person once and that was only for lunch and cheese shopping.
• 1:41
  So I'm going to, I'm gonna go see our baby.
• 1:44
  And that was back in 2019, her family.
• 1:46
  19, is that right?
• 1:47
  Was it 2019?
• 1:49
  I think it was 2018 ago.
• 1:50
  That's a while ago.
• 1:51
  Oh yeah.
• 1:52
  Anyway, it's a long time.
• 1:53
  A little boy was a baby.
• 1:55
  So that was 20.
• 1:56
  Yeah, he's sat on my lap for, so Katie could finish
• 1:57
  her sandwich.
• 1:58
  So yeah, he was definitely a little bit, yeah.
• 2:01
  Yeah, so very
• 2:03
  excited.
• 2:03
  So I'm filling up our, our weekend, Katie.
• 2:04
  I don't have any, uh, final plans for you yet, but uh, if there are
• 2:07
  Eastern Ontario listeners who wanna join us for, uh, I don't know,
• 2:10
  supper or something, I'm gonna put
• 2:12
  it in the Facebook group.
• 2:13
  So join the Facebook.
• 2:15
  Well, that'd be a lot of fun.
• 2:16
  And then you could hang out with both of us in real life.
• 2:20
  I did have a good laugh too, Arlene, you posted on Instagram a, a couple weeks
• 2:24
  ago, I think, about going to Costco and that you had stocked up and for a
• 2:28
  minute I thought it was stacks of toilet paper and I was like, geez, what is it?
• 2:32
  Like, how long does she think I'm staying?
• 2:34
  And then I realized it was paper towels cuz you're a dairy farmer and
• 2:37
  that made a hell of a lot more sense.
• 2:38
  Yeah, that's cause I was, wow.
• 2:40
  She's really stocking up there.
• 2:43
  Uh, Arlene, what's going on in.
• 2:46
  Well,
• 2:47
  exam week is done, so that is good.
• 2:49
  People got through their first round of exams and uh, today is actually,
• 2:53
  we're recording on Wednesday.
• 2:55
  They threw in a midweek day off, which
• 2:58
  I didn't realize was happening so, well, I guess I, I saw it.
• 3:02
  Maybe they, the school emailed last week to, to
• 3:04
  remind us about this day off.
• 3:06
  Um, so it was not as much of a surprise, but yeah, I wasn't
• 3:10
  really expecting a Wednesday with the kids home from school and
• 3:14
  I am back to
• 3:16
  volunteering in the
• 3:17
  grade three classroom.
• 3:19
  I had to pause there for a
• 3:20
  second then remind myself
• 3:22
  what grade my youngest child is in.
• 3:24
  I've got four kids so I can't always remember.
• 3:26
  So I've
• 3:26
  been
• 3:27
  doing some reading with those little people and it's so cute because they're
• 3:31
  still at the age where they're excited when someone's mom comes in and they
• 3:35
  like fight over who gets to read with me and that probably isn't gonna last for
• 3:40
  too much longer cause they're all eight.
• 3:42
  Turning nine
• 3:43
  in, in the
• 3:44
  grade that they're in.
• 3:45
  So they're starting to turn into big kids, but for now, they still
• 3:49
  line up to read with me.
• 3:51
  So that's pretty fun.
• 3:53
  And I don't think there's too much else.
• 3:55
  We've had a run of bull calves in the barn lately, but we did get,
• 3:58
  uh, one nice heifer out of a, a cow.
• 4:01
  So the grandmother, her name is Apple Crisp, and we
• 4:05
  bought
• 4:05
  her at a sale for
• 4:06
  a family who we're, um, going out of, out of dairying.
• 4:11
  So we, uh, bought her and she's
• 4:13
  kind of
• 4:13
  special.
• 4:14
  She, um, not like in a bad way, but she's always in a
• 4:18
  box stall because she needs a bit more lunch space.
• 4:20
  So she's our, our one cow that
• 4:22
  kind of gets her own housing.
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  And so
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  she's very spoiled and you have to go in and pet her when you arrive her swing in
• 4:28
  the morning, cuz she likes attention too.
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  And so her, she's Apple crisp, her daughter's name is Strawberry Crisp.
• 4:34
  And then this year our naming convention is back to a.
• 4:39
  She wasn't born here.
• 4:40
  She started with an A, but we are back around at A's, so we've been,
• 4:43
  um, strategizing on all the Apple based desserts for this cast's name.
• 4:47
  So we settled on the apple dumpling.
• 4:49
  So the whole dessert, oh, I would've assumed it would've
• 4:52
  been applejack, but, okay.
• 4:55
  Is applejack an, uh,
• 4:57
  cereal?
• 4:58
  What is Apple jack?
• 4:59
  There is an apple Jack's cereal, but Okay.
• 5:02
  Apple Jack is, I want to say apple brandy.
• 5:06
  Oh, okay.
• 5:06
  Which I think is a dessert, but, okay.
• 5:08
  Yeah.
• 5:09
  Um, I don't even know
• 5:10
  if we have that.
• 5:10
  Oh yeah, maybe we do have that.
• 5:12
  Anyway, brand differences again, Katie . I don't think we
• 5:15
  have Apple Jack cereal either,
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  but yeah, we went with it.
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  Dessert.
• 5:20
  Yeah.
• 5:22
  Well, that's good.
• 5:22
  At least I can, I can sleep out in a barn with, uh, with Apple Crisp while I visit.
• 5:29
  Yeah.
• 5:30
  I'm just kick it in her box stall with her.
• 5:32
  Yeah.
• 5:32
  That'll be nice.
• 5:34
  So on the, uh,
• 5:35
  teacher front, I think our guest today, I know our guest today is a
• 5:39
  teacher, so you guys
• 5:40
  will be happy to listen to her.
• 5:44
  Yeah.
• 5:46
  Awesome.
• 5:47
  That's
• 5:49
  today on the podcast, we're talking to Mon Melissa Nelson, who's
• 5:52
  joining us from Northwest Iowa.
• 5:54
  So Melissa, we start each of our interviews with the same question,
• 5:57
  and this is a way for you to introduce yourself to our listeners,
• 5:59
  and we ask, what are you growing?
• 6:00
  So this can cover crops, livestock, kids, businesses, and all kinds of other stuff.
• 6:04
  So, Melissa, what are you growing?
• 6:07
  Uh, right now we are growing a couple kids and some fat cattle
• 6:11
  and, um, a few businesses too.
• 6:15
  That is exciting.
• 6:16
  Okay, so we need all the details.
• 6:17
  How old are the kids?
• 6:19
  Um, I have two right now.
• 6:21
  They are two and a half.
• 6:22
  And four and a half.
• 6:23
  Uh, Little and fun, but also a little insane at the same time.
• 6:29
  But
• 6:30
  , absolutely.
• 6:31
  And, uh, what kind of, uh, cattle are we talking about?
• 6:35
  Um, so my husband and I, um, my husband works full-time with
• 6:39
  his dad and brother and we have, uh, two feedlots and a cow herd.
• 6:43
  Um, right now we are feeding out calves that we bought from my parents, which
• 6:47
  is kind of fun, um, for the two of us to, um, kind of work with, work
• 6:51
  on together as a family I suppose.
• 6:54
  Um, so we've got black calves, baldy calves, um, my parents sell black
• 6:59
  bulls, so, um, there's a lot of black calves in the feed lot right now.
• 7:03
  And do you guys grow some crops as well?
• 7:05
  Obviously not this time of year cuz we're, uh, yeah, we're
• 7:07
  recording in January, but the rest
• 7:09
  of the year, uh, yeah, it's a little, it's a little chilly.
• 7:12
  Um, by the time we listen to this, we'll be, uh, really getting in the
• 7:16
  groove of getting ready for planting.
• 7:18
  Uh, on our farm we grow corn and soybeans and, uh, we grow, grow some hay too.
• 7:25
  That's great.
• 7:25
  And you mentioned businesses.
• 7:26
  Do you wanna tell us what they are?
• 7:29
  Yeah.
• 7:30
  Uh, my husband and I are kind of, uh, serial entrepreneurs a little bit.
• 7:34
  So we've each had our own small businesses.
• 7:37
  We've had small businesses together.
• 7:39
  We've got small businesses with friends and family members.
• 7:42
  Um, right now the businesses that I am a part of is, uh, my business,
• 7:47
  hungry Canyon, which I think we're gonna talk more about later.
• 7:50
  But that's, um, farm and ranch related greeting cards and gifts.
• 7:54
  And, um, I also just started a new business with a friend of mine
• 7:57
  called Meet Me on Main Street.
• 7:59
  And that business is all about bringing experiences to small towns that you might
• 8:05
  find in, um, larger, more urban areas.
• 8:09
  . Um, we like to take part in too in small rural life.
• 8:12
  So, um, doing small town events and highlighting small businesses
• 8:16
  and just bringing fun to main streets across rural America.
• 8:21
  Ooh, that sounds really fun.
• 8:22
  I think we'll have to get more into that one too while we're talking.
• 8:25
  Yeah.
• 8:26
  Melissa, I'd love to hear more too about your, was it rural route rambles?
• 8:30
  Is that the correct name?
• 8:31
  Yes.
• 8:32
  Um, I actually looked up coming over for it before I remembered that I was
• 8:36
  six hours from one side to the other.
• 8:38
  And that wasn't really tiny detail in the cards for a day trip, , um, you
• 8:44
  know, 12 hours of driving round trip.
• 8:46
  Yeah.
• 8:47
  So do you, obviously you come from a farm background yourself.
• 8:51
  I do, yeah.
• 8:52
  Um, I grew up on a farm and Angus cattle operation in Nebraska.
• 8:56
  Um, I have two younger sisters.
• 8:58
  The three of us were very involved in the farm and cattle operation growing up.
• 9:03
  Um, and still are to some point a little bit each of us in our own ways today.
• 9:07
  Um, My parents had, I mean, they were also serial entrepreneurs.
• 9:13
  We kinda, that's kind of where I got it from.
• 9:15
  They, we had, we lived right outside of Omaha, um, in a
• 9:18
  small town called Springfield.
• 9:19
  It was about five miles outside of the suburban area of Omaha.
• 9:23
  And so we took advantage of every niche market that you can imagine.
• 9:28
  So sold freezer beef.
• 9:29
  We raised broilers and dressed them out ourselves and sold broilers.
• 9:33
  We sold eggs.
• 9:34
  We had like 800 lane hens that we sold eggs in a fridge on the
• 9:38
  side of our house, um, to people.
• 9:40
  Uh, my parents had a pumpkin patch.
• 9:42
  They had a trucking company, hay grinding business.
• 9:44
  Like the list could go on of the little side businesses that fit into the greater,
• 9:51
  you know, overarching theme of the farm.
• 9:54
  Um, but that's kind of where I think I get a little bit of that itch for
• 9:58
  doing extra little things on the side.
• 10:01
  Um, . So yeah, grew up in agriculture.
• 10:04
  Um, I went to the University of Nebraska Lincoln and got a, a degree in ag
• 10:10
  communications, um, leadership, education and communications technically, which I
• 10:14
  think all those things work with what I do today in my, in all areas of my life.
• 10:20
  Um, and then after college I came up to Northwest Iowa and married my husband.
• 10:26
  And, um, I've had a, I've had two jobs up here, full-time jobs on
• 10:30
  the, on the side of these, these are side businesses, you know.
• 10:34
  Um, but yeah, that's, that's kind of where my agriculture background
• 10:39
  started, was at home on the farm.
• 10:41
  And then do you and your husband both work off farm or,
• 10:45
  um, yeah, so I do full-time.
• 10:48
  Um, my husband, he.
• 10:50
  . He farms and feeds cattle and has the cow herd with, um, his dad and his brother.
• 10:55
  Um, so he farms full-time.
• 10:57
  And, um, I work actually at Morningside University in the
• 11:01
  ag agriculture department.
• 11:03
  Um, and that's in Sioux City.
• 11:04
  So Morningside is a small private college that has an ag program that's
• 11:08
  been growing for the last 10 years.
• 11:11
  We, they've always had an ag program in the past.
• 11:13
  It was centered around the stockyards.
• 11:15
  Um, and a lot of students, um, in that program at the time, they
• 11:19
  would work in the stockyards and learn commodity trading, livestock
• 11:22
  grading, buying, selling, all of that through work at the stockyards.
• 11:27
  And so, um, when the Stockyards died in 1997.
• 11:31
  So did the ag program at Morningside and eventually there is, I mean, this is a, a
• 11:35
  very heavy ag related, uh, industry area.
• 11:39
  Um, like much of rural America, anybody, you guys listening,
• 11:42
  everyone, um, similar to that.
• 11:45
  And so there's people in the area that said, we need an ag program at
• 11:49
  one of the schools in Sioux City.
• 11:50
  And so Morningside said, let's start it back up again.
• 11:53
  So, um, I actually oversee all of our ag students that we require to work
• 11:58
  in industry for seven full months.
• 12:01
  Um, they work full-time for seven months doing something that is hopefully related
• 12:06
  to what they wanna do when they leave.
• 12:07
  And so that's kind of my job.
• 12:09
  I get to be a little bit of a life advisor to those college students in ag.
• 12:13
  And I've really, I've been doing this for about six years, five years.
• 12:18
  Um, and so I've really enjoyed it and I love getting to do
• 12:22
  that with these students.
• 12:24
  So how much shit does your family give you for moving to Iowa?
• 12:29
  I mean, I know how much shit we give people from moving to
• 12:31
  Nebraska, so I assume it's fairly, fairly, even the other direction,
• 12:37
  , I grew up like almost on the border and moved to almost on the border.
• 12:42
  So like the animosity is pretty real.
• 12:45
  Um, and I always like, I felt like there's more animosity to people in
• 12:50
  Iowa, like in Nebraska, you know, like, ugh, Iowa, like you're moving to Iowa.
• 12:56
  And I legitimately cried for like every day for two weeks leading up to
• 13:00
  it because I knew when I left, when I moved to Iowa, I was never coming
• 13:04
  back home cuz I was gonna marry Mark.
• 13:06
  I was gonna live there.
• 13:07
  The farm is there, like you don't just up and move that.
• 13:10
  And so I did.
• 13:12
  I cried like every day knowing I was moving across the
• 13:15
  state or across the river.
• 13:17
  Um, but like the thing is everyone talks about football.
• 13:21
  Like obviously Nebraska football is huge, but the thing is
• 13:24
  we don't have other teams.
• 13:26
  In Nebraska to support.
• 13:28
  We're in Iowa.
• 13:28
  It's kind of different, you know, people who like Iowa seek can hate
• 13:31
  the hawkeys and back and forth.
• 13:33
  Um, so it's just, it's kind of fun.
• 13:36
  But yeah, I, I'm barely in Iowa.
• 13:38
  If I can, uh, throw that in there.
• 13:40
  I'm barely across the border.
• 13:43
  . I think one of the best things I've heard from doing the show for the last two
• 13:48
  seasons is how common that grief is about marrying into somebody else's family farm.
• 13:54
  That I had no idea how hard it would hit me, that it's very unlikely that
• 13:59
  we'll ever go house shopping, you know?
• 14:01
  Or if we do, we'll be old and yeah.
• 14:05
  Retiring, you know, it won't be a like, oh, we're starting our family together.
• 14:08
  It'll be a, this is where we're gonna die, kind of a thing.
• 14:13
  , pretty much.
• 14:14
  Yeah.
• 14:14
  Which is not as exciting as, you know, oh, we're a young married
• 14:19
  couple looking to start our family.
• 14:20
  It's, you know, it'll be a very different transition and, , it is hard to remember,
• 14:27
  no matter how much you love the farm, this is where you're gonna be unless
• 14:33
  you, you know, split your family up.
• 14:35
  This is, this is it.
• 14:37
  And that that is, yeah.
• 14:38
  The goal is for this to be it.
• 14:42
  Um,
• 14:43
  so I, let's get impress earlier that, yeah.
• 14:45
  Wait, I said earlier we're feeding out my dad's calves from, um, and I guess
• 14:50
  another side story, but my parents moved.
• 14:53
  They have two places in Nebraska.
• 14:55
  There's one by Omaha.
• 14:56
  And then just in the last few years, they bought a ranch out in
• 15:00
  central Nebraska, um, and moved all the cows out there because,
• 15:04
  like I said, living close to Omaha.
• 15:05
  Like it was great for all these niche markets, but it also was miserable
• 15:09
  to raise cows outside of the city.
• 15:11
  And the city just kept growing.
• 15:14
  Um, my hometown is actually now home.
• 15:17
  A Facebook data center and very close to a Amazon fulfillment center
• 15:21
  and a, like all these data centers.
• 15:24
  And that's actually part of the reason that, uh, most of the reason that we
• 15:28
  moved to the ranch, um, was because a data center purchased our farm.
• 15:32
  And so it's like very bittersweet that my, the farm I grew up on is gone,
• 15:36
  but we got to move our cows to where they're supposed to be, quote unquote.
• 15:41
  And, um, I forgot where I was going with that.
• 15:45
  What was I saying?
• 15:48
  Maybe, sorry, I, this is where I'm clubbing.
• 15:50
  That's okay.
• 15:51
  Um, maybe something about like being tied to Oh yes.
• 15:55
  Physical place.
• 15:58
  So my parents moved all the cows out to the ranch and now we get
• 16:01
  to feed the calves out in the feed lot that my husband and I work on.
• 16:06
  And he goes to work every day.
• 16:07
  And it's, so, it's, it's fun to mesh those.
• 16:11
  Family businesses together, because when you leave your own farm, when you grow
• 16:14
  up with that, it's almost like you have to like refind your identity just like
• 16:18
  moving to a new area, but like refinding your identity in ag as someone who's
• 16:24
  doing something and, and um, that's, so that's been really cool for me to
• 16:28
  mesh those two operations together.
• 16:32
  Well, and I think too, and I don't know how universal this is, but I bet
• 16:36
  it's fairly universal, that there's this sense as the wife coming in
• 16:41
  that you're not really part of it.
• 16:45
  That you're either, you know, marrying for money or you're just putting up
• 16:48
  with it, you know, and that those are kind of your two options and that it's
• 16:51
  not possible that you might want to be there even on days that you resent it.
• 16:57
  You know?
• 16:57
  I mean, it's, there's always hard days, but
• 17:03
  I remind my boys, my little boys, cuz some, every once in a while they'll
• 17:06
  say, well mom, you're not a farmer mom.
• 17:09
  , you know, you don't have cows.
• 17:10
  And I'm like, uh, yes I do.
• 17:12
  I, my name is on the note just as much as your dad's.
• 17:15
  I may not go there every day, but I go to my own job that provides
• 17:19
  a lot of benefits so that we can do what we're doing on the farm.
• 17:23
  So that's something that I'm very adamant about in, you know, incorporating
• 17:27
  into my kids at two and four.
• 17:29
  Hopefully by the time they're, and they know mom drives tractors and can work
• 17:33
  cattle and do all that, but I, they don't see me get to do it every day.
• 17:37
  So I remind them often.
• 17:41
  I think that it's a really hard thing to remember too, is how much that off-farm
• 17:46
  income makes the on-farm income possible.
• 17:49
  And it is really important for our children and for everyone
• 17:53
  else to see how critical that is.
• 17:57
  Um, I know it certainly is for our family, so
• 18:02
  definitely, I definitely agree with that.
• 18:07
  So one of the things we wanted to talk to you about today and the
• 18:10
  way that we actually found you is through Hungry Canyon Designs because,
• 18:15
  uh, some of them are hilarious.
• 18:17
  And, uh, so tell us about the inspiration behind Hungry Canyon and,
• 18:22
  uh, what you, what you're creating.
• 18:25
  Yeah.
• 18:27
  So Hungry Canyon is, um, a place for pe.
• 18:30
  I, I say people like us, and when I say that, I mean people
• 18:34
  who, um, relate to agriculture.
• 18:37
  We live the life and I think when you do, when you know what I mean about people
• 18:42
  like us, you understand what I'm saying?
• 18:44
  Um, and card, I wanted cards for people like us.
• 18:47
  When I was dating Mark in college, I, um, went to go find a card for him
• 18:53
  for, um, Valentine's Day and anything I found that spoke to us, Car or, um,
• 18:59
  cows or tractors or whatever, they were always the wrong color or breed.
• 19:05
  And so like anything with a cow was always a dairy cow.
• 19:08
  And we don't raise dairy cows, we raise beef cows.
• 19:10
  And, uh, anything that was a tractor was a green tractor.
• 19:14
  I could never give a green tractor card to my husband, um, who is
• 19:18
  completely red tractor blooded.
• 19:20
  And so I, um, with that ad communications degree, I knew just enough to be dangerous
• 19:26
  about graphic design and art and website design and all, like all those little
• 19:31
  things that go into like the branding and building of little businesses.
• 19:35
  And I thought first I'm gonna start by making cards and I would give
• 19:39
  Mark a homemade card every year.
• 19:41
  Um, and then friends would ask me like, Hey, can I buy this
• 19:44
  for my own significant other?
• 19:46
  And so I started, uh, an Instagram page, a Facebook page.
• 19:49
  I started a website, um, and started selling these cards and it turned in.
• 19:54
  To a full fledged business.
• 19:56
  So, uh, that's what I do.
• 19:58
  I, I make cards for people like us that, um, relate agriculture to, in
• 20:04
  a funny or cute or meaningful way.
• 20:07
  Um, for people to give greeting cards and gifts to people like themselves.
• 20:14
  Melissa, I think the first card of yours that I saw was the one that says,
• 20:17
  I love you more than $7 corn, which very certain is totally people like us,
• 20:23
  um, , because yeah, I feel like all the ag content I see is very, you know, so
• 20:29
  God made a farmer and live, laugh, love, and like those things are all great and
• 20:33
  they all have their place, but it's.
• 20:36
  My husband knows me well enough after 11 years together to know that
• 20:40
  that is not the kind of card that I would be buying if I had other
• 20:44
  options, let's put it that way.
• 20:46
  Yep.
• 20:46
  So I was, was very excited to see other
• 20:49
  options.
• 20:50
  When I, when I talk about that card, I love you more than $7 corn.
• 20:54
  I always follow that up with, and that's a lot cuz I really love $7 corn.
• 21:00
  Although, you know, in the feed lot business, we don't love it quite
• 21:02
  as much, but taking grain to the co-op or you know, selling it in
• 21:06
  town, you, you like that $7 corn.
• 21:08
  But um, yeah, and that's the other thing is like, yes, the, so God made
• 21:13
  a farmer and the, like, the cutesy.
• 21:16
  I don't know, I always, I say it's almost like a little bit hokey and my
• 21:19
  business, I say it's a little hokey.
• 21:22
  It is.
• 21:22
  But it, like, I get the guys to giggle and laugh and like the gals,
• 21:28
  they see it and you're like, wow.
• 21:30
  Yeah.
• 21:30
  That's like exactly what it's like.
• 21:32
  I like some of my favorite cards that I make are, um, It's like farm wife
• 21:37
  advice and one of 'em, and it's to be given for like bridal showers, um,
• 21:43
  weddings, things, friends, whatever.
• 21:45
  Um, but some of 'em, like the one that makes me laugh the most is, um, men are,
• 21:51
  men are only capable of multitasking when operating a loader tractor cuz they're
• 21:55
  running their feet pedal in their hand.
• 21:57
  The joystick at the same time.
• 21:59
  And if you've been married or you have a long-term husband, boyfriend, spouse,
• 22:04
  friend, like, you know, sometimes it's difficult for men to multitask, but
• 22:09
  when they're running the loader tractor man, they know what they are doing.
• 22:12
  And so like the, you get it, like, it makes you laugh and chuckle and it's true.
• 22:30
  There we go.
• 22:30
  And I know what you mean too about tractors being the wrong color.
• 22:33
  We're, uh, I married into an Alice family and every time our little boy
• 22:37
  says John Deere, it's like, I can see my husband just dying a little every time.
• 22:43
  And, you know, trying to find anything with Alice Chalmers on it.
• 22:47
  It's, it's hard.
• 22:50
  Um, noted.
• 22:51
  I'll, I'll make a note here.
• 22:53
  Orange kids, just, my kids love the orange tractors, so Yeah.
• 22:56
  Bust
• 22:57
  out the colored pencils and just color it yourself.
• 22:59
  Make a little DIY set maybe.
• 23:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:01
  So how do you come up with your ideas?
• 23:04
  They
• 23:05
  come straight from the farm, um, I feel like, and my husband is a very big help.
• 23:12
  Like you wouldn't think.
• 23:14
  , you know, some red-blooded, God-fearing American Farm Boy is gonna be like
• 23:19
  the creator of all these poetic cards because some of 'em are pretty
• 23:23
  poetic and like heart heartfelt.
• 23:26
  Um, but Mark is very creative and he's the one that, he's on the farm every day.
• 23:31
  So he's, and he kind of knows the style of cards that we come up with.
• 23:34
  And so he'll, there'd be days when he's scraping yards at the feed
• 23:37
  lot or running the green card or whatever and he'll send me just a
• 23:41
  tents in a row of all these ideas.
• 23:44
  But they come from the farm.
• 23:46
  So like sometimes I feel like when I don't get to go work cattle or don't go
• 23:51
  get to help with harvest or go work on the farm very often, cuz I'm preoccupied
• 23:55
  with a full-time job and my kids in the house and all that kind of stuff.
• 24:00
  Like I get into these creative dry spells.
• 24:02
  But when I'm on the farm, like that's where we come up with the
• 24:06
  ideas and, and when Mark has these ideas and he'll send 'em to me.
• 24:09
  It's.
• 24:10
  my job to kind of make 'em into something that I know people will
• 24:12
  buy or something that will, um, speak to people in a, in a pretty way.
• 24:17
  So we, we make a good team that way.
• 24:23
  So what's
• 24:24
  your favorite thing that you've made?
• 24:28
  That's like, you gotta say, pick your favorite kid, right?
• 24:31
  That's what everyone says.
• 24:32
  Well, that was actually my next question is for you to pick your favorite child.
• 24:35
  So it's
• 24:37
  a good warmup for you.
• 24:37
  The second, the minute
• 24:39
  . Yeah.
• 24:40
  Um, the one who's causing fewer problems at the, at the moment.
• 24:43
  Right.
• 24:44
  Um, I think one, it's like probably one of the very first cards that I
• 24:49
  ever made, and actually I think my sister actually helped come up with it.
• 24:52
  But, um, year and I have different, I have different favorites throughout
• 24:58
  the year, depending on the season of life or the season of whatever.
• 25:01
  Um, but one, it was love is getting the.
• 25:05
  and then love is signing the operating note.
• 25:07
  And the little line that I always say is, people like us understand that getting
• 25:11
  the love is getting the gate, but even truer love is signing the operating note
• 25:16
  like you are signing your life away.
• 25:19
  You are just as much a partner in that operation as anyone else
• 25:22
  who signed that operating note.
• 25:24
  But that's a it, that's love on the farm.
• 25:27
  Um, so that's a favorite.
• 25:28
  Um, some of the baby cards I've made have been really fun.
• 25:32
  Um, there's one, it's, uh, things a cattleman should keep to
• 25:36
  himself when his wife is pregnant.
• 25:38
  And it's all the things that I won't, uh, admit if my husband said these things are
• 25:44
  not, which, yes, he actually has some of 'em, but like, um, you're not supposed
• 25:48
  to say anything about like average daily gain or utter score or taking the.
• 25:55
  Chains to the hospital, uh, pulling chains to the hospital.
• 25:58
  Like those are little things on there.
• 26:00
  But yeah,
• 26:00
  Katie and I are both nodding because we're both from, uh, livestock.
• 26:04
  Yeah.
• 26:05
  Backgrounds too.
• 26:05
  Yeah.
• 26:06
  Uh, a one line I think I've heard before was, well, it's
• 26:08
  nothing I haven't seen before.
• 26:10
  Yeah.
• 26:11
  . Yeah.
• 26:12
  Excuse me.
• 26:13
  I'm a bovine midwife.
• 26:14
  Let me just step in there.
• 26:15
  Yeah.
• 26:15
  It's
• 26:16
  very similar to, uh, yeah.
• 26:18
  All the other caving I've,
• 26:20
  I'll say if you mention back fat thickness, um, that's
• 26:24
  not gonna go over well.
• 26:25
  It's just not.
• 26:26
  Yeah.
• 26:26
  Yeah.
• 26:27
  Cavies.
• 26:28
  . Yeah.
• 26:28
  Yeah.
• 26:29
  Cavies, uh, estimated progeny difference was one I heard.
• 26:35
  No, no, nobody.
• 26:36
  So
• 26:36
  like, those are fun and I think that they don't, and I, I will say a lot of
• 26:41
  my cards have puns, which I think are very clever and I like to be clever.
• 26:45
  Um, but the ones that I really like, love the most are the ones that are just.
• 26:50
  Say like relating something on the farm in a, in a meaningful,
• 26:54
  cute way that we just get.
• 26:57
  So those are kind of my favorites.
• 26:59
  I have to say too, one of the things I appreciated was that looking through
• 27:03
  your catalog, I didn't see anything that was too like, oh men, they're
• 27:07
  so helpless and stupid and useless.
• 27:09
  Because there's a lot of things where our husbands just don't get the practice.
• 27:15
  You know?
• 27:15
  We see so much crap about, you know, men can't dress babies.
• 27:18
  And I'm like, well, if I do it 99% of the time, why do I expect
• 27:21
  him to know what he's doing?
• 27:23
  But there's so much negativity towards letting men figure stuff
• 27:29
  out, and I mean, there's definitely a time and a place to make fun of.
• 27:34
  But it's kind of obnoxious when people are making money off, making fun of them.
• 27:39
  Like, yeah, I can make fun of my husband, but Hallmark cannot, like,
• 27:43
  you could make fun of my husband because you have a husband who is the
• 27:46
  same sort of person, I would guess.
• 27:48
  Yeah.
• 27:48
  But,
• 27:49
  but yeah, I totally agree with that.
• 27:50
  And there's like, I mean, I, I am, can only do the things that I do because my
• 27:55
  husband is as involved in the family and in the home and me on the farm opposite.
• 28:01
  Like we could, the, all, the two of us can only do all the things that
• 28:03
  we do because of the other, like there's no, you know, I don't know.
• 28:08
  And we all have our jobs.
• 28:09
  We each have the things that we do that are, the other one doesn't,
• 28:12
  but I can't do it without him.
• 28:14
  You know, any, any AC accolade or project or anything that I complete
• 28:19
  or get is because I have a supportive husband who's able to do that.
• 28:26
  Yeah.
• 28:26
  And
• 28:26
  that gendered, you know, like whether it's in good fun or not, but some of
• 28:30
  that gendered, you know, like, oh, women are this way, men are this way.
• 28:35
  Women can't do this kind of stuff.
• 28:36
  Like when we complain about being typecast as women or men, you know,
• 28:43
  it comes from that place, right?
• 28:45
  Like we, if we're, if we're trying to assert ourselves a, as women and finding
• 28:52
  roles for ourselves in agriculture, then we have to both fight against those
• 28:57
  stereotypes about us, as well as not play into the stereotypes about men too, right?
• 29:02
  Like we, yeah, it comes from both sides.
• 29:05
  Like we, we need to, to kind of lay off on some of that.
• 29:10
  , you know, that judgment or that negativity around, well, you know, they can't do
• 29:15
  this or we can't do that kind of stuff because we all know people who are
• 29:19
  doing it no matter what exactly what
• 29:22
  gender they're, except for that one about, sorry, the one about,
• 29:27
  um, being able to multitask when they drive a loader tractor.
• 29:29
  I prefer to think that it is proof that they are capable of
• 29:33
  multitasking and they're just not being their best selves and applying
• 29:40
  They have it within them.
• 29:41
  They really do.
• 29:42
  Yeah.
• 29:42
  Yeah.
• 29:42
  It's a skill, right.
• 29:45
  . I'll say I'm the first person to cheerlead any like women.
• 29:50
  You can do it like you can do anything.
• 29:52
  You said to mind your mind too.
• 29:53
  But I say that about anybody.
• 29:55
  Yeah.
• 29:55
  And I like, I'm not like that.
• 29:57
  You can, I listen to some people on the radio or on TV and you hear all
• 30:01
  this feminism monologue and I like, I'm not a, you know, Woman hater.
• 30:07
  Like I think women can do anything, but I think we also do so many
• 30:12
  things because of, and men have the things that they can do too.
• 30:15
  And so there's like, we can't do it without the other, so there's
• 30:21
  just a lot of stuff out there.
• 30:23
  Yeah.
• 30:25
  Um, so you mentioned your other business.
• 30:26
  Remind me, is it Meet Me on Main,
• 30:29
  meet me on Main Street Meet, meet me on
• 30:31
  Main Street.
• 30:31
  So I'm curious about this.
• 30:33
  Are you hired by small businesses to run events or chambers of commerce or both?
• 30:38
  Or what kind of, what is the, the model?
• 30:40
  That's a good question.
• 30:41
  Okay.
• 30:42
  , we've, uh, we we're just getting started because, um, my friend Marissa and I'm
• 30:48
  Marissa, um, also lives in, she lives in town in Mobile, in the town that we claim.
• 30:53
  Um, and the two of us have over the last two or three years, put together some
• 30:59
  events that highlight small businesses in small towns, and like I said, bring like.
• 31:04
  Experiences that you would find in an urban setting to a rural area.
• 31:08
  And so, um, the first event that we put together was
• 31:11
  called the Rural Route Ramble.
• 31:12
  We put it on three years ago in 2020.
• 31:15
  It was a, a weekend before the holidays where it kind of started
• 31:19
  out where we said, Hey, let's get, we both had party buses at the time.
• 31:23
  We, my husband and I had a small business where um, he and his brother owned a
• 31:27
  party bus and we would be rented out and people could drive it around or
• 31:31
  we would drive it around for people.
• 31:33
  Um, and Marissa, her family also had a party bus for, uh, personal use.
• 31:37
  And so we're like, we both have buses.
• 31:39
  Let's get together and find some friends and we'll go visit small businesses.
• 31:43
  Cuz in our area in northwest Iowa, we have some incredible small
• 31:48
  businesses in teeny tiny towns that are just doing amazing things both
• 31:53
  online and in brick and mortar.
• 31:54
  And so we thought, let's get on the bus, take our friends, we'll go.
• 31:58
  Visit these businesses.
• 31:59
  And then the more we got into planning it, we're like, this
• 32:03
  is bigger than just a bus.
• 32:04
  We need to tell everybody about this.
• 32:06
  So I think we started planning it like in October and the weekend
• 32:10
  was one of the first or second in December, um, in 2020 where people,
• 32:15
  like small businesses were hurting.
• 32:16
  There is so many people who, they had very little business the months ahead of that.
• 32:22
  And so we wanted to make a, a big, you know, difference for these
• 32:26
  small business owners and friends.
• 32:28
  And so, um, we put it together, put it out online, um, and said, here's
• 32:33
  the towns that were showcasing.
• 32:34
  Here's the vendors.
• 32:37
  We charged a, a little vendor fee that we used.
• 32:40
  Um, we used that vendor fee to.
• 32:44
  Promote the event.
• 32:46
  Um, and then people really, really loved it.
• 32:49
  And so we did it again last year and it was even bigger and better.
• 32:53
  I think we went from having 35 vendors the first year to about 50 last
• 32:58
  year, and then this year was even bigger and better and we had over 75
• 33:02
  different vendors in 13 small towns across Northwest Iowa and it was a r.
• 33:07
  It's really fun and we like, we kind of jokingly call it the magic of the real
• 33:12
  route ramble, but it does feel magical.
• 33:14
  You're out there with thousands of other shoppers visiting these small businesses
• 33:19
  in tiny towns, or even not in towns.
• 33:22
  We have businesses that are out.
• 33:24
  On their farm in rural areas that are just killing it in the small business world
• 33:29
  and showing people who may not know about that business before, um, show them who
• 33:36
  they are and then get a, give them a taste of it during that weekend and then they
• 33:39
  know about 'em the rest of their life.
• 33:41
  Like they can go shop there anytime.
• 33:43
  It doesn't have to be the Ramble or Christmas.
• 33:45
  Um, so that's kind of where it started.
• 33:47
  It technically we were kind of funneling all of that, uh, funding
• 33:52
  through my Hungry Canyon business and it got big enough where we're
• 33:54
  like, this has to be its own thing.
• 33:56
  We have to have its own business.
• 34:00
  Um, we do other events as well, kind of playing on the same theme
• 34:04
  of small business highlights.
• 34:06
  Um, but we have, um, my, this Marissa, she has a small business space in Mobile on
• 34:12
  Main Street that is available for rentals.
• 34:14
  And so, um, it's a boutique rental space and it's just a really nice
• 34:18
  thing to have in our small town where people can rent it for.
• 34:21
  A baby shower or a work meeting or whatever.
• 34:24
  But we host small business pop-up shops and charcuterie workshops, and
• 34:29
  we have a list of ideas of all these things that we can host in there.
• 34:34
  But eventually we'd love to, um, be hired by, maybe, possibly
• 34:39
  she also has a full-time job.
• 34:41
  We gotta see where this goes.
• 34:42
  But, you know, like, uh, one thing we're, we're working on this quarter
• 34:46
  is, um, community event kits.
• 34:49
  And that's something that I've worked on personally in the past with, uh,
• 34:54
  some other projects that I've done.
• 34:55
  But like, I wanna take the things that I'm doing here, these events, these
• 34:59
  projects, these promotional things for commodity organizations and ag.
• 35:03
  Like take what we're doing here, put it into a kit and sell it to
• 35:08
  someone so that they can do that too.
• 35:10
  Because there's movers and shakers in every town.
• 35:12
  They just maybe don't have the resources or the know-how or.
• 35:16
  , um, they want a step-by-step process of how to do what we
• 35:21
  did here in where they live.
• 35:24
  So that's kind of the next steps of that, that model.
• 35:27
  But, um, it's been a really fun thing and it's really cool to do
• 35:33
  the things that we're doing in small town America, in the country.
• 35:38
  I'd love to hear you.
• 35:39
  Yeah, that's really neat.
• 35:39
  Sometimes because it's someone who's also, oh, go ahead, Arlene.
• 35:49
  Okay, well now I'm just gonna keep talking.
• 35:51
  Um, you know, as someone who's involved in a lot of community stuff, when you're
• 35:56
  trying to get relatively younger folks involved, you know, I think we're more
• 36:01
  likely to still have full-time jobs.
• 36:02
  We are more likely to have little kids, especially if
• 36:05
  you're talking about farmers.
• 36:06
  We've got all of that going on, and so I think for a lot of folks, there's enough
• 36:10
  energy to do the thing, but there's not enough time and energy to reinvent,
• 36:17
  reinvent all the wheels to do the thing.
• 36:19
  Absolutely.
• 36:20
  And it's, that's
• 36:21
  exactly it.
• 36:22
  Like here's what we purchased and where, here's how much we spent.
• 36:26
  Here's what you think about when you think about this, this, and this.
• 36:28
  Here's what you say when you call a business to ask them to donate
• 36:31
  something for this project, here's like, that's what I want to give.
• 36:35
  So that you can take that and just literally recreate it and you can,
• 36:39
  I'm absolutely open to people re like putting your own spin on things.
• 36:43
  You absolutely should, but here's the basics of what it takes to do
• 36:48
  the bare minimum and just go do it.
• 36:50
  Like, let's just do more good, let's do cool things wherever you are.
• 36:55
  Well, and I think even when you're, you know, talking about multiple groups
• 36:59
  in the same community, there's so much, well, our group is doing this
• 37:03
  and this group is doing this, and they might be doing, you know, the things
• 37:07
  they're doing might be 95% the same, but because they're different groups,
• 37:12
  they can't possibly work together.
• 37:13
  And it's, it's a waste of time.
• 37:16
  It's a waste of resources.
• 37:17
  It's frustrating for sure.
• 37:19
  So what are some of your future goals when it comes to Hungry Canyon and to the farm?
• 37:26
  Um, hmm.
• 37:28
  That's a good question.
• 37:29
  I, I am.
• 37:31
  Uh, the personality type that likes to set goals and have goals,
• 37:34
  but I also don't really like take dedicated time to set them.
• 37:39
  It's just like, oh, I think that would be cool.
• 37:40
  Let's do it.
• 37:41
  Um, so I, I don't have like legit set goals especially, and we're
• 37:45
  recording what, January 4th.
• 37:46
  So like, I should have, if you're the personality type set goals,
• 37:51
  I would've done that recently.
• 37:52
  But, um, I think my goals are just to do as, like I said earlier, like to do good.
• 38:01
  Like my, I feel like my, my business is, is a fun, it's a creative outlet for me.
• 38:07
  Um, when I'm teaching college kids, I'm not, I don't get to be
• 38:12
  as hokey and, uh, creative as I maybe was in my first job, which was
• 38:17
  teaching elementary kids about ag.
• 38:19
  Like I got to do the creative stuff and the crafts and the things and
• 38:22
  I don't get to do that as much.
• 38:24
  So Hung Keenan has been a great creative outlet that way.
• 38:27
  Um, and then, just to like, keep, keep on keeping on.
• 38:33
  I , I think someone, you know, people talk about like, oh, I
• 38:36
  wanna thrive in the next year.
• 38:39
  I'm just trying to survive.
• 38:41
  Like we're, we're getting by, you know, be the best that I can for my
• 38:45
  kids and my husband and at my job and, and try to do all the things,
• 38:49
  but knowing full well that that's not possible in every area of every life.
• 38:54
  So, um, I think with Hungry Canyon, like I would love to create more
• 39:02
  of these community event kits.
• 39:04
  Um, and it meshes really well with that.
• 39:06
  Meet me on Main Street and so it's kind of a, a joint project there, but
• 39:10
  like, I want to be able to, to do cool things in other people's towns too.
• 39:16
  Um, that's kind of a motto that Mark and I have at home for the last few years is
• 39:20
  if you want cool things to happen in your small town, you have to do cool things.
• 39:24
  You sit around and no one's gonna do 'em for you if you're not gonna do
• 39:27
  it, you know it's not gonna happen.
• 39:29
  So that's why we're involved in Farm Bureau and cattlemen and local
• 39:35
  politics and church and fair and all, like all these little things, these
• 39:39
  volunteer opportunities because we want these things to be around for
• 39:43
  our kids and also for us to enjoy too.
• 39:46
  So being able to emulate that in these kits and help other people
• 39:51
  do that in their own areas, I think is, is one of my main goals
• 39:55
  for the next, the next little bit.
• 40:00
  That makes a lot of sense.
• 40:01
  I mean, a lot of those activities, I mean, it's easy to complain
• 40:05
  about, oh, well they, they don't think about young families or
• 40:08
  they're, they're not catering to us.
• 40:10
  But if you're not at bare minimum providing input and you know, like you
• 40:16
  said, hopefully finding ways to be.
• 40:18
  More involved than just providing input, then we can't really blame
• 40:22
  organizations for not catering to us if, if they don't know what we want or
• 40:28
  what works or how things have changed or, you know, being, being willing to,
• 40:34
  to change what they're doing to meet, meet the expectations of the community.
• 40:40
  I agree.
• 40:40
  I completely agree with that.
• 40:42
  Yep.
• 40:43
  So I was thinking about your, um, your job at the, the school and,
• 40:49
  um, I'm someone who's got a couple of teenagers and I'm wondering if
• 40:52
  you have any, uh, job search tips.
• 40:55
  It sounds like you would be, uh, the kind of person who would
• 40:58
  be, uh, good at, uh, helping our teens and young adults find work.
• 41:05
  Do you have any, uh, any tips for us?
• 41:08
  Yeah, I, yeah, I do.
• 41:10
  Um, , I.
• 41:12
  That's my job here at Morningside.
• 41:14
  So, um, these, I get these students that come in as freshmen in college and, and
• 41:20
  I'm in the ag department specifically.
• 41:21
  So the kids that I have, kids, the young adults that I'm working
• 41:24
  with specifically know that they like agriculture for some reason.
• 41:29
  And so, uh, some of them come in and they're like, I know I'm
• 41:32
  gonna go home to the family farm.
• 41:33
  I'm just here to get the degree.
• 41:35
  Mom and dad told me to do it.
• 41:36
  Or I know I wanna learn X, Y, and Z when I'm here and then
• 41:39
  leave, um, and go do this job.
• 41:43
  Um, but some students have no idea what they wanna do and that's okay too.
• 41:48
  I tell 'em, it's no matter where you're at, you can always figure it out.
• 41:52
  Um, but a lot of times I tell, I start, I teach my students, I get them freshman
• 41:56
  year in a class, and then one of the first things I have 'em do is a job shadow.
• 42:01
  No cons, low consequence.
• 42:03
  Um, you're not contracted, you're not getting paid, you're not doing a job,
• 42:07
  you're just there to over to see.
• 42:09
  what that job is like.
• 42:11
  So maybe someone knows that they like the food industry, the food
• 42:14
  service industry, or they like greenhouses or they like whatever.
• 42:20
  Go see what someone does in that job for a few hours.
• 42:23
  I make 'em do 12 hours for the assignment, and then I have questions
• 42:27
  and an assignment that goes along with it, but it's no consequence.
• 42:31
  Like you don't have, you can leave and never go back again.
• 42:34
  Um, and then the next step is if you liked it.
• 42:37
  Okay.
• 42:37
  Let's see if you can do an internship or a part-time job if you didn't like it.
• 42:41
  Okay, cool.
• 42:42
  That's really good to know.
• 42:43
  I'm glad you know that you don't like that.
• 42:45
  Let's do something different.
• 42:47
  Maybe it's related to what you were looking at first, because you obviously
• 42:51
  were interested in that for some reason.
• 42:53
  So what part of it did you like?
• 42:54
  Was it the people?
• 42:55
  Was it the, um, the industry?
• 42:58
  Was it the topic?
• 42:59
  Like what part of it was it?
• 43:00
  And, and let's find something that's relatable but not the same.
• 43:04
  and see if you like that.
• 43:06
  And so helping them go through that step and um, do the internship and then the
• 43:11
  more ex like, experience that they get.
• 43:14
  And that's our, our slogan or motto at Morningside is experience matters.
• 43:18
  And the whole institution is very in tune to giving students
• 43:23
  experience because you leave school.
• 43:25
  And what do job seekers or people who you wanna do business with, what
• 43:30
  do they look at your experience?
• 43:31
  What have you done?
• 43:32
  Where have you been?
• 43:33
  What have you learned?
• 43:34
  Like, not necessarily what have you learned in a class or what
• 43:37
  does your degree say, but what have you done and experienced?
• 43:41
  And so getting out there and doing that, I think is probably the best advice that
• 43:47
  anyone could, could give someone who's looking for, um, career advice, whether
• 43:52
  you're in high school or out in adult.
• 43:55
  Like if you're not happy with the job that you have, what part of it do you like?
• 43:59
  And what parts do you not?
• 44:01
  . If there's other things out there, ask the questions, follow someone around.
• 44:05
  Do like, do the same thing.
• 44:08
  Mm-hmm.
• 44:09
  . Yeah.
• 44:09
  Cuz sometimes knowing what you don't want to do is just as important
• 44:12
  as knowing what you do want to do.
• 44:13
  Right.
• 44:14
  Cross Absolutely.
• 44:14
  Crossing a few things off the list is, is a good, is a good step.
• 44:19
  And better to do that before you get a degree and decide at
• 44:22
  the end that yes, that it really isn't the path you want to take.
• 44:26
  It's, it's so sad to me to see students leave after paying
• 44:30
  for four years of college.
• 44:32
  And still not know what they wanna do.
• 44:33
  And I, I like to think that we know enough about what we're doing here.
• 44:37
  I've been in my job for five years now, so I've seen five groups of students leave.
• 44:42
  And the longer I've been here, the more it's been like, okay, those
• 44:46
  kids know what they're doing.
• 44:47
  Like they have a good idea, they're gonna go out and they're gonna
• 44:50
  move mountains in whatever part of the industry they're going into.
• 44:53
  And, and I can see that, and I'm, I'm thankful that I, I get to be part
• 44:57
  of that, but that we are really in tune to doing that here specifically.
• 45:02
  But yeah, it's sad for me to see people leave and not know what they're doing.
• 45:10
  Yeah.
• 45:10
  I think it's also important, I'm, I'm guessing in the, the internship
• 45:14
  program that the kids, even the ones who are going back home to farm,
• 45:18
  have to work for somebody else.
• 45:20
  Yeah.
• 45:21
  Yeah.
• 45:21
  . Well, and with them, I, I say, listen, I do some of the recruitment
• 45:25
  for the Ag department too.
• 45:26
  So like when I'm meeting with students that are in high school looking to
• 45:29
  come to Morningside to get an ag degree, I say the ones that say they're
• 45:34
  gonna go home to the farm, like, I have a soft spot in my heart for you.
• 45:37
  That's what my husband does.
• 45:39
  That's what my sisters have done.
• 45:40
  Like that's what we all married farmers.
• 45:42
  Like we all, that's what we do.
• 45:43
  We, we did that.
• 45:45
  And so I'm gonna work with you specifically to find out what do you
• 45:49
  need to learn to take back to your farm?
• 45:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 45:51
  , you're not gonna go home and be a hired man.
• 45:53
  You're gonna go home and be a partner in your operation.
• 45:55
  Like, is it marketing?
• 45:57
  Is it crop scouting?
• 45:58
  Is it.
• 45:59
  Livestock, is it like, what piece of ag do you need to learn about
• 46:04
  to take back with you and let's do that while you're here at school.
• 46:07
  So when you leave, you can go out and be a force on your own
• 46:10
  operation.
• 46:11
  Yeah, that's right.
• 46:12
  And make the context that you need for the future, right?
• 46:14
  Not, not just the context that your, your, your mom has, that your dad has
• 46:19
  that, that you already have in your community, but a wider range of, of
• 46:23
  people that you can draw on in the future.
• 46:26
  So yeah, that, that, that place is yours and just the experience of, of, you know,
• 46:32
  having to listen to someone other than mom or dad or, that's a big piece too.
• 46:37
  Grandma or grandpa or . Yeah.
• 46:39
  Mom and dad aren't so bad after going somewhere else.
• 46:41
  There's something like, yeah, that's right.
• 46:43
  Yeah.
• 46:46
  Well, and I think it's so great too to talk about job shadowing because it
• 46:50
  seems really unfair that we're asking 18 year old kids to pick what they're
• 46:55
  going to do forever with most of them.
• 46:59
  Very, very little experience at the thing that they're picking, you know?
• 47:03
  And so it seems pretty uncool to be like, Hey, just come up with something
• 47:08
  that you think sounds interesting or that somebody might pay you for, and
• 47:13
  then commit the rest of your life to that with no real understanding of
• 47:19
  what that's going to mean for you.
• 47:21
  Yeah.
• 47:21
  Um, so you're raising two little ones on no farm, and one of the reasons
• 47:26
  we started the podcast is because of the isolation that comes with being
• 47:31
  a parent, especially in rural areas.
• 47:33
  Um, so what was that transition like for you to, to move into being a mom as well
• 47:41
  as a complete human in your own right?
• 47:45
  Um, I think that, We talked about this earlier, but like my
• 47:50
  husband had a big part in that.
• 47:51
  He has, as much as he's involved on the farm, like he is the one that
• 47:56
  comes home and if he makes supper, he makes or gets home in time for supper.
• 48:00
  He's there and he is someone that's, you know, helping mind the kids and tell them
• 48:05
  that they have to eat their vegetables and helps with bath and bedtime and, you
• 48:09
  know, that kind of stuff and takes him to daycare of the mor like he does all
• 48:13
  the things that you would hope would be in like a 50 50 parenting, uh, situation.
• 48:19
  And so that's been a, that was really helpful, especially because I moved away
• 48:23
  from my family and I had two sisters who, um, we, we all three are having
• 48:29
  kids at the same time and all three of us live in completely different places.
• 48:34
  I'm two hours from the one and seven from the other.
• 48:36
  And so, um, the three of us, you know, we talk about how we each
• 48:41
  don't have help in our own way.
• 48:44
  Um, Whether that's being close to home or not close to home.
• 48:48
  And my husband's family is very in, um, helpful and involved as well.
• 48:52
  So, um, they're, they're very helpful.
• 48:56
  So that has been good.
• 48:58
  Um, the part about like watching kids grow up on the farm, ha was
• 49:04
  always like, I don't know, I a dream.
• 49:08
  Um, like Mark and I both did that.
• 49:11
  We lived that life growing up and we wanted that for our kids.
• 49:14
  And so it was important to, um, do the things that we do so that we can live on
• 49:19
  the farm and raise our kids on the farm.
• 49:22
  And, um, I, when I, when I first had both kids, um, I feel like
• 49:29
  social media is different today than it was even two years ago.
• 49:33
  Um, Instagram specifically, Have built a lot of my business through Instagram and
• 49:39
  have quite like a, a good following and felt like I had a really good community on
• 49:44
  Instagram leading up to, um, the pandemic.
• 49:48
  And then I don't know what happened with social media, like algorithms
• 49:54
  and community and it's just, it's different today for me and I think for
• 49:58
  a lot of people too than it was before.
• 50:00
  And that's, I really found community in farm moms on social media because
• 50:05
  like you say, it's isolating.
• 50:06
  Like you don't have, you don't go to town and, you know, go to a tennis
• 50:12
  club or to a, like, you maybe make it to story time at the library, but you
• 50:15
  don't have all these things that these, these podcasts are telling you to do.
• 50:20
  And so, um, I found those people on Instagram and my second kid,
• 50:25
  Charlie, he was so colicky when he was a baby and he cried constantly.
• 50:31
  And I would share about that on social media.
• 50:33
  And I don't know how many moms.
• 50:35
  Messaged me and would like talk me off the ledge of, you know, how
• 50:39
  hard it is because they went through it too and here's what they did.
• 50:42
  And so having that community like that was a real thing.
• 50:45
  I felt like I had to like, explain myself when I would tell my husband what I
• 50:49
  learned from someone on the internet, even though they're just like us.
• 50:53
  They just live in a different place.
• 50:55
  And it's like, you found that community and it's, I, I'm like mourning
• 50:59
  Instagram a little bit because it's not the same as it used to be because
• 51:03
  I really loved that about social media.
• 51:06
  Um, so that was helpful in that transition.
• 51:09
  But yeah, I think, um, having kids on the farm is, to me it is living the dream,
• 51:17
  being able to take 'em outside and, you know, see the farm like through their
• 51:22
  eyes just like we did when we were kids.
• 51:24
  I love that.
• 51:25
  There's nothing, nothing better for me.
• 51:28
  So have they started telling you guys how to run on a farm yet?
• 51:31
  Yeah.
• 51:32
  Yeah, I think that I was just, it's funny, I was just going through all
• 51:35
  my posts on Instagram from last year as like a nostalgic rabbit hole thing
• 51:41
  I did yesterday, and one of 'em was, it was gonna be really soon before we
• 51:45
  could leave the boys in charge, uh, of the farm and leave for the weekend
• 51:48
  because they, yeah, they know a lot
• 51:52
  , lot, lots of opinions, right?
• 51:54
  Yes.
• 51:57
  . So, I mean, this feels like a good place to put in a plug, not
• 51:59
  just for you Melissa, but for our listeners, that one of the things
• 52:02
  that Katie and I did start along with the podcast is a Facebook group.
• 52:06
  Um, so if you look up, it's in the show notes, but the Barnyard Language podcast
• 52:11
  group is hopefully a place where we can have those kinds of conversations
• 52:17
  and look for support and also share the, you know, funny stuff that maybe.
• 52:22
  Non-farm parents don't really understand
• 52:27
  . Arlene and I actually met in a Facebook parenting group for ranch moms that was
• 52:33
  a spinoff from another parenting podcast.
• 52:36
  But one of the, the things I remember the most about having that first kid
• 52:39
  was all these people who were like, well, I can't cloth diaper because I'd
• 52:43
  never put poop in my washing machine,
• 52:46
  And I was like, I wouldn't have a washing machine if I had to
• 52:48
  replace it, if it got poop in it.
• 52:50
  Like , we are not samesies.
• 52:56
  Yeah, obviously.
• 52:57
  And.
• 52:58
  Parenting is hard enough without having to explain stuff like that to people.
• 53:03
  , um, we just did it.
• 53:06
  Yeah.
• 53:06
  Like where people, we have to buy new clothes every day.
• 53:09
  Like that would just be the
• 53:10
  opposite.
• 53:11
  Sometimes I do try to keep the barn clothes and the other clothes
• 53:14
  in separate cycles, but I mean, even that doesn't always happen.
• 53:18
  Right.
• 53:18
  Depends how I at least try to keep the, the chore clothes separate
• 53:21
  from like dish towels, . Yeah.
• 53:24
  That seems Yeah.
• 53:25
  You're delicate.
• 53:26
  Yeah.
• 53:26
  Yeah.
• 53:26
  Yeah.
• 53:27
  You know, I try to separate, but yeah, the whole like, I would never
• 53:30
  watch, watch anything with poop.
• 53:31
  I was just like, yeah, that's exactly it.
• 53:34
  Like, how dirty is it?
• 53:35
  And with what, like that's what I separated by.
• 53:39
  Yeah.
• 53:40
  Yeah.
• 53:41
  All right.
• 53:41
  So
• 53:42
  you kind of already mentioned this, but what for you is the best
• 53:45
  part of raising kids on the farm?
• 53:47
  Other than kicking them outside Whenever they, uh,
• 53:49
  yeah, that is great.
• 53:51
  Yeah.
• 53:51
  Um, I think it's being able to see the farm through their eyes, um, and like.
• 53:58
  . I don't know.
• 53:58
  They just, it's so funny.
• 53:59
  Like they, and I think every kid does this, but like collect rocks or like
• 54:04
  they find the manure pile that maybe accidentally had a dead animal in it
• 54:08
  and they go find dinosaur bones or they like drag stuff in the house or
• 54:14
  what, you know, it's just like funny.
• 54:16
  Yeah, because you know your mom and your grandma and your great grandma,
• 54:20
  they all had the same experience with their kids when it was their age.
• 54:23
  No matter what time
• 54:25
  of life the collection of cow teeth.
• 54:27
  Does anyone else
• 54:31
  Yeah.
• 54:31
  That's funny.
• 54:32
  They are very funny looking
• 54:36
  My child is only collecting live animals at this point, so that's, you're so lucky.
• 54:41
  That is what it is.
• 54:43
  ? Um, yeah, the girl child is lobbying for another cat.
• 54:47
  Arlene, uh, listen, we already have five cats in the house, but
• 54:51
  she thinks that we should bring biscuit in from a barn as well.
• 54:54
  That's how it works.
• 54:55
  Yeah.
• 54:55
  You start with one.
• 54:56
  Yeah.
• 54:57
  Uhhuh.
• 55:00
  . So what do you find to be the most challenging part of farming,
• 55:04
  of parenting on the farm?
• 55:07
  The most challenging part of parenting on the farm?
• 55:11
  Um, I think that winters are hard.
• 55:16
  Um, the I this year, when you talk about New Year's resolutions, there's, I, I saw
• 55:22
  someone post something recently that was like, I'm not counting numbers in 2023.
• 55:27
  And I thought, I really liked that.
• 55:28
  You know, you're not counting calories, you're not counting your
• 55:31
  weight, you're not counting, you know, how many hours of this you did.
• 55:34
  But I did.
• 55:35
  I just printed out a calendar because I am keeping track of
• 55:38
  a couple of things this year.
• 55:40
  And one of 'em is number of hours outside.
• 55:43
  Um, because we, that's how good is it for your kids?
• 55:46
  Just go be outside.
• 55:47
  How many problems do we have in life?
• 55:49
  Because there's too many people that sit inside too much.
• 55:52
  So I am tracking that.
• 55:53
  And I'm tracking, um, the number of volunteer hours we do this
• 55:56
  year just to have an idea.
• 55:57
  But like the winters are so hard inside when your kids
• 56:03
  just wanna be outside so badly.
• 56:05
  Um, so I think that's, that's maybe the most challenging part.
• 56:11
  at this age, at my, my toddler stage,
• 56:16
  our almost five year old son has a fork stick that he keeps all summer
• 56:20
  to plow the front yard so that he can prepare it for planting.
• 56:24
  And he went out yesterday and plowed snow with it, so, well, yeah, it's right
• 56:30
  It's getting to that point that I'm like, I don't, if it's above
• 56:33
  zero, you're going outside.
• 56:35
  I don't, I don't care.
• 56:36
  Sorry, kids, it's, I can't, with both of them in the house.
• 56:42
  So I was looking at your Instagram.
• 56:44
  We've already talked a little bit about social media and I noticed that you
• 56:48
  talked about your mom being diagnosed with cancer this past fall, and I was
• 56:52
  wondering if that was something, um, I know that's her medical stuff and I
• 56:57
  don't wanna know details necessarily, but I was just wondering how she's doing.
• 57:00
  And, um, you mentioned that it was cervical cancer and I just, as another
• 57:06
  woman, I was wondering, you know, like what types of things we should be looking
• 57:09
  for, like what's a symptom and Yeah.
• 57:12
  How she's doing and how you're being a supportive daughter from a distance
• 57:16
  and with all the other stuff that you're doing in your busy life.
• 57:20
  Yeah.
• 57:21
  Um, I don't think I am an expert by any means in any of those categories.
• 57:24
  And there's a lot of growth that I can do in each of them as well.
• 57:28
  Um, but just like over overarching, I can say, Mom is doing fine for now.
• 57:35
  She's, um, going through chemo treatments.
• 57:37
  So those are about every three weeks and she's doing that, um, with the hope
• 57:41
  that we can do some surgery to remove some masses from inside, um, here
• 57:46
  in the next month, two months or so.
• 57:48
  Um, so that's, we're being hopeful that way.
• 57:51
  Um, as far as like keeping a, a watch out or symptoms, I'm not, I
• 57:56
  don't know if I have any specific advice except to go to your doctor.
• 58:00
  Um, I think a lot of times like, okay, here we are, we live, how many, you
• 58:04
  know, and I live an hour from the doctor.
• 58:07
  Um, I know there's people that live way farther than that.
• 58:09
  You get busy with life, you get busy with your kids, you get busy with work.
• 58:14
  Go to your doctor's appointments every year.
• 58:16
  They are important.
• 58:17
  They are.
• 58:18
  Um, another thing I think we can think of as people in agriculture,
• 58:22
  farmers and um, people in rural life, like, oh, I don't need to know.
• 58:26
  I don't need that.
• 58:27
  I don't need that person.
• 58:28
  I don't need to go to the hospital.
• 58:29
  I don't need medicine.
• 58:30
  Um, and that's not what they're gonna tell you every single time, but go to
• 58:34
  the doctor, find one that you trust and, um, keep up on your appointments.
• 58:38
  And then if you think something's wrong, go get it checked out.
• 58:42
  Like the worst they're gonna tell you is, or the best they're gonna tell
• 58:45
  you is, oh no, you're totally fine.
• 58:47
  Everything's good.
• 58:48
  Um, but what if it's not?
• 58:50
  So, um, go to the doctor.
• 58:53
  And, um, as far as being a supportive daughter, I talk to my mom on the phone.
• 58:59
  We text the, the sisters and I and mom and dad, we all have Snapchat
• 59:04
  groups and send pictures of the kids and that kind of stuff.
• 59:07
  And we were just home for Christmas, which is really good to get everyone together,
• 59:10
  um, and do that for a couple of days.
• 59:12
  And.
• 59:13
  . Um, but yes, technology is amazing.
• 59:16
  My kids talk with grandma on FaceTime and check in with grandpa on FaceTime and
• 59:21
  um, you know, they do all those things.
• 59:24
  So we're just, everyone's trying to make the best of it and be
• 59:27
  optimistic and, um, hopeful.
• 59:31
  Yeah.
• 59:31
  So we, uh, we will hold space for her too and hope that all of the
• 59:36
  treatments that she has coming up go well and that, that her and her doctors
• 59:40
  have a good plan moving forward.
• 59:44
  I appreciate that.
• 59:45
  Thank you guys.
• 59:47
  Yeah, I think it's critical to point out too that I know so many people
• 59:51
  who've been in that position and they don't wanna waste the doctor's time
• 59:54
  because they're sure it's nothing.
• 59:55
  And I guarantee that your doctor would much rather see you when it's
• 1:00:00
  nothing than to have something.
• 1:00:03
  I think
• 1:00:03
  that's true too.
• 1:00:05
  Circling back to like New Parenthood, you, your kid, like
• 1:00:08
  kids are just sick constantly.
• 1:00:10
  No matter how much you try to build their immunity by letting them eat
• 1:00:13
  dirt and manure and play in the barn, , they still get sick all the
• 1:00:18
  time and go take 'em to the doctor.
• 1:00:21
  Like they're not gonna shake their head at you for coming in and getting checked out
• 1:00:25
  And so I think that is relatable in every age of life.
• 1:00:29
  In, in all parts of this conversation is just
• 1:00:32
  go . Well, and it's absolutely a privileged thing to say too, because I
• 1:00:38
  know not everybody has health insurance or good health insurance and not
• 1:00:42
  everybody has a choice of other doctors.
• 1:00:44
  But if your doctor's a dick and makes you feel like you're being stupid for
• 1:00:48
  being there, for whatever you're there for, you need a new doctor that's
• 1:00:52
  not on you, that's on your doctor.
• 1:00:54
  Um, you know, I just 100%.
• 1:00:58
  Even if you are overreacting, , your doctor should still
• 1:01:01
  not be a dick about it.
• 1:01:03
  , we ask all of our guests, if you are going to dominate a category at
• 1:01:06
  the county fair, what would it be?
• 1:01:07
  And categories can be real or made up to ensure that you win.
• 1:01:12
  Oh gosh.
• 1:01:13
  Um hmm.
• 1:01:17
  Well, I, every year I do try to enter something in the county fair.
• 1:01:21
  Uh, one of the, another one of those things like they're not gonna keep
• 1:01:24
  having the open class building at your county fair if people don't keep taking
• 1:01:27
  stuff in, no matter how old you are.
• 1:01:29
  Um, so my, I make sure my kids and I always enter a few things
• 1:01:32
  and I always take cinnamon rolls.
• 1:01:34
  And this year I was, uh, beat by a third grader.
• 1:01:37
  I'm not happy about that.
• 1:01:39
  But, uh, was, um, I do try to take a baked good.
• 1:01:44
  Um, so I probably have to say some kind of baking, even though
• 1:01:48
  I was just, you know, routed from my champion Cinnamon roll role.
• 1:01:55
  At the county fair.
• 1:01:56
  But
• 1:01:58
  are you gonna have like a grudge match?
• 1:02:00
  I am situation next year with this kid.
• 1:02:02
  I think grandma made
• 1:02:03
  ' em, I think her grandma made 'em.
• 1:02:04
  She didn't even live in the county, so.
• 1:02:06
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:02:07
  sounds like a ringer.
• 1:02:08
  I'm not holding a grudge.
• 1:02:09
  That's not at all.
• 1:02:10
  Seems, seems questionable.
• 1:02:11
  Yes.
• 1:02:11
  Simon rolls are pretty complicated.
• 1:02:15
  , I mean, fine if you're gonna make them, but at least put
• 1:02:17
  your own name on them, right?
• 1:02:18
  Like I know.
• 1:02:19
  Go ahead.
• 1:02:19
  Go ahead grandma.
• 1:02:20
  You can meet Melissa, but not your granddaughter.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah.
• 1:02:24
  So I guess we'll move into our cussing and discussing segment.
• 1:02:27
  We've registered for an online platform called SpeakPipe, where you can leave
• 1:02:31
  your cussing and discussing entries for us and we will play them on the show.
• 1:02:34
  So go to speakpipe.com/barnyard language, leave us a voice
• 1:02:38
  memo or check the show notes.
• 1:02:39
  I think the links in there.
• 1:02:40
  Or you can always send us an email@barnyardlanguagegmail.com
• 1:02:44
  and we will read it out for you.
• 1:02:45
  So Katie, have you remembered what you're going to cuss and discuss this week?
• 1:02:50
  No.
• 1:02:51
  And now I'm gonna get a little meadow about it.
• 1:02:54
  , I am cussing and discussing, having to remember what I was gonna cuss and
• 1:02:57
  discuss because I had some really good thing to cuss and discuss this week.
• 1:03:01
  And it's totally gone.
• 1:03:02
  It's disappeared.
• 1:03:03
  So yeah, we'll probably
• 1:03:05
  remember as soon as we stop recording,
• 1:03:07
  oh, I'm sure I will.
• 1:03:08
  Or I'll wake up at like 3:00 AM and be like, this was the thing, you know,
• 1:03:12
  at my normal waking up with music from Encanto stuck in my head time.
• 1:03:18
  I'm sure I can also wake up with the cussing and discussing topic in my head.
• 1:03:23
  Um, Melissa, what do you have to cuss and discuss?
• 1:03:26
  So is this
• 1:03:26
  anything like a anything, Eddie?
• 1:03:30
  Okay.
• 1:03:30
  I have something that I just thought of.
• 1:03:32
  This is something that I will fight to the death and it is when people are on TV
• 1:03:41
  and they say they're from a small town.
• 1:03:43
  And you Google their town and it's like 20,000 people
• 1:03:47
  Because that is not a small town.
• 1:03:49
  Yes.
• 1:03:49
  Not is a city.
• 1:03:51
  So people who say they're from a small town who aren't, that's what I cuss.
• 1:03:55
  Yeah.
• 1:03:55
  Not fair.
• 1:03:57
  No, they don't know
• 1:04:00
  what is the population boundary for a small town.
• 1:04:02
  Oh.
• 1:04:03
  And
• 1:04:03
  I'm probably gonna get heat for that, but No, do it.
• 1:04:06
  I feel like a small town is like 2000 or less.
• 1:04:11
  And that's like, that's like big, like a 2000 is like the cutoff.
• 1:04:17
  Because if you're like over 2000 or 2,500, like you probably have a like
• 1:04:21
  a, a big grocery store, a couple gas stations, a McDonald's, maybe some
• 1:04:26
  kind of fast food restaurant, 2000.
• 1:04:30
  That's what I'm going
• 1:04:31
  with.
• 1:04:32
  Yeah.
• 1:04:32
  I think that's it.
• 1:04:33
  That's a decent number.
• 1:04:36
  20,000 is not even close.
• 1:04:38
  That's not even a town.
• 1:04:39
  That is the city.
• 1:04:40
  So, Melissa, other, other hard-hitting, uh, hot take.
• 1:04:45
  When you take your kids to state fair for the first time, will you be
• 1:04:47
  going to Des Moines or to Lincoln?
• 1:04:49
  Ooh.
• 1:04:50
  Oh, yes.
• 1:04:52
  This is a, that's a big question.
• 1:04:53
  You know, big Midwestern question
• 1:04:55
  right there.
• 1:04:55
  So this is, this is maybe the hot take in Iowa.
• 1:04:58
  We took 'em to the Clay County Fair this summer, and we consider that
• 1:05:02
  better than the state fair in Iowa, but that's the Western Iowa in me talking.
• 1:05:08
  Um, so we haven't taken 'em to either state fair, but I don't know.
• 1:05:11
  It's about the, it's about the same distance to both.
• 1:05:14
  So I did grow up going to the Nebraska State Fair a lot.
• 1:05:19
  Yeah.
• 1:05:19
  But the Iowa State Fair has the butter cow.
• 1:05:21
  I
• 1:05:22
  know they do.
• 1:05:22
  Which is pretty
• 1:05:23
  cool.
• 1:05:24
  Yeah.
• 1:05:25
  Hmm.
• 1:05:26
  Well, you could take 'em to both.
• 1:05:27
  I'm not discriminated.
• 1:05:27
  I'm sure they're not the same weekend
• 1:05:31
  All right, Arlene, what do you have for cussing and discussing this week?
• 1:05:35
  So
• 1:05:35
  I am cussing, uh, toll roads because I just got a letter in the mail.
• 1:05:40
  Um, recently my daughter and I went prom dress shopping in New York, and
• 1:05:46
  I accidentally drove on a toll road.
• 1:05:48
  I forgot to put into my g p s that I did not want to drive on any toll roads.
• 1:05:52
  And it was on like Dr.
• 1:05:53
  I drove on and then back off again because that was like the way that it rooted me.
• 1:05:58
  And they're just obnoxious.
• 1:06:00
  Like, why can we not just like, have roads that everybody can use?
• 1:06:04
  Like, let's just like drive on the roads and not have to pay for them.
• 1:06:09
  I don't like it.
• 1:06:10
  I feel like they're unfairly biased against country people too.
• 1:06:14
  because you always look like a jackass when you're like, I
• 1:06:17
  gotta find change for this thing.
• 1:06:18
  What is this new fan called thing?
• 1:06:20
  And
• 1:06:22
  that does give me anxiety.
• 1:06:23
  Yeah.
• 1:06:23
  And like yeah, when we're , yeah.
• 1:06:25
  These ones are just like, they, they take your license plate and
• 1:06:27
  then send it to you in the mail.
• 1:06:29
  So, but still it's like, oh wait a second, that's a scanner thing.
• 1:06:33
  I didn't wanna go on this road but too late.
• 1:06:35
  And then you get charged for not having a transponder.
• 1:06:37
  Well, yeah, cuz I don't wanna drive on this road.
• 1:06:40
  I've never planned to, so now I have to pay a US $2 and some kind of
• 1:06:44
  cent bill that I've gotta figure out how to, uh, to pay online someday.
• 1:06:48
  But yeah, just like, let's just use our taxes for roads
• 1:06:52
  that everybody gets to use.
• 1:06:54
  I was gonna ask if you need to me to mail your $2 in for
• 1:06:57
  you earlier , I'm, I'm sure I can figure it out.
• 1:06:59
  It seems like there's an option, so I think we should be good.
• 1:07:02
  All right.
• 1:07:03
  So thank you so much for joining us today, Melissa.
• 1:07:05
  If people want to find out more about you and your farm and your
• 1:07:08
  business, where should they find you
• 1:07:10
  online?
• 1:07:11
  They can find me on Hungry Canyon, on Instagram and Facebook
• 1:07:15
  and um, I have a website.
• 1:07:17
  It's hungry canyon design.com and you can find all the Hungry Canyon
• 1:07:22
  goods your heart desires on there.
• 1:07:25
  Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 1:07:27
  Thank you guys.
• 1:07:28
  Thanks for coming on.
• 1:07:29
  Melissa, thank you for joining us today on Barnyard Language.
• 1:07:33
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• 1:07:37
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• 1:07:43
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• 1:07:46
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• 1:07:48
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• 1:07:50
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• 1:08:00
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• 1:08:05
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• 1:08:08
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