Latest / Barnyard Language / Hockey Injuries, Naked Photos, and Crazy B***ches w/ Adrienne Ivey

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Hockey Injuries, Naked Photos, and Crazy B***ches w/ Adrienne Ivey · Barnyard Language

• 0:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 0:01
  [arlene_hunter]: your first name? Okay.
• 0:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes, absolutely.
• 0:02
  [arlene_hunter]: I just wanted to make sure it wasn't like a Adrienne or
• 0:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: No.
• 0:04
  [arlene_hunter]: something.
• 0:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Plain old
• 0:06
  [arlene_hunter]: No.
• 0:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: normal Adrian.
• 0:08
  [arlene_hunter]: Got it. Yeah.
• 0:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Like think Rocky Adrian.
• 0:12
  [arlene_hunter]: Perfect.
• 0:12
  [caite]: That was actually gonna be my first question. So, now we got
• 0:15
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 0:16
  [caite]: that answered.
• 0:17
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah. We're ready to start that. Today we're excited to be talking to
• 0:22
  [arlene_hunter]: Adrienne Ivy, who's joining us from her ranch in Saskatchewan. So Adrienne,
• 0:26
  [arlene_hunter]: we start each of our interviews with the same question. And so for farmers
• 0:29
  [arlene_hunter]: and ranchers, this can cover crops and livestock, but also covers families,
• 0:33
  [arlene_hunter]: businesses, and all kinds of other stuff. So we ask, what are you growing?
• 0:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well, that's a bit of a changing topic on our farm right now. We are predominantly
• 0:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a livestock, a beef cattle operation with a little bit of grain farming
• 0:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: as well. So in Saskatchewan, that means the normal oats, canola, peas, wheat,
• 0:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: barley, that kind of thing. But we have been changing that a little bit
• 1:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: due to... economics and also due to we're getting old and we're sick of
• 1:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: working so hard. So we are downsizing the beef cattle side and upsizing
• 1:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the green side. So we're really fortunate that our land can go either way.
• 1:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Um, but so we're, you know, converting it from long-term forages back over
• 1:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to annual grain farming. Um, but then larger part of my day today and the
• 1:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kids that I'm growing as well. We have two teenagers, Noelle who is almost
• 1:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: 17 and Cole who just turned 15 and like you would think of somebody who
• 1:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: spends so much time mothering wouldn't have to think about those numbers
• 1:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so hard in my head before I spit them out but yeah that never seems to
• 1:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: change so that's what keeps us busy on the farm these days.
• 2:00
  [arlene_hunter]: So when you're talking about making a switch in numbers, what are you kind
• 2:04
  [arlene_hunter]: of currently at and what is your goal in terms of, whether that's in acres
• 2:09
  [arlene_hunter]: or numbers of head of cattle or whatever you're willing to talk about. I
• 2:13
  [arlene_hunter]: know not everyone wants to talk about the actual numbers, but if people
• 2:17
  [arlene_hunter]: had an idea of what we're talking about.
• 2:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: open book I'll talk about anything and everything probably things that nobody
• 2:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: wants to hear about so that's no problem. So at our highest we were calving
• 2:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: out 1,400 mama cows and that has slowly whittled down that was a little
• 2:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: bit too high of a number for our land base which all grain and everything
• 2:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: included is about 10,000 acres. And so we've whittled that down to kind of
• 2:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: hovered around a thousand for quite a few years. And now our plan is to get
• 2:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: under 500 that we're getting calf. But along with that, we not only have
• 2:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the cow calf side, we also we keep all of our calves and we run them as
• 3:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: grass or yearlings the next year, retain ownership, finish them, own them
• 3:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right through to processing for fat cattle. So we still will probably continue
• 3:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to do all of the parts of it like that, but just reduce our numbers significantly
• 3:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to under 500. And along this way, as we've been slowly whittling down the
• 3:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: cattle numbers, you know, we were grain farming, you know, as low as a thousand
• 3:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: acres, and we'll probably upsize that to pro I'm guessing we'll see where all
• 3:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the numbers land out, but probably around 6,000 acres that that will be green
• 3:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farming here in the near future. That's the loose plan, but as I'm sure both
• 3:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of you know, plans never quite go exactly as you have planned them out to
• 3:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: be, so it will be interesting to see where we actually land and how close
• 3:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that is to the plan, because I'm sure it will never be exactly what I planned.
• 4:01
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, for sure.
• 4:02
  [caite]: and what breed of cattle do you have?
• 4:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So they're commercial cattle, so you know, mongrels, but predominantly Angus-based.
• 4:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: We have a little bit of Hereford in the genetics as well, just to give a nice
• 4:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: little cross, the odd little bit of Semintal in there too, but mostly Angus.
• 4:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: We've been running red Angus bulls for a really long time and had originally
• 4:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: started with predominantly black Angus cow herd. So it's a mix of red
• 4:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and black Angus mostly.
• 4:37
  [caite]: I feel like that's something that a lot of non, certainly non-cattle folks and
• 4:42
  [caite]: maybe non-livestock folks in general don't get is that for commercial purposes,
• 4:47
  [caite]: it doesn't matter to have pedigreed animals generally. If you're not selling them
• 4:52
  [caite]: for breeding, it does not matter. And as long as they're doing well for you, it really,
• 4:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right.
• 4:59
  [caite]: the color doesn't matter, the breed doesn't matter
• 5:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, it's such a difference
• 5:03
  [caite]: if it's
• 5:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: from
• 5:03
  [caite]: working.
• 5:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the dairy industry, right? That is so genetics focused and particular
• 5:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about their genetics and registrations. And I don't even understand, but all the different
• 5:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: levels of of the cows and classification. That's the word that I'm looking for. Yeah.
• 5:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Whereas for us, we're really focused on just pure production of the individual
• 5:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: cow. if she does real well for us then no matter what colour she is she'll
• 5:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: keep raising babies and it's really for us it comes down to two things.
• 5:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: The first is feed conversion so we need a mama cow that doesn't need to
• 5:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: eat a lot herself but yet raises a good calf and but then we even take that
• 5:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: back farther and it's not so much about even the cattle genetics because
• 5:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: even though we're farm. For us, it's always been about the land and what
• 6:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: we really have been are grass farmers and forage farmers. That's the stepping
• 6:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: stone of or the cornerstone of our whole operation. So we've been more
• 6:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: worried about forage genetics, honestly, than we have about cattle genetics.
• 6:24
  [caite]: And I know as a beef and lamb producer myself, you know, I mean, where Arlene's looking
• 6:30
  [caite]: at measuring butter, fat or yield or, you know, pounds in the tank or whatever, my
• 6:35
  [caite]: biggest concerns are, is she stupid and is she crazy? You know, like those are
• 6:41
  [caite]: harder to really put a number to, but you know, those are kind of the top things
• 6:48
  [caite]: we look for. And I mean, we have a much smaller herd than you do. So that's, you
• 6:52
  [caite]: know. One crazy bitch is a much larger percentage of our total. But, you know, that's
• 6:58
  [caite]: that's our first cut is how big of a pain in the ass are they?
• 7:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well,
• 7:02
  [caite]: You
• 7:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it's
• 7:02
  [caite]: know, and that's.
• 7:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so true, but also that is such a big variance from farm to farm too, right?
• 7:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So because we have in May and June and they have out on pasture and unless
• 7:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you're a first time heifer, we don't touch you. Like you're checked once
• 7:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a day and we'll deal with any emergencies. But other than that, you're on
• 7:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: your own and you're miles away from the nearest yard. So we actually kind
• 7:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of love the crazy bitches. because they're good kite chasers and they
• 7:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: protect their calf at all costs, which is extremely dangerous if you're calving
• 7:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in the yard and you have to go and put your hands on that calf as a human.
• 7:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: But for ours that are range cattle, Nope. Be a crazy bitch. Just do it
• 7:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: over there where I don't have to deal with you.
• 7:51
  [caite]: I'll even handle them being a crazy bitch if they've got a calf on, fine.
• 7:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right.
• 7:56
  [caite]: But, you know, like we had an Angus cow that just destroyed a whole bunch of pipe
• 8:00
  [caite]: gates. And I'm like, you know what? No, like you're just being a crazy bitch. Just,
• 8:04
  [caite]: there's no excuse for this,
• 8:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's so
• 8:06
  [caite]: you know.
• 8:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: true.
• 8:06
  [caite]: She went straight to the sale because it's just not worth it.
• 8:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well, yeah, well, and where we run into that is when we're handling them
• 8:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: as yearlings after, you know, because crazy bitch genetics are definitely
• 8:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: passed down. So when they when we get into a group of really flighty yearlings
• 8:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that are impossible to handle, that's when we know we need to be tamping that
• 8:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: down on the cow herd a little.
• 8:35
  [caite]: Yep. So are you from a farm background yourself?
• 8:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I am from a farm, but not a cattle farm. I grew up on a pure grain farm,
• 8:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that the only livestock we had was some 4H calves and some show horses.
• 8:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So it was, and I met my husband at university, and we came back to his family
• 8:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farm immediately after university. We didn't work farming with his parents, but
• 9:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right side by side. And he always wanted to be a cattle farmer. They had
• 9:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a small feedlot and he loved the cow-calf side of it and I was like, well
• 9:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farming's farming, right? How different can it be? Turns out it's completely
• 9:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: freaking different. And I had a real steep learning curve that I needed to
• 9:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: figure out and do a lot of learning and a lot of adjusting my expectations
• 9:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of what farm life would look like. because the flexibility of your time
• 9:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on a grain farm is 100% different than the daily grind of livestock, for sure.
• 9:49
  [caite]: Yeah, I suppose with crops, you know, once they're planted or, you know, I mean,
• 9:53
  [caite]: obviously there's work to be done, but it's not as time sensitive generally as
• 9:58
  [caite]: livestock work is.
• 10:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Absolutely, we got to spend time at the lake in the summer and we got to
• 10:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: go on vacations in the winter and yeah, it's just a different level of daily
• 10:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: expectations for sure. And then you throw in that we're a mixed farm.
• 10:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So you have all of the high stress times of planting and harvest and all
• 10:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of that as well. But then the months of putting up feed in the summer. and
• 10:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of course feeding cattle all winter long too. So we are lucky we have two
• 10:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: full-time hired guys and they are fantastic. We could never do this without
• 10:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: them so they do offer us a little bit of flexibility which has been mostly
• 10:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just eaten up by chasing kids to their activities for the past 10 years as
• 10:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I know you guys can probably attest to. But yeah definitely a big difference.
• 10:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: from the green and even just green farming cash flow compared to livestock
• 11:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and all the parts of it. They're just very different businesses.
• 11:05
  [caite]: Yeah, that's true too. I guess with grain farming, you know, the money kind of
• 11:08
  [caite]: goes out at one time and it comes in at one time. Where with livestock it mostly
• 11:13
  [caite]: seems to just go out all the time and then
• 11:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, yeah, coming
• 11:16
  [caite]: maybe
• 11:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in.
• 11:17
  [caite]: it comes in sometimes.
• 11:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, I'm still waiting
• 11:19
  [caite]: But...
• 11:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: for that, I think,
• 11:21
  [caite]: Yeah.
• 11:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: which is why we're going to green farm more.
• 11:24
  [caite]: So are you guys able to support your family on what you're making on the farm? Or
• 11:29
  [caite]: are you... Canada's apparently a whole different place than the U.S. Where you guys...
• 11:35
  [caite]: I mean, there are obvious downsides, don't get me wrong. But it seems a lot more
• 11:42
  [caite]: common in Canada for families to actually be able to support themselves on farms. It's
• 11:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah,
• 11:48
  [caite]: like a
• 11:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so,
• 11:49
  [caite]: crazy thing to the Americans,
• 11:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yeah,
• 11:50
  [caite]: but...
• 11:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: oh wow. So yeah, I would say most, maybe not most, but a good percentage
• 11:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of farms here in Saskatchewan are completely self-sufficient. Really, it's
• 12:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: like anywhere, there's a broad variety of sizes of farms, but for us, we're
• 12:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: really fortunate. Where we wanted to farm. Right when we started farming,
• 12:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: there was a lot of land available for purchase and quite economically. So we
• 12:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: were really able to start right from the get-go, buying up land and getting
• 12:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ourselves to a size that we were able to not work off-farm at all. My husband,
• 12:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so I mentioned my husband and I met at university. We both have degrees in
• 12:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: agriculture. He farmed full-time right from the get-go. Even though our part
• 12:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of the farm was quite a bit smaller, he worked on his parents' farm as
• 12:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: well and worked with them. And I had a full-time off-farm job in agriculture
• 12:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and worked in corporate agriculture for, oh, a good 10 years. And that allowed
• 12:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: us to live totally off of my income and just let the farm grow, basically.
• 13:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: And yeah, 10 years in, and our farm was growing exponentially. Thank goodness.
• 13:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Like I said, all that land was available and we were able to buy, buy
• 13:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a good chunk of it. And, um, and the kids, I always had this idea that when
• 13:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you have kids, you know, it gets easier when they get to school and I'd
• 13:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: have so much more time and freedom and flexibility once my kids were in
• 13:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: school and then my kids were in school. And I realized, holy crap, this
• 13:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is completely different. It is a total new level of shit show. and I was
• 13:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: needed at home more than ever. So I gradually decreased the days that I was
• 13:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: working. I was able to work some part-time marketing jobs and even that
• 13:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: got to be too much, which was terrifying for me to go full-time at home and
• 13:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on the farm. I'm a super social person. I like to be around people. So it was
• 14:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: terrifying, the idea of staying home. in the middle of literally nowhere. But
• 14:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it's the best thing I ever did. It was the scariest and the best. I'm
• 14:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so glad we've never regretted it ever since. The attention that I can pay
• 14:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to my kids and chase them around. And also just helping out on the farm too.
• 14:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I definitely would never consider myself the primary farmer here, but. there's
• 14:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: no doubt that we could not be at the size and scale that we're at if I
• 14:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: wasn't able to be such a support system.
• 14:41
  [arlene_hunter]: I know that Katie and I have talked about it before, but my guess is one
• 14:46
  [arlene_hunter]: of the biggest factors in us as Canadian farmers being able to work full
• 14:50
  [arlene_hunter]: time on the farm. And I'm able to do the same as you, Adrienne, spend some
• 14:54
  [arlene_hunter]: of my time as a stay at home parent and some of my time farming. But not
• 15:01
  [arlene_hunter]: having to pay for healthcare is such a huge factor in our ability to do
• 15:07
  [arlene_hunter]: that because I look at, you know, I'm in a few different... know chat groups
• 15:12
  [arlene_hunter]: of farm women or farm families and the costs associated with trying to fund
• 15:18
  [arlene_hunter]: your own health care if you don't have an off-farm job in the States just
• 15:22
  [arlene_hunter]: seems mind-blowing to me and I don't know how that works I guess you know
• 15:27
  [arlene_hunter]: like we just don't have that expense that we have to factor in.
• 15:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: You know, I've thought about that too often. Same thing with friends in
• 15:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the States and stuff. And just the cash flow, the after tax cash flow of having
• 15:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to pay that insurance and stuff. That's pretty significant. I will say, you
• 15:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: know, down there, I guess they have the benefit of their tax. Their tax level
• 15:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: isn't nearly as high as ours, but somebody's on the farm. That doesn't matter
• 15:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so much because livestock keeps going the way it is. And we don't pay that
• 16:01
  [Adrienne Ivey]: much taxes. So.
• 16:03
  [arlene_hunter]: I was kind
• 16:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I guess
• 16:03
  [arlene_hunter]: of thinking
• 16:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I
• 16:04
  [arlene_hunter]: the
• 16:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: can't
• 16:04
  [arlene_hunter]: same
• 16:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: complain
• 16:04
  [arlene_hunter]: thing.
• 16:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about
• 16:04
  [arlene_hunter]: If you
• 16:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: taxes.
• 16:06
  [arlene_hunter]: have enough debt, then you
• 16:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes!
• 16:09
  [arlene_hunter]: don't pay that much in taxes.
• 16:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Exactly.
• 16:14
  [caite]: I know my family is incredibly lucky to have the level of healthcare that is provided
• 16:20
  [caite]: by my job, but I would guess that our out-of-pocket health costs to carry this kind
• 16:26
  [caite]: of coverage, if I had to pay for it would probably be $3,000 a month, pretty easily.
• 16:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: through.
• 16:34
  [caite]: Yeah, which is, you know, a year's income pretty quick, and that's for four people.
• 16:41
  [caite]: Like, that's...
• 16:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah!
• 16:43
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, and that's just
• 16:44
  [caite]: You know.
• 16:44
  [arlene_hunter]: one aspect of your family's needs, right?
• 16:47
  [caite]: Yeah,
• 16:47
  [arlene_hunter]: That
• 16:47
  [caite]: yeah.
• 16:47
  [arlene_hunter]: that's not anything else. Yeah.
• 16:50
  [caite]: Yep. And so
• 16:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: That
• 16:50
  [caite]: that
• 16:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is.
• 16:51
  [caite]: does make a big difference. And so there's a lot
• 16:55
  [arlene_hunter]: Mm-hmm.
• 16:55
  [caite]: of families that maybe have coverage, but it's only maybe enough to keep from losing
• 17:05
  [caite]: the whole farm if something happens, but not something so bad that you hit the cap
• 17:10
  [caite]: and then you still have to pay for it, you know, and that's just kind of... There's
• 17:14
  [caite]: a lot of families getting by on... crossing fingers and, you know, hoping that
• 17:20
  [caite]: you actually die if something bad happens. So
• 17:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Oh,
• 17:23
  [caite]: it's
• 17:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: oh.
• 17:23
  [caite]: not a great system, you know.
• 17:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well, and it's just the unknown of it, right? Like I'm a person who I like
• 17:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a solid plan and the plan can always change, but I like a plan. So the idea
• 17:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of not having that fallback would be actually terrifying to me. Honestly,
• 17:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so again, this all relates back to agriculture, but that's a really huge
• 17:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: reason of also why you're downsizing cows and upsizing the grain here is because
• 17:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: government programming, very little downside to grain farming in Saskatchewan
• 18:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in today's day and age. There is all sorts of government backed insurance
• 18:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and you're almost, you'd have to be in a real big bind to get into financial
• 18:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: trouble as a grain farmer, but those same backstops aren't there on the
• 18:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: livestock side, especially beef that is not supply managed like some other
• 18:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: livestock based things up here. So my aversion to risk and my need for a plan,
• 18:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it does not bode well with the ups and downs of the livestock industry
• 18:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in Canada these days.
• 18:38
  [caite]: And it, you know, you guys can make way cooler drone videos up there than we can,
• 18:43
  [caite]: which I feel like is a real upside. You know, as someone with an almost five year
• 18:47
  [caite]: old son and a 44 year old husband who spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos
• 18:54
  [caite]: of other farms. You know, here, like if I made a drone video of us harvesting, it
• 19:00
  [caite]: would be like a six row head. stopping and turning around and stopping and turning
• 19:06
  [caite]: around. Where up there you guys can get like, you know, seven combines side by
• 19:10
  [caite]: side and like miles, you know, or kilometers, I guess, kilometers long fields, which looks
• 19:16
  [caite]: really cool.
• 19:17
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 19:17
  [caite]: Where here it would just be my husband swearing and stuff breaking down. Like that's
• 19:22
  [caite]: not really
• 19:23
  [arlene_hunter]: Can you hear
• 19:24
  [caite]: four-year-old
• 19:24
  [arlene_hunter]: the swearing from
• 19:24
  [caite]: friendly
• 19:24
  [arlene_hunter]: the drone?
• 19:25
  [caite]: content. Yeah.
• 19:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: land basin is it's very rolly lots of wetlands lots of bush so therefore
• 19:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: lots of turning and
• 19:37
  [caite]: I didn't
• 19:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: lots
• 19:37
  [caite]: even know
• 19:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of
• 19:37
  [caite]: there
• 19:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: swearing
• 19:37
  [caite]: were hills in Saskatchewan, I guess.
• 19:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yes
• 19:40
  [caite]: I guess I
• 19:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: well
• 19:40
  [caite]: just figured it was.
• 19:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: no like we're we are not flat at all and in fact that's why we have been
• 19:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a livestock farm for so long is because who wants to farm frickin hills
• 19:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in Saskatchewan so yeah but another interesting point is out east they
• 19:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: might measure farmland by kilometers but out west we measure it all in miles and
• 20:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it's because the way our land was surveyed every single field is a square
• 20:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: 160 acres and is yeah measured in miles not kilometers so I am nine miles
• 20:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I live nine miles from our closest town called iTunes But yet I live 120
• 20:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kilometers from our closest city Which is Regina because as soon as you
• 20:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: go over like the 20 mile line, then you just think in kilometers It's very
• 20:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: confusing
• 20:37
  [caite]: So weird. I will
• 20:39
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 20:39
  [caite]: I will admit to
• 20:40
  [arlene_hunter]: measurement
• 20:40
  [caite]: that I'm from.
• 20:40
  [arlene_hunter]: makes no sense.
• 20:42
  [caite]: I'm from central Iowa, which is very much grain farming, and it's measured by sections
• 20:47
  [caite]: like it sounds like it is up in your place. For it's you know, if you turn left,
• 20:51
  [caite]: what, three times, you're at home.
• 20:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 20:54
  [caite]: And I moved to a part of Iowa where if you turn left three times, you're in Wisconsin.
• 20:59
  [caite]: You know, it's I get lost all the time up here still because it's just, you know.
• 21:06
  [caite]: At home, if you turn left enough times, you're gonna be right where you started. It's,
• 21:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Absolutely.
• 21:11
  [caite]: I don't know, thumbs down on this weird ass situation. But
• 21:15
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 21:16
  [caite]: there's hills up here, which I guess does change things.
• 21:20
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, that's true. So, Adrienne, I know that you and your husband were part
• 21:24
  [arlene_hunter]: of the Canadian Outstanding Young Farmer program and my husband and I were
• 21:29
  [arlene_hunter]: two at one point through the Ontario program. We didn't get to go national,
• 21:33
  [arlene_hunter]: so we didn't get quite as far as you guys did. But can you tell us a bit
• 21:37
  [arlene_hunter]: more about that competition and why people should apply to be part of it
• 21:41
  [arlene_hunter]: if they happen to be Canadian and young farmers?
• 21:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes, if you are 40 or under, I highly, highly, highly, highly recommend.
• 21:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Um, it's something that when we were first nominated that my husband and
• 21:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I really struggled with. And when I say my husband and I just mean my husband,
• 22:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: because he does not like to go and do all the things and see all the people
• 22:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and really leave the farm for anything. And I
• 22:08
  [arlene_hunter]: make
• 22:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: want
• 22:08
  [arlene_hunter]: a presentation.
• 22:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to do all of those things. Yeah. Yes. So, um. We went back and forth for
• 22:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a little bit of whether or not we should be going through with this. And
• 22:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I'm so glad we did. It's the best thing we've ever done. So Outstanding
• 22:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Young Farmers, they have different regions across Canada. It mostly goes by province,
• 22:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you know, except all the Atlantic provinces are together and the territories
• 22:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: join in with a province. But so every region or every province basically
• 22:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: has one farm that they send on to the nationals. And through that program,
• 22:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: we have made lifelong friends that I would never have crossed paths with
• 22:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in my life. I love that it is people who are doing unique things on their
• 23:07
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farms, whether it is finding interesting ways of using or whether it is
• 23:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: doing niche markets or whether it's just like they're doing the status quo,
• 23:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but they're absolutely rocking it and thinking big and taking risks. I think
• 23:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that any time that you can surround yourself with other people who are
• 23:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: doing really cool shit, it is gonna make you better at whatever you're
• 23:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: doing, even if it's totally unrelated to what that. other farm is doing.
• 23:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I think it's really easy for us as farmers to get sucked into what we are
• 23:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just doing every single day and kind of get bogged down in our own operations.
• 23:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: But even my introvert husband who doesn't like to be around all the people,
• 24:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: every time that he goes to an outstanding young farmer event, he comes
• 24:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: back. just excited and wanting to look for new opportunities and to think
• 24:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about things a little bit differently. I just, that is something that as farmers,
• 24:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: we just don't do enough of, whether it's through this program or maybe
• 24:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: peer groups or whatever is out there, maybe it's just hitting your major
• 24:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: trade, egg trade show or whatever. I think we all can be better at that, learning
• 24:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: from each other and inspiring each other.
• 24:34
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, it's so easy to get kind of stuck in your physical place, right? And
• 24:39
  [arlene_hunter]: thinking, well, this is the only way to do it. And this is the way it's
• 24:42
  [arlene_hunter]: always been done. We'll keep doing it because it's safe or any of those
• 24:45
  [arlene_hunter]: types of things. I saw a quote the other day that was like tradition is just
• 24:48
  [arlene_hunter]: peer pressure from your ancestors.
• 24:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes!
• 24:51
  [arlene_hunter]: And it was like, I thought that was really good for agriculture too, where
• 24:55
  [arlene_hunter]: it's like, okay, maybe this is the way that your predecessor did it. Or,
• 25:01
  [arlene_hunter]: you know, three, four generations before. to keep doing it just because they
• 25:06
  [arlene_hunter]: did? They didn't, maybe they didn't have any options. Maybe they didn't
• 25:09
  [arlene_hunter]: want to do it that way. And we have to be willing, yeah, to try new things
• 25:14
  [arlene_hunter]: and take risks and learn from other people too.
• 25:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Absolutely. Yep. Couldn't agree more.
• 25:21
  [caite]: I think, too, one of the huge benefits I see from attending conferences and stuff
• 25:28
  [caite]: is getting to talk to farmers who've been doing it for 50 years and still have stuff
• 25:33
  [caite]: go wrong. Because I think so many farmers get so stuck in the, you know, everyone else
• 25:38
  [caite]: is doing amazingly and our farm is going to shit and nobody else's cows ever escape
• 25:44
  [caite]: and nobody else's fields ever flood and everything is great for everybody else
• 25:48
  [caite]: and it's bullshit. But it's not like... you know, generally we're gonna call each other
• 25:53
  [caite]: up and just be like, hey, did you know that my whole field flooded and all my cows
• 25:57
  [caite]: ran away? And you know, like, we're not gonna talk about the things that go wrong.
• 26:03
  [caite]: And so it gets really easy to think that it's just your farm that is struggling.
• 26:08
  [caite]: And it's not healthy to think it's just you.
• 26:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's so true or even like even on good years on any given day, there is so
• 26:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: much shit that goes sideways. And I think that we have this idea as farmers
• 26:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that like, Oh, we actually got rain this year. We're not in a drought.
• 26:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's not horrible. We didn't get hailed out. Every animal on the farm didn't
• 26:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: die. So I just need to suck it up because really things aren't that bad.
• 26:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: when the reality is on a really good day, a lot of bad shit happens that is
• 26:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: stressful and you need to figure it out and work through it. And the more that
• 26:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: we actually talk about that, yeah, there is solidarity in that and that
• 26:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: we aren't alone and that I had a shitty day, but so did so many other
• 27:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: people and we can all commiserate together. The
• 27:05
  [caite]: So.
• 27:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: downside of social media for sure is so much is just the highlight reel
• 27:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and agriculture social media is no different. It's a lot of beautiful drone
• 27:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: pictures but it's also important we share sometimes the shit show as well.
• 27:24
  [caite]: And I think that's such a good point too, because I know, you know, as grain farmers,
• 27:28
  [caite]: we see that Instagram post of somebody's yield in a combine, you know, that they hit
• 27:35
  [caite]: 300 bushels an acre and like, but it was for 20 feet. Like, yeah, you hit 300, but
• 27:42
  [caite]: it wasn't the whole damn farm. You know, so I'm wondering what your thoughts are
• 27:49
  [caite]: on how we can improve how honest we are. on social media and how we can
• 27:58
  [caite]: deal with our frustrations about it because I know too it's hard because you don't
• 28:02
  [caite]: wanna look like a loser. Like nobody wants to come out and just be like everything
• 28:06
  [caite]: is terrible, you know. But also it's good not to totally bullshit people.
• 28:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right. Well, and there's toxic negativity, but then there's also toxic positivity
• 28:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: too, right? And it's a fine line of not wanting to go too far in either
• 28:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: direction. And then there's also the thing you need to worry about of activists
• 28:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and sharing a bad day on a livestock farm can easily sometimes be taken
• 28:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: way out of context and used for, you know, some of that. driven narrative
• 28:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that unfortunately is still out there. But I think I think the core of
• 28:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it needs to come from that we as farmers just like all people we need
• 28:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to be able to poke a little fun at ourselves sometimes. And like some of
• 28:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the shit shows that happen I would actually say the majority of the shit
• 29:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: shows that happen are our own doing and so we need to be able to be like
• 29:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: look at my stupidity I just got ridiculously stuck because I was driving
• 29:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the tractor while watching a TikTok and drove right into a slew and like
• 29:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just own it and be able to laugh at it and be a bit ridiculous, right?
• 29:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Because we all are and that's normal and that's okay. Yeah. I think that
• 29:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: when we can allow ourselves to be seen as human... then it is just not
• 29:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: only good for our own souls, but good for everyone else's as well. My kids
• 29:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are teenagers now, right? So they are quite a bit more picky now about what
• 29:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: images of them I would put on social media than when they were five and
• 29:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: six and just adorable, even when they were bad, right? So it's something
• 30:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that we talk about a lot that it's okay to... poke fun at yourself and it's
• 30:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: okay to poke fun at each other a little bit but still being mindful you know
• 30:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: if before I share things about them I ask for their permission now which I
• 30:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: feel like I shouldn't have to do because I freaking own them because I
• 30:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: made them but
• 30:23
  [arlene_hunter]: I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.
• 30:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: also it's a life lesson of I don't own their image to put on social media
• 30:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and just like they need to be aware of that when they are. when they have
• 30:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a funny video of some stupid thing their friend did or whatever, right?
• 30:38
  [arlene_hunter]: or that
• 30:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Like,
• 30:38
  [arlene_hunter]: we did.
• 30:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yes, exactly.
• 30:42
  [arlene_hunter]: We don't want that to happen. So yeah, you do have to start asking for permission.
• 30:45
  [arlene_hunter]: Otherwise, the next time I do something stupid, it could end up
• 30:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Exactly.
• 30:48
  [arlene_hunter]: on social media.
• 30:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So, oh, and my farmer's just coming in to interrupt this.
• 30:57
  [arlene_hunter]: Hi Farmer.
• 31:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I'm doing a podcast. Oh, sir.
• 31:03
  [arlene_hunter]: I'm sorry.
• 31:04
  [caite]: I'm just glad to hear somebody else tell the truth about having to ask your kids
• 31:08
  [caite]: for consent, because it is so fucking annoying to have to, like, model asking for
• 31:14
  [caite]: physical affection from someone that you literally lived inside your body for most
• 31:19
  [caite]: of a year. Like,
• 31:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right?
• 31:21
  [caite]: you didn't ask permission before you just jumped all around in there. Like, why
• 31:26
  [caite]: should I, you know, but... It's not how consent works is, you know, you have to
• 31:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I know.
• 31:32
  [caite]: ask unless you don't want to and then you don't... God, it's annoying. Now I'm mad
• 31:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It
• 31:37
  [caite]: just
• 31:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is,
• 31:38
  [caite]: thinking about it.
• 31:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right? And like, especially when you throw in the whole feeling of ownership
• 31:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that you have over your kids, right? Like, I own your ass. I can do whatever
• 31:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I want, except shits know that's bad. So I guess I'll ask permission.
• 31:54
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, it's such a strange, you know, like through that transition period
• 31:59
  [arlene_hunter]: too, right? From like little kids to teens, there are those years in between
• 32:03
  [arlene_hunter]: where one day they're still a little and they act it, right? And then you
• 32:08
  [arlene_hunter]: turn around and you're like, when did we start to be able to have these
• 32:11
  [arlene_hunter]: conversations? And now I realize, yeah, how big you're getting. But yeah, day
• 32:16
  [arlene_hunter]: to day and even minute to minute, sometimes that completely changes.
• 32:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Absolutely. They keep us on our toes. That is the one thing. Parenting
• 32:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and farming are exactly the same because no two days are the same. And
• 32:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just as soon as you think you got all your shit figured out, then everything
• 32:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: changes.
• 32:35
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, that's right. True, true, true.
• 32:39
  [caite]: So
• 32:39
  [arlene_hunter]: So
• 32:39
  [caite]: I'm
• 32:39
  [arlene_hunter]: one
• 32:39
  [caite]: gonna
• 32:39
  [arlene_hunter]: of the
• 32:39
  [caite]: ask,
• 32:39
  [arlene_hunter]: things...
• 32:40
  [caite]: oh, no, I'm gonna ask one more question. So
• 32:43
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 32:44
  [caite]: you said you have teenagers, and I'm just gonna go there because I am not shallow.
• 32:50
  [caite]: Why does your skin look so good? Were you 12 when you had these kids, or are you
• 32:54
  [caite]: like, is this a filter? You guys, like, listeners, just go look at Adrienne's social
• 33:00
  [caite]: media. You will understand why I'm just asking this creepy-ass question, because
• 33:05
  [caite]: she looks amazing. And... I generally look like I got backed over by a garbage truck.
• 33:10
  [caite]: Like... So, Adrian, explain your skincare routine to us, because I also, like, in all
• 33:17
  [caite]: seriousness, someone who's had skin cancer and, like, is dealing with all this,
• 33:21
  [caite]: like, weird skin shit, working outside, especially in the wind, in the sun, whatever,
• 33:29
  [caite]: is fucking bad for your skin. So tell us, please, because you look like someone who
• 33:33
  [caite]: might know something about... how to not look like shit. Thank you.
• 33:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I don't know if I know anything. I do, I know a couple of things that if I am
• 33:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: not wearing any makeup, there are times on social media that I'm using a
• 33:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: filter. So like what you see is not always reality, but like you're looking
• 33:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: at my face right now, but I have a light ring on. So sometimes, you know,
• 33:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: light is a girl's, the right light is a girl's best friend. But also I would
• 34:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: say I had a bit of an epiphany in the middle of COVID. to be honest, when
• 34:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: everything was shut down and I was home all the time and apparently when
• 34:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you're home more, you look in the mirror more. I don't know, but I was
• 34:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: like, I need to make some real changes because I'm sick of feeling like I
• 34:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: look like shit. And I think we're all the hardest on ourselves, right?
• 34:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: But I started religiously using sunscreen. which I've never been a sunscreen
• 34:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: person. I'm kind of that in-between skin tone where I don't burn super easily,
• 34:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but also I don't get real dark either. So I've just never really worried about
• 34:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it, but I should, because like if I wasn't wearing any makeup right now, you
• 34:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: would see sun spots all over my face and started like actually trying to
• 34:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: take care of it. So I'm not the greatest about doing a great job of cleaning
• 35:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: my skin. but I'm pretty religious about moisturizing it now. And
• 35:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I know nothing about anything except that all of a sudden now I have this
• 35:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: whole budget line about with skincare items that five years ago was probably
• 35:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just spent on wine. So I don't know if I'm doing anything right or not, but
• 35:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: apparently what I am doing right is good use of filters and lights because
• 35:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yeah, sometimes. Sometimes what you see on social media is not the whole
• 35:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: picture.
• 35:41
  [caite]: I will say that having skincare, especially sunscreen, in your budget is a hell of a lot
• 35:48
  [caite]: less expensive than going to the dermatologist to have things removed. And that if I had realized
• 35:57
  [caite]: earlier that generally the way skin cancer is treated is to cut it out and to just
• 36:02
  [caite]: keep going until it's gone, I would have started being a lot better about sunblock
• 36:06
  [caite]: a lot sooner. Because... Yeah.
• 36:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: That's a really, really
• 36:11
  [caite]: It's...
• 36:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: great point. And as I'm sitting here, I'm like, I never have talked to my kids,
• 36:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: especially my daughter about sunscreen and like they're farm kids, they
• 36:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are outside every day all year round doing chores and they're just outdoorsy
• 36:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kids too. Yeah, I should be having them. sunscreen on their face like I
• 36:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: feel like in Canada we grew up we're pretty good about like sunscreen on
• 36:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: our shoulders or you know our chest or places that you would typically get
• 36:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a sunburn but you never
• 36:45
  [arlene_hunter]: Or if you're going out in
• 36:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: think
• 36:45
  [arlene_hunter]: the water,
• 36:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about just
• 36:46
  [arlene_hunter]: right?
• 36:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the
• 36:46
  [arlene_hunter]: It's like,
• 36:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yes yes
• 36:49
  [arlene_hunter]: if we're going to the
• 36:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but you
• 36:49
  [arlene_hunter]: pool,
• 36:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: don't think
• 36:50
  [arlene_hunter]: if we're
• 36:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about
• 36:50
  [arlene_hunter]: going to
• 36:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the
• 36:50
  [arlene_hunter]: the lake,
• 36:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: daily
• 36:51
  [arlene_hunter]: then you put it on, yeah.
• 36:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yeah exactly you don't think about the daily especially like for us as farmers
• 36:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: your face sees so much sunlight all the time So it's something we should talk
• 37:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about our kids with, but I don't, I haven't,
• 37:05
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 37:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I will
• 37:06
  [arlene_hunter]: for
• 37:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: now.
• 37:06
  [arlene_hunter]: sure. Yeah. So one of the other reasons I enjoy following you on social media
• 37:13
  [arlene_hunter]: is looking at what you're making for supper, because I'm always in like a food
• 37:16
  [arlene_hunter]: slump and, and you're also honest about, you know, like what you're taking
• 37:22
  [arlene_hunter]: on the road because you're busy and you know, like sometimes it has to
• 37:26
  [arlene_hunter]: be on the go. So can you give me some ideas for what I should make for supper
• 37:30
  [arlene_hunter]: tonight? Cause I don't know what I'm making.
• 37:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, we live our lives around car meals these days with two very athletic
• 37:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kids. We're always on the road to somewhere and because we live in the middle
• 37:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of nowhere, it's a long ways. Both of my kids drive an hour each way for
• 37:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just practices. So it's a lot of car meals around here. But my system of
• 37:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: figuring out what the F we're going to have for supper that night is to mid-morning
• 38:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: go downstairs, open my deep freeze and stare mindlessly at it until a protein
• 38:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: jumps out at me that says, cook me today and then I build my meal around
• 38:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that. Which sometimes works awesome and then sometimes are hilarious fails
• 38:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: because I have nothing to actually that goes well with that said protein. But
• 38:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I feel like some of the best meals are the low and slow meals, if you have,
• 38:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: if you're around the house or the yard enough to make that happen. Love
• 38:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: throwing a roast in the oven and just letting it do its thing all day long,
• 38:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: whether it's a roast chicken, roast pork or roast beef. I know that in my
• 38:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: freezer, the last things to get cooked every year are the things that take
• 38:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: attention throughout the day. I've got about four briskets in my freezer
• 39:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right now that are just waiting for a day that has time for me to be smoking
• 39:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: them and spritzing them and you know giving them all the love and attention.
• 39:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Beef short ribs are all the next last thing to get cooked because you know
• 39:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that braising kind of takes all day. They're the most delicious things,
• 39:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but usually the last things to go.
• 39:23
  [caite]: Instant pot.
• 39:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: And I
• 39:24
  [caite]: Short ribs in the instant
• 39:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 39:25
  [caite]: pot. Perfection.
• 39:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes, that's, I need to get better at using my Instapot. I, it lives downstairs
• 39:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in my basement and anything that lives downstairs feels like it's a pain
• 39:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in the ass to cart it up and actually use it. Same with my air fryer. I
• 39:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: probably only use that once every couple months for the same reason. So
• 39:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yeah, but those are my go-tos. typically are things that I can cook with ground
• 39:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: beef because it's quick and it's easy. Spaghetti and meat sauce we eat
• 40:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on average twice a week because it is so easy. Kids love it. You can eat it
• 40:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in the car on the go if you have to. Leftovers are perfect too. Love that
• 40:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: one. That's definitely a go-to and honestly homemade pizza. We always have
• 40:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: stuff in my freezer that I can throw pizza together. Again, living in
• 40:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the middle of nowhere, there are no pizza delivery options where we live.
• 40:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: And it's a half hour round trip just to go and get pizza. So I just make
• 40:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: our own. I've got pre-made shells in the freezer and some deli meat and
• 40:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: what else do you need?
• 40:42
  [arlene_hunter]: Those are some good ideas. I already did take some beef out of the freezer
• 40:45
  [arlene_hunter]: today. So I've got the head start. Now
• 40:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: There
• 40:47
  [arlene_hunter]: I just need
• 40:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you
• 40:47
  [arlene_hunter]: to actually
• 40:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: go. That is
• 40:48
  [arlene_hunter]: do
• 40:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the thing.
• 40:48
  [arlene_hunter]: something with it.
• 40:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Someday I will be the person that takes the meat out the day before. Someday,
• 40:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: when I grow up, that will be me, but it's no time
• 40:57
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 40:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: soon. It still has not happened.
• 41:01
  [arlene_hunter]: then you might change your mind between yesterday and today about what
• 41:04
  [arlene_hunter]: you want to eat, right?
• 41:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: exactly it and I am a very, I don't know what the right word is, emotional
• 41:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: cook? Like I get excited about cooking because I feel like eating that thing
• 41:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that day. So how can you decide that the day before? You're gonna want something
• 41:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: different.
• 41:21
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 41:22
  [caite]: Or if God forbid
• 41:22
  [arlene_hunter]: very true.
• 41:23
  [caite]: it's the day that your husband offers to take the whole family to Culver's for dinner,
• 41:27
  [caite]: which... You Canadians are missing out, okay? I'm just saying,
• 41:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I've never been.
• 41:31
  [caite]: there's cheese or butter or cheese and butter on basically everything they make.
• 41:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Oh.
• 41:38
  [caite]: It's fast food, but like, it's actually food. You know where at McDonald's and you're
• 41:43
  [caite]: like, I feel so much worse after eating that. Culver's is
• 41:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 41:47
  [caite]: like, the inverse of that. And they're based in Wisconsin, which totally makes them
• 41:52
  [caite]: locally owned and thusly okay.
• 41:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah,
• 41:56
  [caite]: So,
• 41:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you can feel good
• 41:56
  [caite]: no.
• 41:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: about it all around. Nice.
• 41:58
  [caite]: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the reasons we started this podcast was because of the isolation
• 42:04
  [caite]: of being first-time parents. And like you said, I mean, it's a half-hour round trip
• 42:09
  [caite]: to get pizza here if you want pizza from the gas station, you know? And so a lot
• 42:14
  [caite]: of the parenting groups we were in, there was a lot of, you know, just... get it
• 42:19
  [caite]: door dashed or take an Uber or get a nanny or whatever, like things that will
• 42:27
  [caite]: not happen. So what was the transition to motherhood like for you?
• 42:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Honestly, motherhood was not isolating for me. Here in Canada, we are blessed
• 42:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: with a one-year maternity leave where you get 50% of your wage for a whole
• 42:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: year. So those maternity year leaves were isolating for sure. Like baby years
• 42:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: were hard, but in general, when my kids were hard, I was going back to
• 43:01
  [Adrienne Ivey]: work. After that year was over, work provided me with a lot of social interactions.
• 43:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It was a far greater adjustment for me when I stayed home full time on the
• 43:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farm than when I had my babies, for sure. But that happens to coincide exactly
• 43:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: with when I started my blog and started being a lot more active on social
• 43:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: media. So... That again is the upside of social media. It's this whole
• 43:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: new world of friendships and like-minded people and support system that
• 43:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: otherwise I would never be able to find in my tiny little town that is
• 43:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: still half an hour away or 15 minutes away, right? Like, so that has been
• 43:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the upside for me and how I managed through that part of it. I really did
• 44:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: not enjoy my mat leave years. And I think probably looking back now, the
• 44:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: isolation of those two specific years were probably a big part of why I didn't
• 44:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: enjoy them as much. I mean, I love my babies, don't get me wrong, but they
• 44:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: still, they were hard on me specifically. And I'm old enough that social
• 44:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: media wasn't. a part of my maternity years, you know, 17 years ago, uh,
• 44:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: they're, well, I don't even know if Instagram was alive yet, right? Uh,
• 44:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so I think that's what I, where I would definitely tell other new moms to look
• 44:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: for. And like you said, not to look for like-minded people in similar situations.
• 44:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's reaching out to you too. And, and and figuring out where your online
• 44:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: social connections are, or listening to podcasts like this, and understanding
• 45:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that, just like we talked about understanding that everybody has shit days
• 45:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on the farm, everybody has shit days as a mom, as a parent, as a caregiver,
• 45:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right? Like, children are the most rewarding thing in the world, and they
• 45:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are also the thing that drives us absolutely fucking bananas. whether they
• 45:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are two months or 17 years old, like holy, their emotional investment
• 45:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in their wellbeing and also your sense of responsibility when things go
• 45:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: wrong because things are gonna go wrong whether they're six months old or
• 45:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: 16, like it just happens. So understanding that you're not alone in those
• 45:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: things I think is huge, but it's on us as remote rural. parents to sort
• 45:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that out and to not just bury ourselves and isolate ourselves even more.
• 46:05
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, I know that I was going from working to my first maternity leave around
• 46:09
  [arlene_hunter]: the same time as you. I have a 17 year old as well. And I think Facebook
• 46:14
  [arlene_hunter]: was maybe just starting but like
• 46:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah.
• 46:15
  [arlene_hunter]: we were on dial-up still. So you had to like log
• 46:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes!
• 46:18
  [arlene_hunter]: on and go in. But it was such a culture shock to go from I was commuting
• 46:26
  [arlene_hunter]: into the city and coming back to the farm at night or I was working shift
• 46:30
  [arlene_hunter]: work. So some of the time I was coming back in the middle of the night.
• 46:32
  [arlene_hunter]: So I was around but I didn't really know. anyone in my community. I wasn't
• 46:37
  [arlene_hunter]: from here and so then I was off on my first year of maternity leave and
• 46:42
  [arlene_hunter]: realizing I don't know anyone. Like I know my my mother-in-law and a couple
• 46:46
  [arlene_hunter]: of my immediate neighbors but I don't know any other parents of young kids.
• 46:49
  [arlene_hunter]: Like I have no mom friends and so it took a long time and work to actually
• 46:57
  [arlene_hunter]: meet other people and you know not everyone has resources. You know like we're
• 47:02
  [arlene_hunter]: not too far from a town where there were library and that kind of stuff and
• 47:06
  [arlene_hunter]: so I could meet other parents of young kids but I know not everyone is close
• 47:11
  [arlene_hunter]: enough to those things and you know we have the Canadian privilege of
• 47:16
  [arlene_hunter]: having a year off where you know other people are and depending on your
• 47:22
  [arlene_hunter]: farm situation too you may be going back to work within days of having
• 47:25
  [arlene_hunter]: your baby too so those things are all different depending on where you live
• 47:29
  [arlene_hunter]: and what your personal situation is.
• 47:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, it's definitely a journey. And I think that looking back now, if I would
• 47:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: have realized what a journey it is, and it's not just like, I need to find
• 47:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a best friend tomorrow kind of thing. It's my life is gonna change and
• 47:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: progress and friendships are going to ebb and flow. And honestly, the easiest
• 47:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: time of a parent's life, I think, or in my experience, to make that network
• 48:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is once your kids start to be in stuff. Right? So you all of a sudden
• 48:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: your social life becomes the other parents that are on your kids' hockey
• 48:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: team or their volleyball team or 4-H club or whatever it is that your kids
• 48:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are passionate about. That's where we spend all of our time. So. hopefully fingers crossed that there's some parents
• 48:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: within that team or group that aren't total duds and you can actually form great relationships with.
• 48:36
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, even if it's just for the hour that they're at practice or yeah in
• 48:40
  [arlene_hunter]: the 4-H meeting or whatever to have someone else
• 48:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Absolutely.
• 48:42
  [arlene_hunter]: to hang out with for a little while. So what do you enjoy most about raising
• 48:47
  [arlene_hunter]: your kids out where you are out on the land and being farm kids, being
• 48:50
  [arlene_hunter]: ranch kids?
• 48:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it's really cool and it is that it's it's honestly such a privilege as
• 48:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farmers that we get to share a profession so much with our kids. You know
• 49:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: if you compare it to a doctor or an accountant or so many other professions
• 49:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that their professional life is completely separate from their home and
• 49:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: family life. Whereas our kids are everyday parts of our farm. been very,
• 49:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: very conscious about involving our kids since the time that they were old
• 49:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: enough to cart a five gallon pail across the yard to feed calves or whatever.
• 49:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: There's been a lot of times where that's been a struggle because it would
• 49:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: be far easier to either do it ourselves or to have one of the hired guys
• 49:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: do it. But we've always really, really wanted and made it a priority for our
• 49:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kids to be involved. And now I'm so happy that we... that we went through
• 49:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that struggle and we tried so hard to do that because both of my kids,
• 49:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: they're better equipment operators than I am. They're better at handling cattle
• 50:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: than I am. So that's really great to see and they are still young enough
• 50:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that I don't know for sure if either of them will want to farm full time
• 50:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: after, you know, into their adulthood, but they're definitely prepared
• 50:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to. You know, they have all the skills needed. So I think that is definitely
• 50:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the coolest part about farming with family. And, you know, it's not only a
• 50:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: little bit easier probably for farmers to involve their kids like that,
• 50:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but it's also just a cultural thing in agriculture that we do want to see
• 50:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: our kids involved and that it's when you look around at other neighboring
• 50:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: farms too. There's a lot of kids that are involved and that's, you know,
• 50:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: when I think about my marketing off-farm job, sure, when I maybe have some
• 50:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: discussions about that over the supper table, yeah, for sure, but it's
• 51:01
  [Adrienne Ivey]: not the same as being immersed in it like farm kids are.
• 51:05
  [arlene_hunter]: and it's harder to explain to your kids, you know, if you were... you
• 51:10
  [arlene_hunter]: know, a doctor and you're operating on someone and be like, okay, and so then I
• 51:13
  [arlene_hunter]: got the scalpel, you know, like versus like, let's go to the barn, there's
• 51:17
  [arlene_hunter]: a cow calving or yeah, like we have to go to the field and go do this thing.
• 51:21
  [arlene_hunter]: And to get to be
• 51:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 51:22
  [arlene_hunter]: able to have them there and experience it and whether or not they understand
• 51:27
  [arlene_hunter]: it when they're little or not doesn't matter. It's the fact that they've,
• 51:29
  [arlene_hunter]: they've seen it and then they can ask questions or, you know, then
• 51:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yep.
• 51:33
  [arlene_hunter]: they'll do it again the next season or see
• 51:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: And
• 51:36
  [arlene_hunter]: it again.
• 51:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I also think it's important for them to see the shit show that happens
• 51:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on farms and the problem solving and how you navigate through all of the bad
• 51:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: things. Because I think in today's day and age, a lot of kids don't see
• 51:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: firsthand the adversity that their parents have to go through. Whereas right
• 52:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: there, literally in front of our kids' faces.
• 52:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ever their future holds for them, they will be better at navigating through
• 52:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: adversity and figuring the shit out as it happens because they've seen
• 52:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: us do it so much and now they're at the point where they're doing it too. You
• 52:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: know, they're, my son was out swathing this past fall and he knocked a bunch
• 52:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of blades off and he had to, he was out in the middle of nowhere so he had
• 52:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to fix it himself. Perfect. That is great. You had to figure it out. and
• 52:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that will bode well for him, even if he becomes a surgeon. Oh, you, something
• 52:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: goes wrong in the surgery. It's an automatic, well, what do I do to figure
• 52:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: this out?
• 52:46
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 52:46
  [caite]: I think that's
• 52:46
  [arlene_hunter]: and for
• 52:47
  [caite]: such
• 52:47
  [arlene_hunter]: better,
• 52:47
  [caite]: a good...
• 52:47
  [arlene_hunter]: for worse. Sorry, I was just gonna say, and for better or worse, seeing
• 52:51
  [arlene_hunter]: how we respond to that adversity too, where sometimes it might not always be
• 52:57
  [arlene_hunter]: pretty, but if we're trying to model, okay, this happened and we're gonna
• 53:02
  [arlene_hunter]: figure it out ourselves, or we're gonna ask for help, or we're gonna take
• 53:06
  [arlene_hunter]: a minute and collect our thoughts and then start again, how we respond to the
• 53:13
  [arlene_hunter]: things that are frustrating to us is hopefully we can give that as examples
• 53:19
  [arlene_hunter]: how to proceed when things don't go the way you want them to.
• 53:24
  [caite]: I think too that's such a good point about our kids knowing what we do because so
• 53:29
  [caite]: many of us with, you know, I work from home but remotely and I found out the other
• 53:35
  [caite]: day that my six-year-old thinks I'm a ninja. You know, so them having a real understanding
• 53:42
  [caite]: of what we actually do and watching them, you know, my kids are younger but watching
• 53:48
  [caite]: them apply what they're learning in... useful ways. I mean, knowing math is a good
• 53:56
  [caite]: thing. Being able to count actual eggs while we're making dinner or while we're getting
• 54:02
  [caite]: them from the chicken coop is practical and makes sense to them, you know, and being
• 54:11
  [caite]: able to actually be helpful. I mean, little kids are basically the least helpful
• 54:18
  [caite]: creatures on Earth, but they really want to help, you know? And it's so nice to
• 54:25
  [caite]: have so many more opportunities to let them help with things that if they make
• 54:29
  [caite]: a mess, it doesn't matter as much as if they're making a mess in the house, you
• 54:33
  [caite]: know. And I know for us at least the teaching respect for living things. Arlene,
• 54:41
  [caite]: I did talk the girl child out of the live hamster because I pointed out that it
• 54:45
  [caite]: was probably going to get eaten. But just the, you know. You can't hit the dog just
• 54:52
  [caite]: because you're mad, because the dog is a living thing with feelings. We have to
• 54:56
  [caite]: feed cattle even if you don't want to, because they are living things. And I think
• 55:01
  [caite]: that's such a good extension of, we respect other people because they're living
• 55:07
  [caite]: things, to spread that to a wider basis. So tell us about all the horrible things that
• 55:15
  [caite]: your kids have done, and all the, what your biggest struggles have been. Because your
• 55:20
  [caite]: kids are old enough to have, like, really done some shit. My kids are still
• 55:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Ha ha
• 55:23
  [caite]: at
• 55:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ha!
• 55:23
  [caite]: the, like, they drew on the wall phase, which is irritating, but not, like, actively
• 55:30
  [caite]: dangerous.
• 55:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, my son went through that phase too and that's I remember I distinctly
• 55:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: still remember posting about that being like spankings will never go out
• 55:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of style in my house as long as drawing in the walls never goes out of style
• 55:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in my kid's life. Which, ugh, yeah, kids. And also he comes by it naturally
• 55:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: because my husband when he was my kid's age at that time he not only spray
• 55:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: painted the side of their machinery quonset, he spray painted his name. Like who
• 56:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: did he think was gonna get blamed from that? Honestly. So, you know, genetics
• 56:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: again are such a thing and sometimes you need to be more careful about
• 56:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the bully you choose. But my kids are pretty good. They, I mean, probably
• 56:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: every mom says that. They drive me absolutely bonkers. What I think is the
• 56:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: most amazing to me is how different the two of them are, the girl and the boy.
• 56:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: And I don't know if it's just straight up different personalities or if it's
• 56:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that a girl is genetically that much different than a boy. But you know,
• 56:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: my girl definitely went through the hormone phase and the mood swings and figuring
• 56:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: all that part out. But she's always been pretty easy. She's very chill.
• 56:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: she has not required a huge amount of parenting. And the boy is like bounce
• 57:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: off the walls active, holes in walls, all sorts of stupid shit that just
• 57:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: requires constant parenting. And they both have wonderful intentions, but
• 57:16
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I think that has been the hardest thing is to adjust the parenting to the kid.
• 57:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: because they just require completely different things for me. Yeah, I yell at my
• 57:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: son a lot, like probably more than is healthy. And yet if I raise my voice
• 57:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to my daughter at all, it is like instant regret because it just affects
• 57:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: her completely differently. So I
• 57:46
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 57:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: think
• 57:46
  [arlene_hunter]: you just broke her heart.
• 57:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that is the biggest thing. Yes, exactly. And usually the trouble that
• 57:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: they get into is pretty unintentional. Like there's been some, well, my daughter,
• 58:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you know, broke the bailer a couple years ago from not paying attention.
• 58:07
  [Adrienne Ivey]: My son, when he was four, tried to drive the quad through the garage door and,
• 58:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you know, just dumb things that luckily nobody was injured doing. But
• 58:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so far, like knock on wood because I feel like I'm tempting karma here
• 58:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that they're kind of the police are going to show up at my door tomorrow or
• 58:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: something because you know never say never About your kids doing bad things.
• 58:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I think I'm thankful that my kids are growing up now and not even ten years
• 58:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ago I really feel for teenagers that had to figure out social media before
• 58:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: We as adults had it figured out even, right? Like the idea that things
• 58:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: live forever online and the stupid things that teenagers 10, 15 years ago
• 59:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: would put on social media compared to now. Now you have to be really dumb to do
• 59:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: some of those things whereas that gap generation between me and my kids
• 59:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: didn't have it all figured out yet. So. But I'm even more thankful that
• 59:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I grew up in a time that there wasn't cameras and phones, and so none of my
• 59:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: dumb shit lives anywhere. Literally anywhere.
• 59:25
  [arlene_hunter]: Same, yes, yeah, same, same, same.
• 59:29
  [caite]: I feel like
• 59:29
  [arlene_hunter]: So one of the reasons.
• 59:31
  [caite]: that's such a thing we don't give kids credit for now too, is, you know, people say,
• 59:35
  [caite]: well, these dumb teenagers with their posting naked photos online, and like the only
• 59:40
  [caite]: reason we didn't was because we couldn't, because it wasn't a thing. Like, maybe you'd
• 59:45
  [caite]: take
• 59:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right?
• 59:46
  [caite]: a Polaroid and give it to somebody? Like what, you're not gonna go get those photos
• 59:51
  [caite]: developed? Like if you were gonna show your boobs to somebody, you had to like walk
• 59:55
  [caite]: up and show your boobs to them. And like... only
• 59:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 59:57
  [caite]: one person saw it, you know? Where now, like, there's not a time gap or any like
• 1:00:07
  [caite]: effort gap that makes them think about what they're doing. And
• 1:00:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: rates.
• 1:00:13
  [caite]: adults aren't good at thinking about what we're doing when we do it. So there's
• 1:00:17
  [caite]: no way in hell teenagers should be. And it's not fair to blame them for doing stupid
• 1:00:23
  [caite]: shit when they've got... ways to do stupid shit that we never even dreamed of.
• 1:00:28
  [caite]: You know?
• 1:00:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's so
• 1:00:29
  [caite]: And...
• 1:00:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: true.
• 1:00:31
  [caite]: Anyway. They
• 1:00:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah,
• 1:00:32
  [caite]: probably still
• 1:00:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so
• 1:00:33
  [caite]: shouldn't
• 1:00:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: far my
• 1:00:33
  [caite]: be showing
• 1:00:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kid
• 1:00:34
  [caite]: their
• 1:00:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: first.
• 1:00:34
  [caite]: boobs on the internet, but...
• 1:00:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So far my kids are smarter than I was at that age, so really what more
• 1:00:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: could I ask for? They're still gonna do dumb shit. Hopefully it just continues
• 1:00:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to be less dumb shit than I did.
• 1:00:49
  [caite]: I just hope my kids
• 1:00:50
  [arlene_hunter]: a
• 1:00:50
  [caite]: do
• 1:00:50
  [arlene_hunter]: good
• 1:00:50
  [caite]: new
• 1:00:50
  [arlene_hunter]: threshold.
• 1:00:50
  [caite]: dumb shit.
• 1:00:54
  [arlene_hunter]: New
• 1:00:54
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah,
• 1:00:54
  [arlene_hunter]: and innovative.
• 1:00:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: yeah, invent some new things.
• 1:00:57
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah. So one of the reasons
• 1:01:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Have
• 1:01:00
  [arlene_hunter]: that
• 1:01:00
  [Adrienne Ivey]: an adventure.
• 1:01:00
  [arlene_hunter]: I wanted to have you on, yeah, was to talk about teens, which we're doing.
• 1:01:04
  [arlene_hunter]: But what do you love about the ages that they're at right now versus when
• 1:01:08
  [arlene_hunter]: they were little guys? What do you love about having teenagers in your
• 1:01:11
  [arlene_hunter]: house? Because it seems like we only ever talk about the bad stuff.
• 1:01:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right, I think honestly, this is my favorite stage of parenting hands down
• 1:01:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: easily. I love this stage and I think it's because my kids have found the
• 1:01:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: things that they're passionate about and you know when they're little and
• 1:01:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you're carting them to like hockey practice and swim lessons and band and
• 1:01:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: piano and like all of the things because they still just don't know what they
• 1:01:40
  [Adrienne Ivey]: like or what they don't. Whereas now like my son is so passionate about hockey.
• 1:01:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: He is on the ice almost every day of the week and he is working out at the
• 1:01:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: gym and worried about nutrition and sleep habits and all these things like
• 1:01:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: he lives it completely eats breathe sleeps it and It's just really cool
• 1:02:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to watch that progression My daughter's really into horses. She shows raining
• 1:02:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: horses and You know the work and dedication that that requires I Think it's
• 1:02:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just so cool that I not only get to be along for the ride like who am I
• 1:02:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kidding? I am the ride because I'm still chauffeuring them around everywhere,
• 1:02:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but I just get to watch them not only choose their things but but really
• 1:02:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: get good at it and and want to work hard at it. That just is so exciting
• 1:02:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to me and means that I'm so excited to see that work ethic in them as adults
• 1:02:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and that they're learning now how much of a difference that their hard work
• 1:02:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: on stuff. Like for example, with my son, how hard he works off the ice
• 1:03:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: directly relates to how his success on the ice. and that he can clearly
• 1:03:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: see that and is learning that and watching him learn that, I just think it's
• 1:03:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so fun. I just love it. You know, all the other hard parts about teenagers
• 1:03:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: balancing their passions with their schoolwork and with their social lives
• 1:03:28
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and trying to sort all that out, especially in a small town where your
• 1:03:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: circle is very small. Sometimes... I don't know what it's like down in the States,
• 1:03:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: but, or even out East, but sometimes small towns, Saskatchewan means that
• 1:03:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: there are, there are certain people in your town that don't like to see
• 1:03:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: other people succeed, which really sucks. But also at the same time, choosing
• 1:03:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to step above that and pushing yourself and seeking out greater opportunities
• 1:03:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: than what can be found right here at home. That's a big, a big thing for
• 1:04:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: my kids. And also a big reason why there will be no option for them to stay
• 1:04:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: home as soon as they're done high school You are always welcome to come
• 1:04:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: back, but you have to go away for a while wherever that is whether that's
• 1:04:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to university or learning a trade or Working somewhere else or traveling
• 1:04:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the world like don't care what you want to go do great, but you can come back
• 1:04:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: later But you have to go
• 1:04:31
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, there's something about, you know, kind of being in a small town. So
• 1:04:35
  [arlene_hunter]: it, I mean, it teaches us that we have to learn to get along with people because,
• 1:04:40
  [arlene_hunter]: you know, if you're on a farm, you're not going anywhere. So
• 1:04:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 1:04:44
  [arlene_hunter]: but but yeah, we also want to give our kids those opportunities to just
• 1:04:48
  [arlene_hunter]: spread their wings a bit and see that there is a world out there. And then
• 1:04:52
  [arlene_hunter]: if they choose to come back afterwards, then that's great. And if they
• 1:04:55
  [arlene_hunter]: find something else that they're passionate about, then that's amazing, too.
• 1:04:59
  [arlene_hunter]: Right.
• 1:04:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Mm-hmm.
• 1:05:07
  [caite]: Sorry, I muted myself. So if someone was asking for your advice as a ranch parent,
• 1:05:13
  [caite]: what would you tell them?
• 1:05:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: tell them first of all definitely work hard to get your kids involved on the
• 1:05:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ranch and on the farm. As much as we have that privilege and that availability
• 1:05:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: here it's not easy and a lot of farms now I see aren't choosing to go down
• 1:05:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that path. A lot of farm kids are raised no different than town kids in that
• 1:05:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: they aren't directly involved on the farm. That segment I think is growing
• 1:05:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: every day. because as farms grow bigger, it is harder to keep your kids
• 1:05:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: involved. I would also say as much as my kids are passionate about their
• 1:05:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: activities, about their sports and whatnot, it also has been a priority of
• 1:06:04
  [Adrienne Ivey]: mine to make sure that they balance that with having a social life, which
• 1:06:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is hard because it's not. I don't know if there's many parents out there
• 1:06:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: saying, why don't you take the night off and go hang out with friends?
• 1:06:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: But I think it's important that they learn that balance early on as well.
• 1:06:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It's really easy to get caught up in the grind, not only of the farm, but
• 1:06:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of hockey or horses or whatever the passion is. And I think when I look back
• 1:06:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: at my life and my husband's life, balance isn't something. isn't the notion
• 1:06:41
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of balance wasn't something that we were raised with. So it's it is something
• 1:06:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that I want to see my kids be aware of and you know the navigation through
• 1:06:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: that. And then I would say that when it comes to teenagers every parent
• 1:06:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of younger kids thinks that it will be easier as the older the kids get
• 1:07:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the easier it will get. But the reality is the complete opposite. My kids
• 1:07:08
  [Adrienne Ivey]: need me more now than they probably did as toddlers. Like when they're
• 1:07:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: toddlers, anybody can play with them, anybody can feed them and clothe
• 1:07:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: them and you know, whereas time with mom and dad is completely different
• 1:07:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: now, or whoever the caregiver is. I think that there's a very different emotional
• 1:07:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: need and it's not that we're sitting and specifically talking about our
• 1:07:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: feelings every single day. but it's just being there and the time in the
• 1:07:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: car and the time at the supper table and all of that is far more important
• 1:07:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: now than it's ever been.
• 1:07:48
  [arlene_hunter]: That's a good reminder. The one thing that I found pandemic life difficult
• 1:07:55
  [arlene_hunter]: in, I mean, for lots of ways, but with older kids was they weren't getting
• 1:07:59
  [arlene_hunter]: that social time with their friends. And I think now it's it's almost a
• 1:08:04
  [arlene_hunter]: little bit harder. Like, I have to push more, I think, now than, you know,
• 1:08:08
  [arlene_hunter]: when I was a teenager, it was the other way around where it was like, can
• 1:08:11
  [arlene_hunter]: you drive me here? Can you drive me to my friend's house? And now I'm
• 1:08:14
  [arlene_hunter]: like, do you want to see your friends? Like, do you want me to? You know,
• 1:08:17
  [arlene_hunter]: they they they talk online. feels like, you know, they see each other at
• 1:08:22
  [arlene_hunter]: school and then they're like, yeah, you know, we'll just talk on Snapchat
• 1:08:25
  [arlene_hunter]: or whatever and they don't need to actually hang out. But I'm like, you
• 1:08:29
  [arlene_hunter]: could actually like be in the same room. You could go do something together.
• 1:08:33
  [arlene_hunter]: You don't, you don't have to just talk, you know, virtually. You could actually
• 1:08:37
  [arlene_hunter]: go and do something together. So I think that was a bit of a change that
• 1:08:42
  [arlene_hunter]: I didn't, didn't really think about until the last year.
• 1:08:46
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes, same here. Absolutely the same thing here. And I don't just see it
• 1:08:51
  [Adrienne Ivey]: with my kids. I see it with all teenagers now. They just, they do less
• 1:08:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: together. And I don't know if it is a social media Snapchat thing or if
• 1:09:01
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it is the hangover of the pandemic, but yeah, they are far less social. Lots of
• 1:09:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: them are far less active in sports or activities or whatever. I think it's
• 1:09:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a very different time to pair. parent through for teenagers, for sure.
• 1:09:22
  [caite]: I know I have to say that I appreciate that my kids are still little enough that,
• 1:09:26
  [caite]: like, I do look forward to the day that they can shower by themselves and, like,
• 1:09:31
  [caite]: zip their own coats and that sort of, that aspect of parenting. But it is nice right
• 1:09:37
  [caite]: now that when my daughter comes home complaining about school it's that somebody
• 1:09:41
  [caite]: accidentally tripped her during gym class and it's not, you know, so-and-so said
• 1:09:47
  [caite]: they don't want to be by date for prom or whatever, like... They're big problems to
• 1:09:53
  [caite]: little people, but they're not big problems to big people, where it seems like
• 1:09:57
  [caite]: teenagers have the capability to get into a lot more trouble than little ones do.
• 1:10:05
  [caite]: You know, I mean, my kids don't go anywhere that I don't take them. They don't
• 1:10:09
  [caite]: buy anything that I don't buy for them. Like, there's no, you know, they're pretty
• 1:10:14
  [caite]: limited in what they can get up to, you know, especially living this far from town.
• 1:10:21
  [caite]: It's, uh, uh, teenagers. All right.
• 1:10:25
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Definitely the bonus of living in small towns or by small towns is that everybody
• 1:10:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: knows everything. So when my kids be in a shithead, I'm gonna hear about
• 1:10:37
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it within 24 hours, guaranteed. Which is really a good thing. I can't imagine
• 1:10:42
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the difficulties of raising kids in large urban centres where you literally
• 1:10:47
  [Adrienne Ivey]: don't know any of your neighbours or... have a different connection point even
• 1:10:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: with the school. It would be, as someone who has only lived in urban centers
• 1:10:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to go to university, I can't even imagine navigating that. That would be
• 1:11:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: completely out of my realm of experience.
• 1:11:08
  [caite]: Yeah, it is, you know, my kids are in a small community daycare in a small public
• 1:11:13
  [caite]: school and it is really nice to know the other kids' parents and, you know, I hear
• 1:11:19
  [caite]: about shit my kids have gotten up to before they get home from daycare, you know,
• 1:11:23
  [caite]: and it's nice to be able to ask about other kids' families and other kids' parents
• 1:11:27
  [caite]: and, you know, sort of vet people that way. And it is. As stifling as small towns
• 1:11:35
  [caite]: can be, it is nice to have that overview.
• 1:11:42
  [caite]: So we ask all of our guests if you were going to dominate a category at a county
• 1:11:46
  [caite]: fair, what would it be? And categories can be real or made up.
• 1:11:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well, I grew up traveling the county equivalent of county fairs here in Saskatchewan,
• 1:11:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: showing horses. So I have a lot of experience. My whole summers would be
• 1:12:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: spent at fairs. And so I will say the number one most important thing about
• 1:12:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: fair life is to understand that to never ever make eye contact with a
• 1:12:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: carney. because then you're getting sucked in for something. And especially
• 1:12:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: if you're a teenage girl, then really don't make eye contact with a Kearney.
• 1:12:34
  [Adrienne Ivey]: But I would, so I would rock the horse show aspect of it. You throw me on
• 1:12:39
  [Adrienne Ivey]: horse and I can make you go do some fun stuff. But as for, you know, normal
• 1:12:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: county fair stuff now, I would be the queen at doing food reviews of all of
• 1:12:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the food booths. That is what I would want to do now. And
• 1:12:59
  [arlene_hunter]: Oh.
• 1:12:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the weirder the food the more fun it would be. I think I can I can definitely
• 1:13:09
  [Adrienne Ivey]: see myself going down that path and just like traveling to every fair
• 1:13:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and doing reviews on the corndogs and the elephant ears and the up here poutine,
• 1:13:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: very important, and figuring out, you know, what all the best food spots
• 1:13:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are.
• 1:13:29
  [arlene_hunter]: a good one. I was thinking you were going to say like judging like you
• 1:13:32
  [arlene_hunter]: know the pies and stuff you know that people enter but I like your your
• 1:13:35
  [arlene_hunter]: version too that uh that it's a it's both a service that you're offering
• 1:13:41
  [arlene_hunter]: the community and something that you're uh you would enjoy as well. So
• 1:13:48
  [arlene_hunter]: I
• 1:13:48
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Exactly.
• 1:13:48
  [arlene_hunter]: guess we'll move ahead
• 1:13:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Mostly
• 1:13:49
  [arlene_hunter]: into
• 1:13:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: selfishly
• 1:13:50
  [arlene_hunter]: our
• 1:13:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I would just enjoy it.
• 1:13:52
  [arlene_hunter]: well well yeah but then you can warn other people if the
• 1:14:02
  [arlene_hunter]: So we'll go ahead and move into our Cussing and Discussing segment. We've
• 1:14:04
  [arlene_hunter]: registered for an online platform so listeners can leave their Cussing and Discussing
• 1:14:08
  [arlene_hunter]: entries for us and we will play them on the show. So go to speakpipe.com
• 1:14:12
  [arlene_hunter]: backslash barnyardlanguage and leave us a voice memo or you can always
• 1:14:15
  [arlene_hunter]: send us an email at barnyardlanguage.gmail.com or check the show notes and the links should
• 1:14:20
  [arlene_hunter]: be there. So Katie, what have you got to Cuss and Discuss this week?
• 1:14:25
  [caite]: that people take this in the not intended to be offensive manner in which it may or may
• 1:14:31
  [caite]: not come out. I really wish that there was some sort of remedial girliness classes
• 1:14:37
  [caite]: for those of us who were not raised by girly people because like I'm looking at
• 1:14:41
  [caite]: Adrienne and I'm like you know what I bet her kid shows up to county fair with
• 1:14:44
  [caite]: like her hair braided right and her horse's hair braided right and like
• 1:14:48
  [arlene_hunter]: Oh, she's shaking her head. No, you can't see it, people. But Adrienne
• 1:14:51
  [arlene_hunter]: says that's
• 1:14:52
  [caite]: My
• 1:14:52
  [arlene_hunter]: not
• 1:14:52
  [caite]: daughter
• 1:14:52
  [arlene_hunter]: a thing.
• 1:14:52
  [caite]: keeps asking to grow her hair out, and I'm like, honey, I don't, like, I can't
• 1:14:57
  [caite]: be in charge of this. I keep my hair short because I can't deal with it. And by
• 1:15:01
  [caite]: short, I do not mean when people say, oh, I have short hair because it's only to
• 1:15:05
  [caite]: my shoulders. I mean, no, mine is like two inches. And so I just feel a little bad
• 1:15:15
  [caite]: that I can't, I am not good at the girly girl stuff that my girly girl daughter
• 1:15:20
  [caite]: wants to do. And I just... Part of me was, you know... I mean, I was raised by
• 1:15:27
  [caite]: a strong, hippie feminist, and part of me is like, well, to hell with the, you
• 1:15:32
  [caite]: know, the status quo of girly girlness. But also, my kid really likes it, and it's
• 1:15:37
  [caite]: not hurting anything. But I'm not good at it, and it makes me grumpy. So there's...
• 1:15:43
  [arlene_hunter]: I
• 1:15:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Oh,
• 1:15:43
  [arlene_hunter]: still
• 1:15:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I
• 1:15:43
  [arlene_hunter]: can't do
• 1:15:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: so...
• 1:15:43
  [arlene_hunter]: a French braid.
• 1:15:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: me neither! I cannot, I can, I can braid a horse's tail because it's big
• 1:15:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and right there and that's about it. Like, oh, I can't, it has taken me
• 1:15:56
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a very, very long time to figure out how to actually like properly apply mascara,
• 1:16:02
  [Adrienne Ivey]: let alone all the contouring and stuff that people do now that I don't even
• 1:16:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: actually know what that means. let alone be able to do it myself.
• 1:16:11
  [arlene_hunter]: No,
• 1:16:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So,
• 1:16:11
  [arlene_hunter]: there's too many brushes
• 1:16:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: and that's why
• 1:16:12
  [arlene_hunter]: and
• 1:16:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: my hair
• 1:16:13
  [arlene_hunter]: sponges.
• 1:16:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is long is because, yes, the only thing that I can do is a ponytail and
• 1:16:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I don't do that pretty, I do that like functional. So.
• 1:16:23
  [caite]: I end up getting mine caught in car doors when it's longer. So it seemed like,
• 1:16:27
  [caite]: no, legitimately it has happened multiple times. It seems like a safety thing at this
• 1:16:31
  [caite]: point to not, like,
• 1:16:33
  [arlene_hunter]: That must be very long hair. It's
• 1:16:36
  [caite]: no,
• 1:16:36
  [arlene_hunter]: one
• 1:16:36
  [caite]: it just,
• 1:16:36
  [arlene_hunter]: extreme or the other, with you, Katie. I
• 1:16:38
  [caite]: I
• 1:16:38
  [arlene_hunter]: never
• 1:16:38
  [caite]: have
• 1:16:38
  [arlene_hunter]: bought a
• 1:16:38
  [caite]: a lot
• 1:16:38
  [arlene_hunter]: hair.
• 1:16:38
  [caite]: of it. Yeah. It doesn't take much. Anyway.
• 1:16:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Well, if there's those remedial classes sign me up to, I'll join you over Zoom
• 1:16:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to do them because I got a lot of learning to do in that area too, which
• 1:16:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: also did not help my daughter at all. She luckily was not very into that
• 1:16:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: stuff, but now that she is a teenager and she would like to occasionally,
• 1:17:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you know, apply some makeup or do her hair, and I'm like, I don't know,
• 1:17:07
  [Adrienne Ivey]: here's the one thing that I can do. So,
• 1:17:10
  [arlene_hunter]: That's
• 1:17:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: you
• 1:17:10
  [arlene_hunter]: what
• 1:17:10
  [Adrienne Ivey]: know,
• 1:17:10
  [arlene_hunter]: YouTube's for.
• 1:17:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: right?
• 1:17:13
  [arlene_hunter]: There's millions of makeup tutorials. I'm not going to watch them, but
• 1:17:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah.
• 1:17:17
  [arlene_hunter]: if my daughter wants to figure it out, then yeah.
• 1:17:20
  [caite]: I will say I'm really...
• 1:17:21
  [arlene_hunter]: That's the good side of social media.
• 1:17:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 1:17:24
  [caite]: I am really proud though that the little boy last night after his bath asked if we could
• 1:17:28
  [caite]: do nail polish so he could be extra pretty. I was like, well, maybe we can
• 1:17:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Aww.
• 1:17:32
  [caite]: do it tomorrow right after school so it'll be dry, but absolutely. You know, and
• 1:17:37
  [caite]: then he wants like green and blue so it can be like John Deere and New Holland,
• 1:17:43
  [caite]: you know, because we're that family, but
• 1:17:46
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah,
• 1:17:46
  [caite]: that's fine.
• 1:17:47
  [arlene_hunter]: the farm nail polish.
• 1:17:48
  [caite]: Yeah.
• 1:17:48
  [arlene_hunter]: Perfect. Have you got any orange?
• 1:17:51
  [caite]: I was just thinking about the repercussions of a makeup line for farm kids. Anyway, Adrian,
• 1:17:57
  [caite]: what do you have to custom discuss?
• 1:18:03
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So what has been annoying me lately has been personal space. So perhaps
• 1:18:14
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it's because I live in the middle of nowhere. But so I frequently have
• 1:18:19
  [Adrienne Ivey]: to head into the city to hit up Costco, which I think maybe is called Sam's
• 1:18:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Club down in the States or is there Costco down there too?
• 1:18:27
  [caite]: two
• 1:18:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Um,
• 1:18:27
  [caite]: separate businesses. Costco
• 1:18:30
  [Adrienne Ivey]: okay.
• 1:18:30
  [caite]: is my happy place though, so I gotcha.
• 1:18:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah, well it can be mine too because I love what they sell and I love buying
• 1:18:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: in bulk and all of that but people's lack of personal space in today's
• 1:18:45
  [Adrienne Ivey]: day and age, I just can't handle it and like you there's we're in a giant warehouse.
• 1:18:52
  [Adrienne Ivey]: There's no need to like press yourself up against me or your cart or whatever
• 1:18:58
  [Adrienne Ivey]: like my personal space bubble maybe is quite large but I just every time
• 1:19:06
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I go to the city now I just am like cringing constantly at the people that
• 1:19:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: are like right up in your grill and for what
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: And
• 1:19:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: just
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: you'd think
• 1:19:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: take
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: we
• 1:19:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: a
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: would
• 1:19:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: step
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: have been
• 1:19:15
  [Adrienne Ivey]: back
• 1:19:15
  [arlene_hunter]: getting better at this, right? Like, use this, like, let's stick
• 1:19:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah!
• 1:19:20
  [arlene_hunter]: with the six to eight feet, or whatever the rules were before, when we
• 1:19:23
  [arlene_hunter]: had to stay away from
• 1:19:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right.
• 1:19:24
  [arlene_hunter]: each other. I'm okay with keeping that rule forever.
• 1:19:29
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Ditto.
• 1:19:30
  [arlene_hunter]: we can, a full cart length is good.
• 1:19:33
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah.
• 1:19:33
  [caite]: admit that when people do shit like getting in line behind you and then they just
• 1:19:36
  [caite]: get closer and closer like that's magically gonna make things faster I will unload my cart
• 1:19:42
  [caite]: so slowly because I refuse to reward that behavior by actually hurrying
• 1:19:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah.
• 1:19:50
  [caite]: Arlene, what do you have to discuss today?
• 1:19:54
  [arlene_hunter]: So I didn't actually have anything written down and I figured I would get inspired
• 1:19:57
  [arlene_hunter]: as we were talking. And so one thing that I've been thinking about is
• 1:20:02
  [arlene_hunter]: as our kids get older, they get more independent, which is fantastic. But
• 1:20:07
  [arlene_hunter]: I would still like a little bit of communication from the school once in
• 1:20:11
  [arlene_hunter]: a while. And it feels like it's completely dropped off. And... That could
• 1:20:17
  [arlene_hunter]: be that everything's perfectly fine and there's no issues, or it could be
• 1:20:22
  [arlene_hunter]: that my kid is messing up and I'm not going to find out until I get a report
• 1:20:26
  [arlene_hunter]: card, or they've been suspended or something. Like I really have no idea because,
• 1:20:32
  [arlene_hunter]: and I don't want to be super gendered about it, but my boys give me so little
• 1:20:37
  [arlene_hunter]: detail about what goes on in their daily life that I really have no concept
• 1:20:46
  [arlene_hunter]: far as like to contact like the the friends parents and be like so how
• 1:20:52
  [arlene_hunter]: are things at school for my kid maybe your daughter has told me because
• 1:20:56
  [arlene_hunter]: I know that they're friends with each other so yeah I just like I don't
• 1:21:01
  [arlene_hunter]: need like the daily progress reports like we used to get when they were
• 1:21:04
  [arlene_hunter]: in elementary school but I don't know maybe an email once every couple
• 1:21:08
  [arlene_hunter]: of weeks to be nice but I know that teachers are overworked so I shouldn't
• 1:21:12
  [arlene_hunter]: ask for too much but like just a few hints
• 1:21:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: It is true and I find that in our school there is a massive difference
• 1:21:22
  [Adrienne Ivey]: from teacher to teacher on what communication looks like.
• 1:21:26
  [arlene_hunter]: Mm-hmm.
• 1:21:27
  [Adrienne Ivey]: There are all, thanks probably to COVID, there are all sorts of communication
• 1:21:31
  [Adrienne Ivey]: tools available now that that our school as a whole can utilize and some
• 1:21:38
  [Adrienne Ivey]: teachers choose to and some choose very much not to and I think perhaps
• 1:21:44
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it just comes down to personal preference and also different levels of personal
• 1:21:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: organization.
• 1:21:54
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, I don't doubt the teachers have a ton of things going on, but I guess
• 1:21:57
  [arlene_hunter]: as I've got one in grade nine, as a new high school student, I'm struggling
• 1:22:01
  [arlene_hunter]: with the adjusting to no communication coming from the school. And I guess we're in
• 1:22:08
  [arlene_hunter]: exam week, so I mean in another week or two, we'll get that report card and
• 1:22:11
  [arlene_hunter]: we'll find out
• 1:22:12
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Right.
• 1:22:12
  [arlene_hunter]: what
• 1:22:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Today
• 1:22:13
  [arlene_hunter]: happened
• 1:22:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is report
• 1:22:13
  [arlene_hunter]: this semester.
• 1:22:13
  [Adrienne Ivey]: card day for our kids. So I'm going to find out today. Uh,
• 1:22:17
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, today was
• 1:22:17
  [Adrienne Ivey]: both
• 1:22:18
  [arlene_hunter]: our
• 1:22:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: of my
• 1:22:18
  [arlene_hunter]: last
• 1:22:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: kids.
• 1:22:18
  [arlene_hunter]: day of exams, so we're pretty close.
• 1:22:20
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Okay.
• 1:22:20
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah. Sounds good.
• 1:22:21
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yeah. So both of my kids miss a lot of school for their respective sports.
• 1:22:26
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Um, which I'm not worried about because they both excel at school, but also
• 1:22:32
  [Adrienne Ivey]: my grade nine or same thing. Like it's a different level of communication
• 1:22:36
  [Adrienne Ivey]: even between him and his teachers right now as to whether or not they are. communicating
• 1:22:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: with him specific assignments that he's missed or things like that. And we
• 1:22:49
  [Adrienne Ivey]: always, we tell both of our kids when you are missing school, then it's
• 1:22:53
  [Adrienne Ivey]: no one else's job to chase you. You need to approach your teachers and
• 1:22:57
  [Adrienne Ivey]: ask them for what you're missing. But I then am completely out of the loop and
• 1:23:04
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, hopefully that's happening.
• 1:23:07
  [Adrienne Ivey]: there have been specific classes where it's been a struggle and the marks have
• 1:23:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: shown that. So yeah, I would agree. It's a struggle, definitely.
• 1:23:18
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah, and we go from knowing every single thing about our kids, right? From
• 1:23:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes!
• 1:23:24
  [arlene_hunter]: their favorite color to whether they had a bath last night or not to, yeah,
• 1:23:29
  [arlene_hunter]: hardly feeling like we don't know anything anymore. Oh, kids.
• 1:23:35
  [Adrienne Ivey]: Yes.
• 1:23:36
  [arlene_hunter]: All right. Thank you so much, Adrienne, for joining us today on the podcast.
• 1:23:39
  [arlene_hunter]: If people want to follow you online or get in touch, where should they find
• 1:23:42
  [arlene_hunter]: you?
• 1:23:43
  [Adrienne Ivey]: So on Instagram and Facebook it's view from the ranch porch you can search
• 1:23:50
  [Adrienne Ivey]: me up there. Twitter is under my own name, Adrienne Ivy, the blog that I
• 1:23:55
  [Adrienne Ivey]: haven't wrote anything on in two years you know but you can always search
• 1:23:59
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it up it's view from the ranch
• 1:24:00
  [arlene_hunter]: Yeah.
• 1:24:01
  [Adrienne Ivey]: porch.com I don't know why you would want to but Instagram definitely
• 1:24:05
  [Adrienne Ivey]: is where I spend most of my time It's where I met you lovely ladies and
• 1:24:11
  [Adrienne Ivey]: definitely where my happy place is. So that's where I hope to meet some of
• 1:24:18
  [Adrienne Ivey]: the people listening so that I can follow back.
• 1:24:21
  [arlene_hunter]: Thank you so much, it was great to talk to you.
• 1:24:23
  [caite]: Thanks for coming
• 1:24:23
  [Adrienne Ivey]: I appreciate
• 1:24:23
  [caite]: on, Adrienne.
• 1:24:24
  [Adrienne Ivey]: it guys, this was a blast.