Coffee with Cosmopolitan Cornbread

An interview with Constance Smith at CosmopolitanCornbread.com

A Good Life Farm on YouTube

Interview was conducted on location at Just Love Coffee in Huntsville, Alabama

Intro music by Coma-Media obtained from Royalty-free music on Pixabay.

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Transcript

0:02  
Wait wait for to get past that intro music

0:05  
I didn't set it right anyway.

0:10  
And welcome What is this Sunday morning? My name is Carol Gracie and we have a special guest with this I will introduce her properly in just a few minutes Welcome to more remarks podcast. We are on location at just love coffee in Huntsville, Alabama. So it's not our normal background quietness. You're going to have your near some stuff cheddar Yeti cup. Yes, absolutely good stuff. Well, we are our

0:40  
first special guest today Kasia Smith have a good life farm and cosmopolitan, corporate calm. You and I first met at a blogger meetup. Yeah, we just moved here from Alaska. I ran here a week. Yeah, not even a week, I think

0:54  
yes, well is it and I had organized this first bloggers meetup thing and that's how we met And you ever meet someone that says they think you're very rare person because when you meet someone and you around them for a while and they tell you things that they're going to do, and then they actually go do it. This is Constance. I remember her talking about her homesteading on a starting started a farm and all this stuff and she actually she did it. And it's very rare to meet somebody that says they're gonna do something they go out and do it.

1:25  
I love that about you, well let you try.

1:29  
Sometimes I have more aspirations than I have time and energy and all that but

1:32  
I knew you're very knowledgeable and you do a lot of research when you want to do something. You have a lot of research on it. You're very knowledgeable whenever I have a question about anything first first thing you've got to ask is constant no matter what it is. Well,

1:43  
thank you, as best friend goes

1:45  
right there.

1:47  
So you are a seasoned blogger and lifestyle writer for over a decade. You are also a regular columnist

1:53  
and feature writer for both print and digital media. She and Mr. Smith has made their forever home at home. Alabama again. Call it a good life farm, correct? Yeah.

2:03  
You over 25 years of Army life you decided to make constantly going back to duty army family. Yes. And you have three grown children. Correct. And how many, four legged animals do you have? Oh, gosh, I'd have to count that. Well, I have four cats for dogs. Three rabbits, and a whole slew of birds. chickens. A duck. Yes. A goose. Do you have goats yet? Not yet. We do want to add those to the homestead at some point. Okay. Very good.

2:33  
And on your blog, I noticed. There's a quote there that says where the coffee is hot. The chickens are happy and there's always something delicious in the kitchen. So that is our introduction for Casa smitch. Our theme this week is summer stuff. all summer solstice, summer moonrise traditions, favorite things, whatnot. And I guess we could ask you a little bit. I don't know if we're gonna ask you some questions or not. I wrote these like it. Couple of days ago, I don't remember what they were. But anyway, let's start off with an easy question. Why did you start blogging? And how old? How did that transfer into your YouTube because you have a very popular YouTube channel to

3:13  
get you started blogging back in the day before it was even a call gal back when they were called home pages. Right. And you've heard me say that how did

3:21  
that transition eventually into YouTube?

3:24  
Oh, gosh, well, I first started blogging because well, originally when it was when it was a homepage, I you know, being a military family and not having family anywhere nearby, it was a great way to post photos and things for the family to stay up to date on what we were doing. And then a couple years later, I was in a Yahoo group when those and it was for homemakers and what we would do often which we would share what we're cooking for dinner, and then people would want the recipes and I found Myself sharing these recipes over and over and over again in this email list. And ultimately, I'm like, I need someplace where I can just point people to get these recipes instead of typing them out because there's only so many hours in the day, right? You know. And so a friend of mine who had started blogging, told me I needed to start a blog. And I'm like, Well, why would I want a blog as an online diary? Right? Right. Yeah. But she's like, No, no, no live journal, right? She's like, no, a blog is just like what you're doing with the homepage, except you don't have to write the code. And I'm like, oh, watch. Because up to that point, if you wanted to make any sort of change, or update or add a photo, you had to write the HTML from scratch every single time. And so that is all it took. And my very first blog was on something called Sangha. Yeah. Which I don't even know

4:53  
either, but I was only there for a few months. And

4:56  
Gracie, I remember you was blogging. I just

5:00  
Medicine. Yeah. And I didn't stay there long just because it had a lot of limitations. And then I, shortly thereafter, I moved over to blogger. So the Google the Google thing. Yeah. And at that point, it was still just a hobby. And then a few years later, I decided it was time to actually start taking this serious and I went self hosted WordPress blog. And now my original blog on blogger was called Mrs. Mama hen. Yes. And the time around the time that we decided to go or I decided to go professional, and do it, you know, seriously. I rebranded to cosmopolitan cornbread, because at that point, we knew that we were going to be retiring from the army soon, and I wanted something that kind of portrayed what I would be talking about. Yes. And so I just felt like that was a good fit. I liked the alliteration. Yes, and that's where I've been ever could cover elimination. Everything Yep. And then within the year that we moved to Alabama, which was, gosh, 2013. So seven years ago, holy cow Time flies. That same friend who talked to me about blogging convinced me I needed to start a YouTube channel and she had been on me for probably two or three years. I need a YouTube. Yeah, you know, just and I'm like, No, no, no, you know, I, I'll do it when I lose weight. You know, it was like, I would make every excuse as to why I didn't want to be on camera. I don't like the sound of my voice, right? All of the excuses. And so finally, at the time, her and her husband had had a YouTube channel and they would do like these, these little chats. And they, they challenged me, oh, I called me out on their channel and I'm like, okay, so I He sat down with my iPhone and I filmed my first video and it was atrocious. Because like, I would go back, I went back, you know, sometime later and I watched that very first video and my voice was like, I was talking in that teacher voice and it was, Oh, it was so unnatural. And so, you know, those videos aren't up anymore. I took all I took down all the old place, right, right. You have to start someplace you've got to get comfortable and have a camera. You know, microphone Yeah, podcast. Yeah, you know, it's just something that becomes second nature after a little while or you do a really, really good job. Thank you. I love to me at this point. I enjoy the artistic expression of it. And I just, it's the YouTube channel is a little bit of a hobby I do. Generally three to three videos. A week on homesteading, home cooking back to basic sort of things. And then during the garden season I do a weekly garden tour. So right now I'm doing four videos. And now

8:10  
if you watch her garden tours oh my gosh, I did not realize that most of your raised beds

8:15  
Brian asked you Oh yeah, it right now it's probably about 5050. I've got several raised goal the front area. I have two gardens. Yeah, my front garden that's directly in front of my front porch is primarily raised beds. And then my other garden is it started off as a traditional tilled garden. And now we've transitioned into nocebo and we've been gradually building the soil because our farm our home was built on old farmland that was just utterly lifeless. And so it's going to take years yes to bring life back to that soil. And so it's a process and I do have a two raised beds out there as well just as a little. Why not. Why not is the theme of my garden this year. I like remember I remember watching that yeah like that. I like that concept. Thank you. Okay, so speaking of

9:05  
all this farming and homesteading and everything I want to know when did you know you wanted to farm? or How did you learn you loved homesteading? I mean, was that something that you grew up with in origin? So how did that develop?

9:17  
How did you know that what you wanted to do? Oh, well, I grew up in town. I did not grow up in a country. I I remember my mom having a garden when we were when I was really little Polly. Well, not too little, maybe like seven years old or so. And it was my grandparents who came over and planted it for him. Like they tilled it, they helped her and they they got it going, but other than that, I really, I didn't have any experience other than my maternal grandmother lived out in the country. And when I was little, it seemed like her place was so big and now I can look back and realize it was less than two acres, but to a kid living in town on a postage stamp. Yeah, Lee Yes, it's huge. Yes. But what think what really got me was, it sounds silly, but I read all the Little House on the Prairie book. Yes. And I always felt a kinship to Paul.

10:18  
Paul wanted to be out on his own and out away from people and I that just always resonated with me. And I think that is what planted that seed in me. I even as a kid, I could never imagine myself living in the city. I mean, I have of course my military family. We lived all over the place. And sometimes we were in apartments or whatever, but long term like my forever home I could not imagine not being in the country. I always wanted to have a garden even though I didn't know how to and I wanted animals and you know, a little farm and I didn't even know what the word homestead. What Yeah, at that point, but I knew that's the lifestyle and

10:59  
three What is something in your garden right now that you are the most proud of, I guess, or something new in your garden this year, maybe?

11:13  
Well, the one of the new things this year, every year, I tried to do something new, and experiment with it. And one of the things I'm really looking forward to is I'm growing kajaani melons, which are these beautiful little striped melons a little bit smaller than a cantaloupe. And I'm growing them up a trellis and I'm so anxious to try these I've heard they're amazing, and they're beautiful. And so that that's one of the things I'm really looking for. I wish you could have seen Grace has basically

11:43  
said that we both looked at each other we

11:47  
need a plane, or do you eat it like you would cantaloupe and watermelon? Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. I've got little baby ones are about an inch in size right now. It's okay, so what is your favorite

12:00  
I'm gonna ask you, this is like a two part question. Yeah, it's the same question but different results. Like, what is your biggest failure in your garden? It was your biggest success in your garden. Oh, goodness. Well,

12:14  
that's a loaded question.

12:18  
When we first bought our property, my husband had just retired from the army and he was overseas for the first year. Yes, he did everything as I remember. Yeah. And the second year that we were there, which would be the first year he was there. We did put in a little bit of a garden and it was doing pretty good. And then I got sick. Oh, yeah. I contracted a freak freak, you know, kind of freak accident sort of thing charges, serious illness, and it just knocked me on my butt for months. And so but that was our first real guarded and it was beautiful. It was beautiful. And all I could do is Just sit there and watch it go. No. And that was that was heartbreaking. Yeah, we were able to harvest a few things and tomatoes and stuff like that. But for the most part, it was just a total loss. But in that process, it did let me realize that we had arranged our garden beds in the wrong direction. And so I was able to take a learn that lesson from that. And that's, that's just one of the things. You know, I try to impress upon people that anything that you do in the homestead life or really in life in general, don't look at it as a failure. Look at it as a learning opportunity. Right? You have learned something doesn't work. Yeah. And there's always a lesson that you can take from every failure, whether it's a garden failure, or whatever. So last year, last year was my first I would say Successful Garden, but it doesn't mean we didn't struggle right. The past were so bad. Yeah. The Mexican been busy. The cucumber beetles all these. Yeah, well, this year's the slugs yeah this year to slugs because we had such a wet winter in Alabama. So not only did we have really not a real winter, so we've got all those other pests that we're dealing with but we've also got, yeah, I've lost a lot of a lot of seedlings to slugs. Yeah. I think I answered the question did Yes, you did. And your I guess your biggest success my biggest success? Well, it was just last year's garden. Yeah, I just, even with all the struggles, it was my first real real garden and the gardening style that I do is what's called pottenger pottenger p, OT ag er. It's a combination of planting the edibles like your tomatoes, your peppers and all that. But then combining it with the aesthetics. So I have a whole hour which is not new that like that. Yeah, I have flowers in the ankle or Through my garden and so my garden isn't just productive. It's

15:04  
okay. Yeah, yes. Oh my god I

15:06  
love Do you follow her Instagram

15:07  
account? greatly? I deleted Instagram. Oh, that's right you do. She has posted these pictures of these flowers. They look like she looks like she's in Hawaii or like exotic flowers are very fruity. Anyway I think Gracie has a question for

15:21  
you. So what advice would you give to someone just starting or who wants to start with a small space with a small space?

15:34  
If you're talking about gardening, right, yes garden, I would say look into going vertical. There are so many things that you can grow up. And it takes a lot less space like those Jari melons, because I know you know, ordinarily you would plant a melon and you would just find it in the ground and it's going to sprawl across around. Yeah, so you have to have a lot of space, a lot of space to grow, things like that. Whether it's pumpkins or anything like that. But when you have the ability to put in some sort of trellis, you can take all of that space and make it go up.

16:10  
See, again, stuff I wouldn't even think about. Yeah.

16:13  
Now, depending on excuse me, depending on what it is, you may have to support it. Yeah, you know, like as those melons grow, I've got a couple butternut squash or something, well, you would need to support it in some way. So like I have these next, they're kind of like produce nets, and I can they stretch and so I can put those around the melons as they grow and I can tie that trellis, okay, that way the weight of the of the melon doesn't snap. So there's some support that you would need to you know, there's sort of like an infrastructure that we need to go in. But if you use something like cattle panels, cattle panels you can get at places like Tractor Supply, farm supply stores, they are almost indestructible and they're super strong and you can put A lot of things on those like I've got last year I had this new mass of trellis made out of cattle panel that had Ufa gourds, oh, yeah. All over. Yes. And so

17:10  
this year, right?

17:11  
Yeah, I remember I remember you talking about that last year interested loop and I'm like Bluefin like, isn't this

17:20  
something a lot of people think of?

17:25  
Me either I didn't know you. I thought you got them from the ocean or

17:30  
made in a factory. Well, there's artificial ones. Yeah. But like a natural. Yeah. You see, they're a brown. They're kind of that beige color. Yes. Those are those words.

17:42  
They're New Me either.

17:45  
But yeah, bird go look at options of going vertical because then you can grow a lot of things on a small foot, even if you have like a little three foot.

17:53  
four foot of just, oh, yeah, round. Yeah.

17:57  
There's a lot of things you can grow in a small space. Oh my very First garden was in flower buses on a balcony in Germany.

18:03  
I was just gonna ask, I was just gonna ask about balcony you have a balcony Could you do something

18:07  
on the balcony? So there you go yes. And if you're doing it, you know if you're growing something on a balcony just look at how much light you have. And then look at varieties that are conducive for for you know we'll do well in the amount of light you have so like if you are in a shady area, you want to make sure it's things that do well within the lights things like butternut squash, you grow butternut squash up on a trellis and because they like the shape

18:33  
Okay, so well I could sit here and talk about this all day.

18:37  
We're gonna move on because there's something I want you to talk about that you share with me every once in a great while and I could listen to it for ever. Okay, and I think it does have to do with summer because a lot of people they have their summer vacations, right. Constance? I don't think you really did your summer vacations like normal people do. Your summer vacations. Were moving From one army base to another base. Yeah. And I remember you telling me, and I think it was from North Carolina

19:07  
to Alaska. Is that right? Okay.

19:11  
And I really still think this should be a book

19:13  
you should write.

19:15  
She planned this. It was a it was a movie, wasn't it? Yeah. Move from North Carolina to Alaska. three kids, some animals?

19:25  
Yes. Yeah. You could drive to Alaska. Yes,

19:29  
I didn't either until I met constantly.

19:32  
So I want you to share a little bit about that, and what that experience was like how you planned it, just, you know, kind of, condensed version of Sure.

19:41  
So, like you mentioned, we were living in North Carolina. We were stationed at Fort Bragg and we'd actually been there for quite some time, and we've had finally come down on orders. And so we knew we were actually going to be PCs in which is what a an army move is called stands for permanent change of station. And so my husband was actually in Afghanistan at the time the orders came down. And so I immediately started planning. I'm kind of the planner of the family. And so I got online. Well the first thing I did is I ordered this book called The milepost and it's kind of like the Bible of traveling the electric highway, the milepost mile the mile and what it has and it's updated every year and it literally goes mile by mile. Wow traveling the Alaska Highway but not just the last highway all of the major highways that lead to Alaska or through Alaska and in in a large portion of Canada. And it literally says at milepost, this number you can find this okay milepost this number This has been around and so it's it's because when you get out there you are in the middle of nowhere, there's no cell phone service. You could go hundreds of miles and never see a bar on your cell phone. So it's important to have a heads up and know what to expect. And so I read that thing until it was like, you know, when you have a book and you've read him so many times that paper saw. That's not that's how it was. And then the other thing I did was I actually got online and I use Google Earth Street View, okay to figure out where every campground was where every grocery store was that we could stop and get supplies and stock up. And I did that for the entire trip. So when we were traveling in the middle of nowhere, I already knew Okay, it's gonna be over here, buy one of these. And so I kind of had that all planned out. But yeah, we had at the time we had a minivan. We had a minivan. We have, of course our three kids who were still at home, and oh, gosh, Jennifer. Jennifer was about to be a senior in high school. And Josh, two years younger than her and then jack was three years younger. Okay down there and so he teenagers. Yeah, so they were all teenagers, you know, so like, not little bitty kid, right. And

22:07  
then you had like a cat and we

22:08  
had a cat and two dogs

22:12  
minivan all in the minivan, and we pulled a pop up camper. Okay. And we lived in that for three weeks. Wow. Well, three weeks on the road. Right? Right. Then we got to Alaska. And then we had to, of course figure out where we go to live. So we were in there for we were there for quite a while and it was it was amazing. I love that story. It's a glorified tent on wheels, right? Yeah, they're not huge. No, they're not and it rains in rain. 18 of the 21 days that we were on the road is awful. And I don't mean to sprinkle I mean, her like downpour, downpours storming, there were tornadoes and it was just it was crazy. But we we stopped and saw all of the family as we traveled across the country. We went to Mount Rushmore when I got the Badlands the Alaska Highway was amazing if I I say this all the time if I could be hired to drive the Google Street View car and travel the Alaska Highway I would drop everything and go do it is the most amazing is saying something right it's beautiful out it's just the wildlife that you see I mean we saw elk moose can just an out in the wild ram yes buffalo or bison wow it's just it's it's a big open area. Yeah, not words don't justify words can't and I know your heart is in Alaska. I know you love Alaska.

23:40  
I know you did not want to leave Alaska. there's a there's a picture of you with a sign hanging on the side and not wanting to leave you but what is your favorite memory of being in Alaska?

23:53  
I would say when we went salmon fishing down in Bell DS because when this salmon are running. That was okay. When the salmon are running not only do the people know the salmon are running, but so does all the wildlife know. And we saw grizzly bears. I was probably about 100 feet from big female Grizzly with her for Oh my god, and she knew we were there. And you know, there was me and several other people. We were just sitting there taking photos, and I've, you know, I've got it up on my social media and stuff. But there were other bears that we saw the moose, there were sea lions, there were seals. They were sea otters. I mean, and the Eagles there was Eagles like pigeons, bald eagles, Golden Eagles. It was just, it was a it was just breathtaking. You know, you're running the other thing

24:50  
I'm known outdoorsy kind of girl, but I think I would like

24:54  
the other thing, of course would be standing out in the winter because you can't really do this in summer because it doesn't get the But standing out there in the winter and watching the Northern Lights dance across the sky no photo can possibly do justice as to how on spiring that is and and all of these, you know, the nature and the Northern Lights and all of that. It makes you feel about the size. Yeah, yes. And let you realize just how big our God is.

25:24  
And I think that's a you were you were saying that I was thinking that's how we should feel very small things like that. So

25:30  
yeah. Last question or the kind of combined I guess what would be your favorite summer, summer time childhood memory and give us a good summer recipe? Oh, goodness. Hmm.

25:47  
Well, childhood summers. Well, I'm probably in the garden with your No no, because I didn't really you know, my mom had that garden that one year, but I would say I mean, growing up in the city, we've we lived a block from the city pool. Okay, I lived in the past I was the little bitty kid who got in trouble by the lifeguard because they thought I was too small to be in the deep end, right. But I had the patch that I had passed the swimming test. So I had it was constantly I'm to show my little patch that we had sewn on and let them know Yes, I can actually go off the diving board. But yeah, I lived I lived Yeah, in the pool. I was there probably four or five times a week. Yeah. But anyway, that just kind of led into me being you know, I ended up on the swim team in the high school in high school. I was a captain swim swim team, my senior year and but other than that, I would say going to my going to my grandparents, you know,

26:46  
and those are some of mine. We'll talk

26:49  
about that lace to my my one grandmother who lived out in the country. You know, I would share this willow tree that was really good for climbing. I would climb the willow tree. Or I would go out there and eat the moberries or I would ride this old bicycle that she had down the road because people down the road had some horses. Yeah. And I would go down there and just admire the horses.

27:12  
So what's a good summertime recipe to to leave with us on this interview?

27:19  
Let me think.

27:21  
And we can probably find it. It comes from polish.com.

27:24  
Yeah, that would probably I can give you the reference for it and you would have to there because your voice you're probably not gonna remember that. Right, right. No, no, but I would say now if you're into sweets, I would say blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Oh, yeah, that sounds good. It's very cheese. Yeah. And the blueberries are coming into season right?

27:44  
Oh, there you go. Anyway, you find that on Cosmo college informer calm. Okay. Share with us your social media channels and platforms. Where can we find you?

27:53  
Well, of course my blog, cosmopolitan Coimbra calm on Facebook as cosmopolitan cornbread. On Instagram as cosmopolitan cornbread, you might see a theme here. The only thing is that is not cosmopolitan cornbread would be Twitter in which it's Cosmo cornbread simply because they don't give you enough characters, right? And then of course, your YouTube channel and of course, my YouTube channel, which is cosmopolitan cornbread.

28:20  
Well, we thank you for being with us today. Our very first guest bases, anything you wanted to ask? Um,

28:27  
no, I could listen to you talk all day. I know.

28:30  
I just admire.

28:32  
I know. I admire her work ethic her her gumption, her tenacity, or she you know she's in her knowledge, your five cent or the day function. All right, thank you. Enjoy being on here. Well, thank you and welcome to your coffee drinking. Yep. And we're on. Welcome back to more remarques podcast you were just listening to us with Constance Smith. Interview our very first special guest very first on the podcast where we, well, we just interviewed her. Yeah. And now you and I are going to talk about our summer theme, I guess.

29:13  
Summer surprise summer spring.

29:14  
You know, when Constance was talking about her grandmother's garden her grandmother helped came over and helped her mother's dark. I mean, I remember spending my summer times with my grandparents and and their garden that's how I, you know, kind of learned about gardening from my grandparents. Nobody grows their food anymore. Hardly hardly.

29:34  
Yeah, a few people at my work that do

29:36  
yeah. Anyways, that's another reason I like to follow Constance because of her home setting and get a lot of good information.

29:45  
I see your back patio now. And you could do a lot.

29:47  
Absolutely. After watching that and listen, you know, hearing her doing some research and stuff. I think there's you totally do it. Yeah. It'd be fun.

29:56  
Yeah, I feel like it'd be a good hobby for you too. Yeah, you've got a good party. For its get lots of sun when she said you can grow it upward you can even put more of those wall hanging down things. Yeah,

30:07  
yeah. So yeah. Anyway how I remember spending summer 10 months I had a had a good summer I had good summers because I would go spend it with my grandparents during the summer.

30:17  
Now tell me where were where were they? What brought us? Oh, wow.

30:22  
Yes. So they're Ohio. And sometimes before my grandfather got my grandpa, my Paul Paul, he got into woodworking. And then when he retired from the steel mill or whatever, he they traveled during the summer and did arts and crafts shows at malls, and we get to travel with him during the summer. We went all over. It was fun. But before that, I would go visit them and they would before we know what he was still working. Yeah. And mama always had a garden.

30:53  
Mm hmm. So she still likes to get out.

30:55  
I know that she was out there the other day and fell and had to get stitches on her arm. The one time or recently recently they were out she was out there 10 into her flowers fell. She determined I know.

31:11  
So anyway summer summer summer

31:13  
I remember this one summer me Tyler you maybe Carrie was with those maybe not maybe it's just us three. We went up to Ohio and we had spent we were with Carrie was with us. Kylie and Cheyenne. Yeah, we went to that big pool. Yeah, it was my favorite. Yep. Yeah, that's when I wasn't even in the hotel. I'm talking about the

31:35  
the dreamland pool Yeah, I think it was or was it in wheelers Berg. Who was he the dreamland or or the one wheelersburg

31:42  
you ever just like seal body water like that and get scared because there's just like a fear with big bodies of water now. I did get scared a little bit of the pool. Yeah, just a little bit. Just because of how big it was. And there's so many kids running around. No, but I mean out of the spine after you know, I got to play

32:01  
Are you

32:04  
know, you're probably 12

32:06  
I think it was older. Yeah, I was at least 1516. Really? Okay. It's just funny to water. Large. Okay. But yeah.

32:19  
Well, I really don't have much to say.

32:23  
I like the interview earlier.

32:24  
It was Yes. It was really good. I think we should just leave it at that.

32:27  
It refreshed my day. Yeah, just doing the podcast.

32:30  
That was fun. We should have more guests on. We need to have Maddie Cassidy. We find something to talk about. Definitely

32:39  
interview them.

32:42  
Or just sit around chit chat? Yeah, that'd be fun. Yeah. What do you have planned for the rest of the summer since it just started?

32:51  
I feel like it's almost halfway over rolls into jello. fischels that was like the 21st. Yeah. Well, I'm kind of waiting for the pool. My apartment complex to open up. But every Sunday for like the past month we've been going to the creek in Hampton Cove. That's right. I want him to in code and Hampton Cove. Well, yeah. And

33:13  
that is that like a public thing that people go to or is it kind of his public?

33:18  
It's a nature preserve actually. So you can't go fishing can't bring pets can't really bring out the hall. But you walk down the trail and you'll see wildlife we saw a goose with her ducklings got loosely.

33:36  
We saw sunny Oh god, no. Yeah,

33:38  
I'm out the last time that warm out. You saw about four snake.

33:41  
Oh my god. No, I'm out.

33:43  
Yeah, they're swimming through the water. Nope. We were sitting in our seats. I

33:47  
want to go but nope, ain't doing it. Now.

33:50  
We're sitting in our chairs on the bank. And there were three kids that were there and two of the boys were swimming out to the middle of the creek and there's this Big branch error tree this fall, but a branch is sticking out. So the kids were like jumping on this branch. And then Cassidy saw the dangerous. I know, Cassie saw the snake all the way across. And she was like, hey, hey guys, guys. There's a snake on that branch. I just saw its head move. So y'all might want to be careful. Because actually, do you mind just like getting off? She was telling her what to do. When the kids were like, well, it's right over there. And she goes, I know, but like it might swim off and might come to me and might come toward you like, well, we just move the location and the kids were like, Yes, ma'am. We'll move. Very nice kids. I was very surprised. Sure not the snake fell off and slithered its way wherever it went to. We never saw it again. Then toward the end of the the time that we were there, the kids left and then we were like getting our chairs ready to go and here comes a snake just go along with the current just swimming down. So we saw it to from like, way far away. And I said, Hey, guys, there's a snake come in and it just, you know, just don't move in it. Get you it just went right past them. And then another one it was a mama's naked a baby snake that were swimming. Right. And they were right up on the bank.

35:08  
They go, boo.

35:10  
No, thank you. Yeah. And you get out in the water. And so yeah, oh my gosh, the currents really fast, especially the waters really high the current will be really fast. So there's a spot that where you can jump in and not jump in like fully you just you know, go in but it gets deep. Current will take you all the way but there's a rope that's tied from the tree branch that's in the middle of the river to the other tree branch on the bank. So like, if you do end up getting caught, you can catch that. But Uh huh. And I remember going the summers going over to Camden's house a lot. She had a creek in her backyard and we'd go explore out there and I'm surprised we never saw snake. We never saw any kind of like thing that would harm us.

35:49  
Well, I remember when I was

35:54  
living in Ohio with my dad and stepmother. We know it was in Florida. We went to Something, something called something something springs, I forget what it was called, but it has the word springs in it. And it was a place where people went and you bring your you could rent innertubes and you start in one place, get on this introduce and float down into another area. And I remember we did that a couple of times. That was that was fun, but I remember seeing snakes but I was a teenager and I didn't care back then. Right. Like it was kind of scary at the time. But you know, you didn't think anything. Okay, whatever you move on. We went canoeing a lot in Florida that you

36:31  
there's a place up north kind of almost toward Tennessee. I think it is in Tennessee, where we go kayaking, and they have you can read kayak or canoe I prefer kayak because it was huge. And very expensive. Yes. And you can tip it over. Yes. Which we did a lot.

36:49  
Not on purpose. We It was me my stepsister and then we would always go with another family. And so one of their kids was with us. So it was me in the back my stepsister in the front and his boy in the middle. He said, He's like,

37:02  
Look, and we all three.

37:04  
And then the canoe tipped over. It was stupid.

37:07  
Funny. Um, what else? I remember summers as a teenager more than I do a kid. Yeah. And we were talking about this the other day about camps in matanga. Yes. We were. It's south, right.

37:22  
It's like in between here between here in Birmingham. In fact, we

37:25  
would pass it to go to Tyler smooth. Yeah. But um, there was also this other camp that I heard about called Camp McDowell. Mm hmm. I begged to go there. I feel like I don't know maybe I didn't tell you but maybe. Maybe I wanted to, but I was afraid to because I think can't make that was more expensive than cams in Baton. Never can't. mcdow it's it's almost the same thing as Campsie. matanga

37:49  
and I remember as a kid going to church camp. Oh my gosh, that was the best I loved. I love going there. Mariana. Mariana was a she's the one I think that Got me to go to this church cows a little, a little bit. It was so much fun.

38:03  
There was one time where we went up to

38:06  
go to St. Ladies a frame cabins. Oh yeah, it was nice. It was like in these mountain highway. Even though summertime It was cool. Uh huh. Because it was like in these mountains mountain mountainous areas like foothills of the mountains in Ohio. So Appalachian whenever it was so much fun. We had a good time. It was a good time. Good times. Good timing. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I forgot

38:29  
to say there was I think there was this one summer where me and Tyler were up. In Ohio. We were at steppes house with all her kids and then I think we went to Vacation Bible School. I think that was during the summer, probably but um, I remember that that's another memory. I was kind of I was young

38:48  
you were being being Barbie and and Gary's house and their man made like and Tyler cut his leg half open.

38:54  
That was something Yeah, I was like, Yeah, I think We probably should get you smell. Yeah.

39:04  
Who was it was me in Thailand? Somebody else who was with us? I don't know.

39:12  
But anyway,

39:14  
summertime is summertime, what are your favorite seasons?

39:18  
Now as an adult, I feel like I like I like it. But as a kid, I adored it.

39:27  
Yeah, because you got to go to school. And yeah,

39:29  
now it's like, huh, yeah, I could deal with it. Every summer is different. I feel like you're in Alabama.

39:35  
Yeah. Do you think it's hot? is really hot here?

39:39  
Yeah, so that's the part I don't like about summertime. I am this morning when I went to take the dogs out before I met you guys for coffee. I mean, it was like Whoo. Yeah, just instantly walking into a blanket of humidity. Yes, I couldn't stand a

39:53  
nose terrible. I don't like the heat the dip humidity.

39:56  
Now it's fine now. I mean, yeah, it's sunny out and everything but now. It's not weather's been weird so far this year. Did you hear about the Sahara?

40:06  
Yes. When is this supposed to be here?

40:08  
It's in this week, alpha Alabama's right now and it should be up here. Okay. It's

40:13  
supposed to make the sunsets look beautiful, interesting and the sunsets and sunrises mostly make it look like brilliant. But we're not gonna be able to see it with all this cloud guy. We're supposed to rain all week long

40:26  
for the July is next week. All week long. It's gonna be

40:31  
I'm supposed to have off that day. It's a holiday for us. But I volunteered to work so I'm only working four hours that day.

40:37  
Oh, on July 4 of July 3, July

40:40  
3, I'm sorry. July 3. Yeah. Interesting. Take you extra money. extra cash.

40:46  
Yeah, I'm off work. I think Thursday night. Where's that you're gonna?

40:51  
Oh, farty. You're off Friday. I'm off.

40:53  
The Thursday night. I think we're supposed to go over to a sisters don't sisters and do something or but I work on Fourth of July Gibson, which is a Saturday

41:03  
they give some shout out to Gibson's local family restaurant until Alabama.

41:07  
And then after that, I don't know what I'm gonna do Friday. I'm open Friday the third I don't know what I'm going to do so like part of me wants to like have a party with Caitlin Caitlin's house on Thursday night. So I don't have to do anything on Friday. But Friday is gonna be my ketchup day because then I'll have to do Fourth of July Gibson's and then I got to do something

41:25  
after Gibson or your double and Gibson's on

41:27  
No, they're only open till two. Okay. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's 72 Okay, that's not bad. No, it's not bad at all. Yeah, it's just gonna be busy. Yeah, well,

41:35  
it'll go fast that might be another thing I like about summertime is the daylight because you meet this your daylight in the morning your daylight in the evening. I like the long hours. I didn't used to like that. Didn't you select but the older I get, the more I like it.

41:49  
I don't know why. What I wanted to ask Constance earlier at the coffee shop about her living in Alaska. You know how it's 30 it's 30 days of daylight there and then 30 days Have no light there. I think you're talking. I think you're thinking of something else. No, it's Alaska. new show. I'm positive. I'm pretty sure I'm sure nothing of Iceland. No. Alaska 30 days of night. The gradually the sun goes down 12 to 20 to 36 minutes a day.

42:24  
Yeah, that was in December where you have 30 days of night?

42:29  
I don't remember. I don't know. Of course, I've never been in Alaska. I don't remember talking about that. But I could be wrong.

42:35  
Maybe it's like certain parts of a lot. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. But I do like summertime. I

42:40  
can. I'm starting to like it more and more The older I get. Because I can think the older I get, the less I can tolerate the cold in my bones. And

42:50  
I don't know it's true though. your bones do get affected in really wintertime. Our patients they just call in and when it gets like, we'll better call They cannot handle it. They cannot. They call Akin so much and I feel bad because you embarrass me out for some reason. I don't know why. Yeah, I like the longer daylight. I like being in the pool. I definitely love being at the pool. I love being at the beach. I wish I could go to the beach soon, but I can also they're thinking about closing everything back down again. Now, I heard that a lot of people are supposed to speak a lot of people have gone to the beach, they closed down the bars in Florida. We can't consume alcohol.

43:32  
Which I don't know how that's gonna I don't know

43:34  
how that's right. About what what does that have to do with a virus? I guess keeping people out maybe

43:41  
out, you know? Well, also I have a theory that they're watering down the alcohol at the bars. Why? To maybe because the alcohol they're using to make hand sanitizer.

43:54  
I don't know. I don't think so. But

43:59  
yeah, it was supposed to stay out stay daylight till about 10 o'clock at night on the summer solstice, which was the beginning of summer. Mm, the 21st and it did stay light till about nine o'clock. Yeah. So it was supposed to be the longest day summer. It was 14 hours.

44:15  
So I'm sorry. Get back to the DJI for thing you were talking about your plan that we do. Are you going to go anywhere to watch the fireworks? Because you know, I don't ever go out and watch fireworks ever. I'll stay home and sit on my couch right here and watch the Boston Pops on TV. That's what I do for Fourth of July.

44:31  
I remember we all were you know live at Madison. Yeah, we'd go down to that Kroger and you Yeah, we would watch the fire there. Yeah. We didn't think go off that. I don't

44:41  
know if you're Dublin Park. I think they had it back there. So they don't do that there anymore. I don't think now they do it at bridge Street.

44:48  
Or they have that new stadium out there off the 7272 20

44:54  
you were the ball

44:55  
to the trash pandas are Yeah, they did. I bet they there Yeah. Because they At the star stadium Yes, yes.

45:04  
That's a Huntsville treasure now is the Huntsville stars yeah so relic Yeah. Um so I don't know if we're gonna go out and see fireworks we're supposed to do fireworks at Caitlin's house which I don't know how that's gonna work out it's not like boom boom fireworks it's just like little stuff okay I would like to go see some fireworks it'd be nice but

45:26  
not me I don't like to get out and I don't like to get out and about

45:30  
No, no I loved it as a kid but I love why we take your

45:34  
rock and just why we take ya know? Yeah.

45:40  
And then of course the Fourth of July at the farm was worth so much spent all my summers from 16 Yeah,

45:47  
so they would they got work camp or something. Yeah, to get the property prepared and all that

45:52  
and it was hard work. Yeah, it was you didn't you didn't enjoy that. I did. Um, now it's canceled this year because of Corona. You Which I'm not bothered by. Mm hmm. So we'll figure something

46:04  
out to do. Yeah. I'm gonna be sitting right here. Watching the Boston Pops on television.

46:10  
And then that Sunday, which would be next Sunday, a week from today to

46:14  
clean your house. Oh, yes. So this Sunday coming up. You ever seen a coming up like this? Okay. Yes.

46:22  
And then Maggie's birthday is July a shout out to Maddie. She'll be 22 Happy birthday.

46:29  
And then after that, I don't know. I haven't really played much after.

46:33  
I don't have much planned either.

46:38  
I have a nail appointment on July 10. That's about it. I've got

46:44  
Oh, I'm getting my hair

46:45  
done. Oh, yeah. July 10. Oh,

46:48  
so we think if I got my hair cut short, like constancies You think I could do it with all this?

46:53  
I'm sure. Well, if you want to put it up,

46:56  
well, no obviously wouldn't put it up. I would have to leave it.

46:59  
If you Take if you leave it down. Do your spots show

47:04  
properly if it got windy and blue all over Yeah, but but if it's just down, I don't think it will show. No. I would have to make sure I comb it. You know and spray it probably but I think it'd be all right.

47:18  
I should go get it checked out anyway and see what the

47:20  
style is. Yeah, I think you'd look at the hair you've got now. Really? Yeah, you've worked so hard to get it the way it is right now.

47:26  
Yeah, but I don't ever wear it down. And it because I would have to.

47:32  
Well, it's also summertime and I don't like wearing my hair down in the summertime anyway because it just makes you feel so much hotter. It's just

47:39  
when I brush my hair, or run my thing I Oh, hair is coming out all the time. It's just coming out.

47:48  
But you have like millions of hair on your head.

47:53  
Not me as

47:55  
well. I had the same problem. I'll run my fingers through my hair and it's just like Yeah shake it all off and then I'll be going through the day but picking hairs out of my clothes wow so

48:07  
well we're coming up on 15 minutes all right i know i mean total Oh total not just mean you write total with the interview wow so if you wanted to stop it now we got to come up before you leave this house today we need to come up with a topic for next two weeks okay all right all right well you guys have a good Fourth of July 4 of July be safe stay safe America yeah freedom make sure the doggies are taken care of Independence Day on donkeys don't like fireworks no be Yeah, be safe.

48:42  
responsibly.

48:44  
Alright, see ya. Bye