A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
Ticks, Trade-offs, and Technology
We explore the possibilities and implications of artificial intelligence alongside the everyday challenges and joys of farm living.
• Taylor discovers ChatGPT's impressive capabilities when helping his mom with landscaping plans
• Discussion on how AI might benefit Kingdom work through translation services and theological resources
• Morgan experiences FOMO as city-dwelling friends join a gym with amenities unavailable to her on the farm
• Taylor explains plans for regenerative farming practices to replace conventional GMO corn wildlife plots
• Nuanced conversation about GMO crops, acknowledging benefits while questioning corporate agricultural control
• Challenges of raising livestock and dealing with pests like ticks, considering guinea fowl as natural control
• The surprisingly positive experiences with strangers at Costco complimenting their family
• Morgan reflects on balancing creative expression with the demands of raising young children
Community Newsletter - The Common
DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co
Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
hey everybody, welcome to another episode of a common life podcast. And I'm here with my beautiful bride, morgan, and I'm your host, taylor morgan hey, I sipping my tea. So yeah, I'm so happy to be here. We made it back to the mics. Here we are. Last time we tried, walter started crying. We never finished, we never finished.
Speaker 2:Also Taylor. Our homemaking book still has not turned up.
Speaker 1:You lost our homemaking book. No, so a programming update. It's indefinitely postponed.
Speaker 2:I cannot find it and it's really sad, because we had one copy and we both underlined and took notes and wrote in the margin.
Speaker 1:We can only hope that it fell into the right hands.
Speaker 2:Or that it fell into the crack of our couch or something.
Speaker 1:Very possible.
Speaker 2:That would be better.
Speaker 1:That would be better. It's like that book, my most favorite book of all, Victory in Christ, that I found at the newsroom in Auburn and had a dream about that book. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I don't really remember details, but and then I left it in some Uber.
Speaker 2:Yeah, left it in some Uber, but now we have copies everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1:But that one was like a vintage, it was like pink. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:That's sad, so sad, but you can only believe that it fell into the right hands of somebody. It was a powerful book Charles Trumbull, Trumbull, Charles G Trumbull, yeah. I had a dream of some pastor up on stage sweating and preaching and he was a black man, but Charles G Trumbull's not black, but it didn't matter. In my dream it was Charles G Trumbull and when I saw that book I remembered the dream. Powerful book, yeah, book yeah. So in this episode I am not sure what we're going to talk about. I know there's some things that I want to talk about, or could. And Morgan just got out of her bath, her nightly ritual and she's coming in hot, ready to talk.
Speaker 2:We sure before I really didn't think I had anything to talk about now I have a couple ideas. Most of them are negative oh so just a forewarning well, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:All right, do you want to go first? I mean the thing that just happened, so I was sitting down to set this up, right oh yeah, that was the podcast.
Speaker 1:You know I gotta get the mics out, hook it up and my mom texts. And she's like, hey, I need you to ask chat gpt about this landscaping issue we've got. She sent three pictures around their mailbox and she's like ask it, I need landscaping plans and I need it for our zone. And I was like, okay, so I sent the three pictures into chat GPT and uh, and you said what'd you think?
Speaker 1:I said what'd you think? And it said it spit out. I said what you think and it spit out like five seconds later, had a full plan. It was like yeah, for sure, I got your mom's back. This is what she needs to do. Bam bam, bam, bam bam. So I sent it to my mom. She's like great. And at the end, chad GPT was like do you want me to do a mock-up picture? My mom was like do you want me to like mock up, do a mock-up picture? My mom was like yes, please. So it's like okay, my mom wants a mock-up picture.
Speaker 1:Bam gave me a mock-up picture looks good, it looks great, and because chat gpt remembers everything you say, I don't want to think I'm stupid. So I was like, hey, I know how to spell, just so you knowPT, I know how to spell. What do you think? I just said what you, because I think it's funner or funnier to say, and this is what it said back. It said absolutely what you brings the perfect vibe. It's got personality, a little southern charm and just the right touch of playfulness. Keep it coming, what you want to do next. And then I said ha ha, I like it. Right now I need to put my phone down. And it said respect, go live that common life. I'll be here when you pick the phone back up.
Speaker 2:So crazy, it is crazy, it is crazy. Go live that common life. I'll be here when you pick the phone back up.
Speaker 1:so crazy it is crazy. It is crazy. I can't decide whether I like it or not. Right now I'm trending towards like it well, my mind has been blown with.
Speaker 2:I blew my friend's mind, so we asked it about a specific situation and like how would Jesus handle this situation? And it like brought up all these scriptures of how Jesus would handle it and this is what he would do, this is what he would not do. And it was like whoa come on, Do I like? It was like whoa Come on Do.
Speaker 2:I like this? Do I not like this? You know, yeah, and oh, oh, me and Maggie. Did I tell you about me and Maggie in the coffee shop at Auburn and the guy that was working there? No, I didn't tell you about this. No, okay, this is crazy okay okay so maggie and I end up at this coffee shop. It was a coffee shop I used to go to all the time, but it has since gone like super dark, so it's the one that you were just talking about the newsroom, except now it's called like mafia coffee or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we had just come from Is their coffee still really good? Coffee is still really good. I told Maggie you just need to come down here and get you a latte and pray, okay, but we had just come from Auburn Community Church, where she goes to church. And. I was an emotional wreck and I was an emotional wreck and she was an emotional wreck and we were just both, just like man. What matters in life besides the kingdom of God? You know, like both in that mode.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we're walking. And then you go to. Mafia Coffee. We walk into Mafia Coffee, we're like, well, it's like one of the only coffee shops open on a Sunday, right, Right, right. And so we're like like they don't want. If you have the reputation right now is if you bring a Bible in, they'll ask you to leave. Like, for real, for real, For real, for real. That's crazy. So we're like you know what? We're just going undercover. Okay, so we go in and the barista is wearing this like really scary looking shirt. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And it has a name across the back and so I look. I just Google like what is this? Oh yeah, you did tell me about this and it was like some sort of satanic band.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Metal satanic band, and it's like even the description of it on Google is all these words. I don't know what they mean. Right and so we put it in the Maggie's Chat GPT, and it was basically like their music is about all about creating chaos yeah, I remember that around like that it was like oh man, yeah, yeah, the description was like very.
Speaker 1:I mean straight up demonic oh for sure, they're not even hiding it, yeah and so we were like, oh no, and so anyway, it was just crazy.
Speaker 2:So then Maggie said how would a Christian handle like if they were to have a conversation with somebody? Who listens to this band, and what it spit back out at us was it was just crazy like that. This is where technology is at, and then it like wrote up a mock prayer for us to pray in the coffee shop you know, and it was like on point well, you know, uh, my, my like best best friend growing up.
Speaker 1:Still, my best friend will always be, yeah, brett, who's who's in guatemala? You know he's very.
Speaker 1:He reads all the books on artificial intelligence and he's been on it from the from the very beginning and he's doing his doctoral thesis now and he's trying to figure out exactly what. You know, at one point it changes so fast. But but he's of the opinion that the church cannot dismiss it and that every time the church dismisses a technology and just label it as the devil, or you know throughout history that they've been on the wrong side of history and so, as the church, how do we use this new technology to further the kingdom and man? I mean there's, it feels limitless.
Speaker 1:You know, with the lowest hanging fruit that that I see that my mind goes is with translation yeah, and translating, you know, scriptures into these, these languages and dialects that are either unreached or that languages are just so hard to learn and understand. I mean, artificial intelligence can learn it exponentially faster. And then the other thing is that he's doing that I think is so cool and so ordained and blessed by God that he's just a part of right. He's just jumped into the river and that is his heart. You know, missy Oteca is the ministry in Guatemala and we can put a link in the show notes.
Speaker 1:But they train pastors because in Guatemala, as it is in probably most places in the world, the rural churches, the pastors, don't have seminary, they don't have the theological foundations that pastors that are leading churches need, right, like, regardless of your theological background or whatnot, like you need training and teaching, especially when you become a new believer. It's like we want biblical based pastors leading congregations and shepherding and pastoring people. So he's created with his wife and their ministry is they create like a hands-on. It's basically experiential, where the discipleship is very hands-on, peer-to-peer, but they're, of course, with their own books.
Speaker 1:But what he's wanting to do and pushing is he's getting into printing and publishing because he wants Central American and South American voices to have the opportunity to write and teach and share in their own voice. Because right now, all of the teaching is coming from the US, right, but there's no reason why God can't speak to the people and raise up leaders in Central America in their own voice. That has their own cultural context, and so he's wanting to empower those people. And so he's wanting to empower those people. No-transcript, like I'm actually speaking in Spanish and you might think well, why does that even matter? It matters because people you know think about it when you're watching a video and there's subtitles, right, there's that barrier there that can hold you back.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, it's just another example of this artificial intelligence, this new technology, and how it can be used for good, because I'm imagining somebody listening to you talk about typing in something what would Jesus do? And for me, the skeptic in me goes yeah, I don't know, it could be leading you astray, like you need to turn back to the scriptures.
Speaker 1:Right it could be leading you straight, like you need to turn back to the scriptures, right? But at the same time, if you have a large language model like a chat GPT, that you put the scriptures into which it has access to, of course, right like if you tell it. I want you to form this on the scriptures and nothing but the scriptures and give all your opinions back to me based on a biblical, scriptural worldview, which I know a pastor here in Huntsville that has trained his chat GPT to do that right.
Speaker 1:And has told him this is what I believe and I want all of your answers to be filtered through this paradigm and refer back to scripture biblical based answers, so he lets his son use it all the time. I think that could be a really powerful tool. Of course, we have to be a Berean, we have to go back to the scriptures and verify everything ourselves. I don't think we should write it off.
Speaker 2:It's really amazing.
Speaker 1:It's a totally new world. Our kids will not google. Yeah, they won't. I mean, I'm already transitioning away from googling anything. I just turn straight to chat gpt have a full-on conversation. It's like you know, I'm having an issue with taking nuts off of a trailer or like the right torque that I need to get on this trailer tire. I got to make sure I get the right torque. Normally I'd go into Google and then try to figure it out and it was kind of long and complicated. Chatgpt walked me straight through it, explained everything to me and boom, I knew exactly what the right torque was.
Speaker 2:I need to get it on my phone. The kids have multiple times been like Mom. It would change your life.
Speaker 1:Why are you not getting exactly the kids that are growing up? Our kids will be native, yeah, native, uh, gpt users, yeah, so yeah, that's what was on my mind, so we've gone there now. Now it's your turn. What do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2:um, let me look at what I wrote down in the bathtub bitcoin, no, no, oh, okay. Well, when you were like we're just gonna talk about like what's on our heart, it was like I got nothing, okay. One of the things I thought about was I don't know if it was the previous episode couple episodes ago we talked about living in the city versus living out, mm-hmm, and so a farm trade-off that has like really sucked over the last month has been that all my friends decided to join this really awesome gym together.
Speaker 2:And it's like there's a sauna, a pool, there's like a whole room where you can do your elliptical and watch a movie. There's childcare. That's super cheap, the whole membership is super cheap and they're just like going at 5.30 in the morning together or dropping kids off and then going, and I'm just sad about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've thought about trying to make it work, but it's just one of those things that's like no, if I'm going to live and be out here, it doesn't make sense for me to run into town to go to the gym. But I guess, if I'm already in town and needing to kill an hour, but what are the chances that it's going to line up for when they go? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Right. So it sounds to me like it's the community, it's the friends.
Speaker 2:It's the friends that they're getting to have girl time.
Speaker 1:It's a little FOMO.
Speaker 2:It's definitely FOMO's, the friends, that they're getting to have girl time. It's a little FOMO. It's definitely FOMO, yeah, because they're getting to have girl time, yeah, and work on their bods.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And have someone watch their children.
Speaker 1:That sounds like, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 2:So I'm sad about that yeah. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1:So I'm sad about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, that's a farm trade-off. Okay, another thing I was thinking about, Mm-hmm. So these same friends turned me on to this book called the Frozen River.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, this book is historical fiction and it's based in the 1700s and it's about a midwife. Mm-hmm and. Don't spoil it.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to spoil it, but you knew going into it was going to be super heavy. It's heavy. What else did she write? Didn't she write?
Speaker 2:no, I don't know any of her other books, but wait, but who was the author?
Speaker 1:I don't know, you don't know the author. It's right there, oh.
Speaker 2:Ariel Lohan.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so she's not the one that wrote the. Yeah, this might have been a different one. I was thinking, actually there's a different one, the lady that wrote in like World War II the Kristen Hanna. Yeah, she wrote the one.
Speaker 2:Oh, the.
Speaker 1:Great Alone. The Great Alone, that's what I was thinking. This was the great alone it's not no, it's not. Oh, okay, got it, got it. So this is a different one. I was thinking the whole time it was a different book, okay okay.
Speaker 2:so anyway, I just am wondering if it's just me or if this is like the point of fiction, or if everybody feels this way with fiction. But I just think I don't handle it well because, like, I get all into that world and then it makes living in reality really hard and I'm curious if that's just a me thing. But like, even with shows, like when we were watching the last kingdom. It's like I get really affected.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Then you're like, wow, my husband is not Uhtred, I want to Uhtred. Sorry, babe. Yeah. Then you're like, wow, my husband is not Uhtred, I want a Uhtred husband. Sorry, babe. Yeah. No, it's not just you, for sure, and that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Or it's like Morgan.
Speaker 1:That's the point of fiction is to take you away for just a little bit you know, into your imagination and yeah, yeah, and that's why you gotta be super careful. And it reminds me of this thing I saw. You know, somebody was like reality in the future reality's gonna stink because of virtual reality and now artificial intelligence and the way it can. Just what it was was JD Vance, and they had like six pictures of JD Vance that they had like done funny stuff with his face and it was just way more fun than like real life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and they take all these videos and they make them way more cool and fun. And then you have to come back to real life. Yeah, like virtual reality. You know we had the meta headset. It's all. This stuff is only going to get more and more and more real but leaving you so empty, you know. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:It's like our bodies and minds are not. I feel like our person is not made for it.
Speaker 1:What are the chances? We're living in a simulation right now. Don't make me out. Chances are pretty high actually.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Babe, if we can get to the point where we can have a simulation, which we're getting there, where we can create a simulation Like what you just experienced in that book, but like make it real.
Speaker 2:I can't. I don't know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I know what you're saying, but I like, if we can actually get there, which we're heading down that path, then it basically proves that we're in a simulation right now you need to have brett on this other mic if you're going to have this conversation All right, okay, something in reality.
Speaker 2:That's really that you would not put on a virtual reality, because they're awful, is tics.
Speaker 1:Oh, tics, yeah that's. I don't know how to deal with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a problem. This is our every day, every day.
Speaker 1:But it's not going to go away. Tradeoff Do they have ticks in the city?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:They have other things Roaches we don't have roaches. We don't have roaches.
Speaker 2:Or rats, but we got stags. You know guinea fowl.
Speaker 1:Guineas Mm-hmm, they're really.
Speaker 2:Don't they have blue?
Speaker 1:heads, yeah, and they make really loud noises. Mm-hmm. Our animal count is going up quick, real quick, I mean.
Speaker 2:We're gonna get a little kitty.
Speaker 1:We're getting kitties Breaking news we're gonna get a little kitty. We're getting kitties. Breaking news we have chickens. We just got chickens. We got an extra dog. So many mouths to feed. I know things to keep alive so guineas, they eat ticks. People say they're good. Well, we need them up here. I don't know if your family would be game for that. They're loud, they're like you know if you've been around guineas like when you pull up to somebody give an example of what a guinea sounds like why don't I just pull it?
Speaker 2:up real quick. Okay, while you're pulling up, what a guinea sounds like. Why don't I just pull it up real quick? Okay, while you're pulling up, what a guinea sounds like how absurd is it to have two lattes a day?
Speaker 1:Well, hold on, let me see if I can get this going. Oh, what is that yeah?
Speaker 2:Do we want that happening?
Speaker 1:Do like. Only the males do that, though. They make these all the time when people come up.
Speaker 2:Wait, can they hear it with your headphone?
Speaker 1:Oh, they can definitely hear that they got that. They make absurd loud noises.
Speaker 2:Why would chickens not eat ticks?
Speaker 1:I think they do. But guineas are just guineas. I don't know if I'm saying that right. I think they're just known for it. They eat them a lot. They're really efficient at it?
Speaker 2:what was your question? How absurd is it to have two lattes a day that you make? Yeah, I'm making them. That's kind of a thought that I've had lately are you caffeinated? No, I'm doing a latte when I up. I just feel like I'm taking in a lot of milk. I could probably lose like five pounds if I, just Because I'm doing a latte when I wake up, are you?
Speaker 1:wanting to lose five pounds. I don't think you need to lose five pounds.
Speaker 2:Latte when I wake up and then, like mid-morning or afternoon, having like a decaf.
Speaker 1:That's not absurd at all. People drink like whole pots of coffee and it's not like you're buying it, so you're not spending $32.
Speaker 2:That's true. Do you know how much a latte is Taylor?
Speaker 1:I don't want to know. It's ridiculous $7.
Speaker 2:The last time I went to get one.
Speaker 1:I remember growing up going to the scooter store for $5.25. You could get a meat and three and a sweet tea and walk out of there and have dinner.
Speaker 2:Not anymore, not anymore. The cheapest place you can feed your whole family is Costco. I'm talking about not when you're buying groceries, when you're just eating the Costco dinner.
Speaker 1:You want to know the most depressing place on earth the cake section of costco. When you go back there and you're trying to order and pick out your cake, it's like when have you tried to do that? I have to walk by every time I go into the vegetable frozen or like the cooler section where the vegetables are. I walk out and I look over at this pitiful white, just non-friendly cake thing that I'm like am I in north korea?
Speaker 1:it's so depressing I did not know what like and honestly all of costco is depressing if it wasn't so helpful at getting a grocery bill under control.
Speaker 2:But also only if I go well, let me tell you why I love costco people at costco.
Speaker 1:It's like they either they see me and they think she needs an encouraging word today encouraging word today, because we're so chaotic or they really love my family, because it's crazy how many times it's crazy we didn't get a word today, do what.
Speaker 2:We did not get a word today, but I think that's just because I was very much like we were in and out because it was about to start storming and I think everybody was like that.
Speaker 2:But the last few times I've gone like we were at the drinks filling up our drinks and the lady's just like, excuse me, ma'am, I just need to come and tell you how beautiful your family is. I was like thank you, and then they'll stop, like I'm checking out one day. Oh, ma'am, do you homeschool? I'm like well, we kind of do a hybrid. She's like, well, your children are just so helpful and so kind and I can just tell that you're really doing a great job. I'm just like I want to come to Costco every day and then the biggest one they might be planting people in there. Oh, to do that, probably because I want to come back, because this one really got me. We're leaving and virginia comes up to me at like heading to the car mom, this lady just stopped me and said your mom is so beautiful. I was like which lady? This is absurd.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then now they have a favorite sample guy, I think we're going too often.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you are too. We need to cut back on going to Costco. Well, that was actually one of the things on my list was how expensive food is. Let's talk about something like positive. Okay, Do you have anything on your list that's positive? You know I used to be. I used to judge people that got like that, like fed their family Costco food, you know, sitting over at the cafeteria.
Speaker 1:Totally judged I totally judged, I judged them hard. And then I did it once and was like I'm in, well, sign me up, pick the. I mean. We just ate dinner for under 10 bucks. What I'm in.
Speaker 2:I know I don't eat it, but I do.
Speaker 1:I feed it to them, I will kill a Costco dog or a slice of pizza, give it to me. That's my reward. When I have to go late at night and I've been working all day and I just go straight into town. I'm like, just get me that Costco dog and I'll be okay.
Speaker 2:I found you out.
Speaker 1:No wonder you come home, you're not starving oh yeah, it's cause I had a Costco dog.
Speaker 2:Well, tonight, okay, I don't think this is positive. This will probably, I don't know. But tonight, when I'm making dinner, wendell's like this is my favorite time of night. He's like sitting at the island doing his homework. He's like this is my favorite time of night. He's like sitting at the island doing his homework. He's like this is my favorite time of night. And I said I really like this time of night too and I said it makes me sad because this time is just going to get less and less frequent. When you guys, he's like, yeah, when I'm like on the golf team and Virginia's got basketball practice, you know, when we're in like the seventh and eighth grade, and I'm like, yeah, when the older each of y'all get and we have nighttime stuff, if that's what we choose to do, this is going to be less frequent and that makes me sad. Linda was like, yeah, yeah golf team.
Speaker 2:Apparently Huh. When is the golf season? I don't know, baseball's not our thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what I really like coaching third base. I got moved, I got upgraded from first base to third base.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. When did that happen?
Speaker 1:Two games ago and now we're 2-0, baby. I don't know, Were you there whenever I got little Joe thrown out though? Yeah, what it was bad yeah it was bad, but I was learning. It was my first time there.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, no, I was there for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Coach told me he wanted me to be more aggressive. Poor Joe made and and oh yes, no, I was there for that. Yeah, Coach told me he wanted me to be more aggressive. And poor joke, made it a third base and then and then I got him tagged out. But I like playing third base when I'm there on the field coaching. We have fun, I have fun, but it is just to get in there. It's just hard in the spring Spring sports are hard for people who want to spend time outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now's the time to be outside planting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we ain't done much of that. No, we have not. But the good news is, I'm working a job where I get to plant, and so we'll have some stuff. But we are going to be planting an area on the farm where I'm really hopeful.
Speaker 2:Okay, talk to me about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know where the food plots are. So we've got these plots that are in an area of the farm that have been put in corn. It's about three acres and they've been planted in corn for like five years and it's just a food plot. If you don't know what a food plot is, it's where you plant it just for wildlife. Typically in Alabama a food plot is either for turkey or deer and corn is pretty universal. All animals will eat it. But I'm not a fan of corn as a food plot because a couple of reasons. One typically it's gmo corn. So and then you plant and then the corn starts to grow and all of the grasses and weeds start to grow, and then you spray it again but the corn is genetically modified to not be affected by the roundup, or glyphosate, that's right.
Speaker 1:So then it kills everything. Then the corn grows up and it creates a canopy and it shades out all the weeds. So at that point you don't have to spray it anymore. But then it just sits there and wildlife comes. You know, the deer come and eat it, the coons, the turkey. And we've been doing it not me, not us but the person managing the farm has been doing it and just leaving it until the next spring. So it just kind of sits out there. But the thing is it's really not good for wildlife because that corn, when it gets wet and here in the south it gets real humid, moldy it gets moldy and there's a toxin that actually grows on it and it's not good.
Speaker 1:It can make wildlife sick and you know it's been fertilized with, like water-soluble chemical fertilizers triple 13 kind of thing and I've been wanting to do something different. So I had the opportunity to do it this year. So what I did was I disked the field. Well, first cut down what was there from last year so stubs of corn and weeds cut it all down, disked it, and then I came back in and seeded a wildlife mix, but it's um, it is soybeans. So it's definitely gmo soybeans, but the soybeans, um. I just bought two bags right at the local store.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's soybeans, um sunflower yeah, buckwheat, sunflowers, sun hemp, sorghum, sudan grass, millet and like kernza, I think is one of them, and there's like four or five more that I can't even remember, and so all of that's going to grow up. So I love it because it's super diverse. A lot of those things are going to bloom, so it'll attract all kinds of different pollinators, and so it's super diverse. A lot of those things are going to bloom, so it'll attract all kinds of different pollinators and so it's all kinds of insects, and the more diversity you have with insects, the better. Um, for many reasons. Um, and they're also going to have a lot of different. The root profiles will be very different, right, you know, one crop will send it way down taproot, other crops will have fibrous roots, and so it's going to be reaching into different profiles into the soil and harvesting those nutrients and then when it dies it'll be recycled back into the soil, right and carbon.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited about that. That's going to be growing and then in the fall I'm not just going to leave that field through the fall I'm going to come back, cut all that down and probably late august, and then I'll seed a mix of like clover and maybe some oats, so it'll be nice and green throughout the winter and we won't be losing that top soil. The clover will fix nitrogen and feed the soil and I'll just keep doing that. And so those fields will have a chance to regenerate and build some fertility back and hold fertility in those soils, give it a break and uh, it's great soil. So it's a sandy loam and uh, love that sandy loam I love the sandy loam and it's.
Speaker 1:It's dark, brown and no rocks. It's where we should have put the market garden. I put the market garden you know, 10 years ago in a different spot, because all the infrastructure that was already there, where I put the garden, the water, the buildings and all that- yeah but the soil is so beautiful it is nutrient.
Speaker 1:I say it's nutrient dense. There's something going on with it. I got to get it tested. I think it's probably super acidic. I think that's what's going on. Don't blueberries like acidic? They do. They do like super acidic soil, but most crops don't. And so I think that's why whenever we've used it elsewhere around the farm things, don't tend to grow that great.
Speaker 1:I need to get tested and I actually got some things to put soil into test today. But what I want to do, I feel like that's a big step. Yeah, to test today, but what I want to do, I feel like that's a big yeah, I want to. I want to um, put a strip right through those fields and we're gonna, I'm gonna till it and I'll explain that later. I'm gonna write a long. Well, I won't write a long post, but I'll have to explain my rationale behind it. So should I just do it now real quick? Okay, so I'm gonna till a strip, prepare a seed bed and we're gonna grow garden crops that we can grow and put up in the middle of that in the middle of that big field and so there will be crops growing on either side of it's gonna be tons of insects buzzing around.
Speaker 1:The wildlife will be coming around. Hopefully they won't get into the garden. We'll see yeah we'll see, but we'll plant things like corn, green beans, okra, squash, tomatoes. We need to plant tomatoes but we got to get those started. Most of the stuff that we'll be planting, I can just put in my cedar and just direct seed it. Tomatoes I'll save a little area for it we're getting.
Speaker 1:we're just a little late, but we'll we'll try to. I can just put in my seeder and just direct seed it Tomatoes. I'll save a little area for it. We're getting a little late, but we'll try to do that, things that we can put up. So what else? Green beans did you say that? Yeah, oh, potatoes, but it's a little late for potatoes. But that's where the area where we can do things like sweet potatoes, because up here by the house on the terraced garden, we're not going to be able to grow. We could be like a couple of sweet potatoes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't have enough space Right, so that'll be the area that we can grow some crops that we want to grow a lot of them to put up. And every year we'll move that strip Right. Right so.
Speaker 1:I won't be tilling the same area and, uh, we'll be moving it. The same area probably won't see a garden for the next like. It'll be like 10 years before I come back to the same spot, kind of thing. So I'm pretty excited about that. I'm hoping it's a success and, um, because I've been wondering where will we do that?
Speaker 2:It's a big area, it's big Okay on the subject, talk to me about corn, because I had a friend the other day say I'm reading this book about the gut and this man is saying we don't need to eat corn. She was talking about the salad she was making, but I didn't put corn in it. Because this guy is saying don't need to eat corn. She was talking about the salad she was making, but I didn't put corn in it. Because this guy is saying don't need to eat corn because it's basically all the corn in the US is GMO.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so then she's like, what would you do? Like do you all eat corn? And I thought, like I mean, we don't eat a ton of corn, but like in the summer I will go to the market and I'll get some ears of corn from just Joe, you know, yeah, so her question is so I tried to explain it Is this on a podcast or a friend? This is a friend. Oh, okay, I tried to explain it and was saying, okay, I, I was saying the, the gmo part of the corn, that that was genetically modified so that the bugs wouldn't eat it. But what you're saying is it's genetically modified so that the weed killer doesn't kill it there's both okay, and so does that mean like I don't understand, what does that do to us?
Speaker 1:well, or like, um, or like.
Speaker 2:I know that it's a big topic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so GMO is kind of one of those things that is very stigmatized, you know, and a lot of people don't realize we've been genetically modifying organisms for a really long time and I don't think if most people knew that. You know we get our insulin. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Our insulin is produced from a genetically modified organism, that we've modified it to produce insulin, and so it makes insulin readily available and affordable for the count I don't know how many people have diabetes A lot.
Speaker 1:So I don't think most people would say we don't need to do that right, and I think you know, like the whole papaya industry in hawaii was almost. I think this is right, you have to fact check me but the whole papaya industry in hawaii was basically about to be decimated and they came up with like a genetically modified papaya to fight off this virus that was affecting it, right?
Speaker 1:And it saved a whole industry. So to be honest with you, I think it's kind of nuanced. I'm not just going to blanket statement, say genetically modified organisms. We shouldn't be doing that Right Now with corn. So there are two different types of what you're talking about. There's one that's modified to resist glyphosate, so glyphosate, when you spray Roundupup on it it does not kill the plant. And then there's another one they have put. This is interesting. They have put bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria, in the corn so that whenever a larva worm gets into it and eats it it dies. That bacillus thuringiensis bt is bt corn and I'm pretty sure most corn now has both of those. So you can get corn that doesn't. That's not quote unquote gmo corn that will die if you spray roundup on it and it will die. It just will be really buggy.
Speaker 1:And worms will eat it. And worms will eat it. Yeah, that person that said all corn is GMO is saying that because there's so much corn planted that is GMO. It's like how can you keep your non-GMO corn away from those corn fields? They're going to be cross-pollinated. So make sense. And the folks that are growing non-gmo corn for the seed market? Right, they're harvesting their corn, their heirloom corn, non-gmo corn. They're growing it to harvest it to then sell it as seed. That seed is almost certainly most likely been exposed to pollen from GMO corn, so it gets GMO.
Speaker 1:How does it affect humans? I don't think it affects humans at all. I think there have been studies. When we eat GMO corn, it doesn't do anything different to us. Bacillus thuring, that bacteria, is not affecting us, it affects worms.
Speaker 1:Interesting, and the thing, the gene that they edited. Whenever you spray roundup on it, that doesn't affect us. That we know of. I mean, I'm sure you could do more studies and figure out how it's affecting the. You know we haven't. We don't have those studies. What studies we do have shows it doesn't affect us, it's not hurting our health. Now, I'm not for spraying millions and millions and millions of acres with Roundup and I'm not, for. I don't think it's a good thing that our whole industrial, our whole agricultural system is basically controlled by Bayer that produces this GMO corn and how they have ownership over the seed and, and you know, genetically modified salmon and all this the way it's going, like I'm not sitting here saying I'm for all of that, but it is very nuanced yeah and as far as eating corn, I mean, yeah, corn's not like very nutritious at all for you, so it shouldn't be a main part of your diet.
Speaker 1:However, we're going to grow some corn because I want some sweet corn and I want cream corn because it's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:But you don't think it's like killing our guts?
Speaker 1:No, I don't. I don't think it's killing our guts. But somebody might, might show, show me that it is and I'll consider that. But as of now I don't think growing sweet corn how we're gonna grow it and not spray it Right, just grow it is killing our guts? No, I don't think so. Now I mean, yeah, that's going to be a little part of our diet. If that's all we ate, that's not good either, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, that's good, that's good, okay, oh, it's my bedtime. Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good, okay, oh, it's my bedtime.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I've enjoyed this.
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:We should do this more often. I always leave recording with you. I'm like, man, that was good, that was fun, it's fun, and the people, the people seem to like it. It's fun, and the people, the people seem to like it. We had somebody write in and they said they were wondering what it's like being Morgan these days. So I thought I better ask you so what's it like being Morgan these days?
Speaker 2:hmm, well, apparently, hmm, well, apparently pretty negative, based on the things I wanted to talk about, of laundry, and lately I've felt like I've been talking too much and I need to be more, lots of time in the car, sneaking away to read my book, enjoying my coffee with you in the morning.
Speaker 2:But, but you know, I've been thinking lately about the season that I'm in how much of yourself do you lay aside to serve your family? And then how much of yourself do you say this is worth fighting for? Because I'm a creative being and I feel like there are things that God has put on my heart or in my life that I need to pursue and it's healthy for me to do that. Like, how much of that do I pick up and how much of that do I put down and say do I pick up and how much of that do I put down and say not? Now you know. So I feel like I'm trying to figure out what that balance is in life, because I know that when I don't express myself creatively or spend time doing things that fill me up, that I'm not the best mom or wife I can be. But also this is a very demanding season right now of my person, for my kids. So I feel like I'm just trying to figure out that balance. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It is a very demanding season, mm-hmm. You know what it reminds me of. Hmm. When you told somebody who didn't have kids that you were, you're focusing and that your focus was on your children, and that your energy right now and your focus was on your children, and she was like are you sure it's right? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it still makes me mad.
Speaker 3:I know, I know, I want makes me mad, I know.
Speaker 1:I know I want to check back in with her. I don't know, yeah, yeah. It is right. I don't think you should ever feel ashamed for saying no, because you're setting boundaries so that you can be more present with your kids. The world's always going to have needy people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There will come a time when we'll have time, but right now our focus is on our children Predominantly. Because, it is so. They're so very needed. And what was the word we just used? Demanding? Life is demanding and they are demanding, and that's not what you were talking about. You're talking about finding the balance between pursuing your own passions and your creative side, and that's very difficult, because to get into your creative side, you need a lot of space and time.
Speaker 1:You can't just oh I got 20 minutes, let me sit down and get in my creative space like no, that's not how it works, so it's very hard, very difficult. So Well, I Encourage you to keep processing, trying to figure that out, because you have a beautiful creative side and the people need to hear from you. But if they have to wait, they have to wait, it'll come. A lot of seeds are being planted now. They'll sprout. Thanks, all right. Well, until next time, everybody.
Speaker 2:Happy gardening, happy gardening, happy gardening. Thank you, I'm going to use a little bit of water to get the water out. I'm going to pour it into a glass. I'm going to pour it into a glass, thank you.