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Divas That Care Network
Special Episode: Farm Girl Memories
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Hello to all. Welcome to Data Fit Care Network. I am Joyce Banning and I will be your host for this invigorating robust lifestyle show. I would like to thank each one of our listeners that have tuned in live today and the ones that will be listening to the podcast. I am just very, very grateful for each one of you. And you are all in for a real treat today because I am super excited to have with me a brand new Diva, Abby Stempert. And she is an author in our upcoming Divas book, Animal Prince on My Soul. And I am just thrilled to have her today. Abby, would you please introduce yourself to our listeners today and tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Hi, I'm Abby, and I am the oldest of my family, and I grew up on a sixth generation farm in Southwest, Kansas.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. That's incredible alone, growing up on a sixth generation farm. I love that. Wow. That ha that holds so many memories and so many meanings to you. That is that is just awesome. I love it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So do I. Oh, I bet you do.
SPEAKER_01I can tell. You sound like you you are very, very enthused about being the on a sixth generation farm. That is awesome.
SPEAKER_03Oh. Yeah, I I love it. I I can't wait to uh talk about my kids being the seventh.
SPEAKER_02Oh, oh, that's exciting. Wow. That is a beautiful goal. I love that. What a goal.
SPEAKER_01Well, can you tell our listeners today just a little bit about the story that you have in Animal Prince on My Soul?
SPEAKER_03Sure. Um, my story is uh called Farm Girl Memories. It's just about um memories growing up on the farm and how you um are supposed to learn early on that uh death is a part of life and it's necessary and sometimes when you when you don't want to say goodbye you have to and um but it's also it's also a very, very rewarding life. I've come to love the uh simplicity of this life and the quietness of the of the country and the country air at night and watching the stars and um so my story is uh growing up that about growing up that way and um how I hope to make an impact to help others around me into and better the environment.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, that that is incredible. I can our listeners will be excited to read about that story because I love about this how rewarding and the simplicity of being out in the country and looking up and seeing the stars at night and I can relate to all of that being a country girl and been there all my life. It is a very rewarding, rewarding life. Definitely. Well how do you feel that this story that you're sharing and and you've kind of said it in some ways, but how has it really impacted your life?
SPEAKER_03Um, it's impacted my life a lot as far as um being able to see a cleaner environment around me and trying to help keep it clean and everything, help keep the animals well fed and and clean and happy is is very rewarding and I love that feeling at the end of the day. It's as there are obviously more work to be done than there are hours in the day, but I love that feeling at the end of the day of of how you can know that you've helped someone that way. And I truly uh have been impacted. I feel like Jesus has put me in this life to and you know, what I do and everything to love it and to learn to to enjoy it and grow with it and everything and with the animals that you see literally born and and help feed them and everything for the rest of their lives.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that that is inc incredible, very beautiful because I I can relate with you too. I always say God knows the ones that know how to take care of the animals, and that's why he's entrusted you with with those animals, with his animals to take care of, because he knows you'll you'll take care of them and the feeling at the end of the day that you have fed 'em and gave them the best care that you possibly can. And oh, that is that is a beautiful feeling. I love that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. It is it is so fulfilling.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it is a very fulfilling life. I will I can totally relate 'cause I feel the same way. At the end of the day, I'm like, oh, what a rewarding feeling. The animals are all so loving to you that you have taken care of them. I love that. Well tell us a little bit about some of the animals that you have on your farm or that you have had on your farm. Tell us about some of the animals that you have been in your life.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Um one I can think of right off is uh about a land that I wrote about in my story. Um is uh really cold uh February morning and grandpa uh my grandpa found him in our barn frozen to the ground and um his mom had neglected him and that's what we mean by bummer lamb and so we took him in and uh some warm colostrum from our cows was able to help kind of revive them. So we named him Lazarus and Lazy for short and uh we took him in our house for a a few weeks and um he just he kind of grew up uh around us and everything and our German shepherds just kind of took them in as their own and it was it was so cool to watch them interact together and um just live that life together and uh it was really cool. Um he was running around the house and we put diapers on them and they wouldn't always stay on, so I would have to uh sometimes run and clean up a match but um I loved uh every every aspect of it and we started calling our late our uh lazy boy recliner Waxy Boy because he loved the recliner. He literally thought he was a human. And um we would go put him in his what we call his bedroom at night, which is the laundry room, and he would scream at me. He was so mad being put up for the night and my room was next door and it was kinda loud, but it just the that joy and that sound of life is just I love that so much. It's so rewarding and to know that you've helped um every aspect of that, you know, and raise that animal and everything and um unfortunately a few weeks later we had to uh put him back with the flock of sheep and uh he didn't do so well. He really missed us a lot. We would go feed him his noon bottle uh over there every day from our house and he would just stand at the gate and cry and just was not happy. He never blended in very well and um he it was just it was kind of sad to see him go through that and it it kind of started to become a feeling like he was our literally our baby and we're kind of his parents and um so it was it was it was hard to see that but uh at the same time I was you know, I know it ha I knew it had to be done and I think the lesson you could learn from that is you know, just learning to grow up and let go of things and and away say goodbye when you don't want to and um unfortunately a few weeks after that he dad found him. Um he was gone and uh it was on a Sunday morning. It was really, really cloudy and just cold outside and it was kind of a dark dark day, but we were all able to gather around his grave and bury him in in our little animal cemetery on our two acres outside of our house. And uh he's he's still back there. Sometimes we'll go visit him and we'll, you know, talk to him and we we love talking to our animals, even when they're gone, we believe that's important and um that communication is uh very important and so that was just kind of a lesson to me, you know, to learn that early on when you get attached to something, it doesn't always mean that it's gonna be forever and you have to learn that lesson on a farm that life, you know, it is life, but death is also a part of life and is it is important early on to learn that um just that reward of life and at the same time I believe there's rewards, you know, after life as well, because I believe he went to be with Jesus and I have peace in that and so that's just um his stories and my story and kind of a good lesson that I've learned in that and um actually one of our German shepherds that used to run with him um ended up getting hypothesia, which is kind of a common thing with the breed of German Shepherd, and he uh would drag himself trying to get to us. He loved us so much and loved being with us. So we ended up getting him a wheelchair and he got really good with it. Uh he loved doing little wheely uh it was kinda cool to watch and um yeah, he just he loved life and being with us. He was he was such a happy dog. He was just amazing, one of the one of the best dogs I think we've ever had and um he was he was Lazy's friend and um so yeah, it's it's kinda hard to think about now, but it was another good lesson and we end up um losing him like a year after we got the wheelchair and but we just so enjoyed that extra life that we helped put into him by getting him that wheelchair and just it was almost literally like when we helped the first time we helped get him into it, he literally looked like he had a smile on his face. And um that was just so cool to to watch and to see and he he loved our grandma too and and I remember the first time it he was in his wheelchair, uh Grandma lives next to her from us and she came over to see him and he he went out there to her um on the wheelchair and she just loved going to see him and he came running to her and it was so sweet. I was just I was even then trying not to cry. Oh, it was so sweet and um so yeah, the uh the wife. You know, life is beautiful and everything and then I believe, you know, and even though it's hard that that death can be beautiful in a way too as far as um knowing where they're going and there's the comfort of knowing that they're not suffering anymore and that comfort of knowing that you helped them live that life as long as you could.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, Abby. What a what a story on both of them. That is just beautiful and how true what you're saying, 'cause I mean now the German Shepherd and the little lamb are now running together and playing again like they once did and how you gave them uh a good quality life while they were here, just like with uh the German Shepherd giving him the wheelchair so that he could get around and Oh wow. And these animals when you were talking about how the German Shepherds took the lamb in, they love unconditionally and they show that all the way around. And that is something to me that is we us humans can learn a lot of lessons from that because they love unconditionally whether it's one of them or whether it's a different kind of animal and they love us unconditionally. They show that love. And that is just beautiful. And what an impact those two have made on your life and their spirits, like you said, you go go visit them at their cemetery, but their spirits are always with you. They they live in your heart is where they're at.
SPEAKER_02And that's oh how.
SPEAKER_01Just beautiful, Abby. That was that was just incredible. Well, Abby, this has just been so much fun chatting with you. What is what is a tip that you would like to leave with our listeners today about how because you have lived you've left so much information and so many beautiful thoughts, but what is one final tip you would like to leave with them today about living with animals?
SPEAKER_03Um, I would say probably just learn to love life, you know, and like I was saying, Andrew, and live life to the fullest. If if you live life since here, that's not a fulfilling life and but if you live life to the fullest and just allow things to work out, you know, and I I do believe that things will work out as as long as you surrender them to uh you know, to Jesus and everything and that life is so fulfilling. And so if you live that life and surrender to the Lord, that is going to be very fulfilling and that's just I think that would be the tip I would leave is to live life to the fullest.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that is a beautiful tip. I love that. Love life and live it to the fullest. Oh, how true. And that's what you did, that's what you do with your animals. You let 'em have the fullest life possible. Oh, Abby, this was just beautiful. Just beautiful. I am just very, very thrilled that I had the honor to be able to interview you on Robust Lifestyles and let you share about your animals. Thank you so much, Abby.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been fun.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you are so very welcome. You are very welcome, Abby. And I want to thank all of our listeners for listening to this absolutely incredible guest, Abby Stimper. And she has her story in Diva's upcoming animal book that is going to be released here very soon called Animal Prince on My Soul. So you will be sure and want to get a copy of that so you can read her story along with other beautiful animal, other beautiful animal stories that are in this book. And I want to thank each of you today, and remember to share this show with your family and friends, and check out all the other hosts and their shows on divasatcare.com. Have a fantastic day, and as Abby said, love life, live it to the fullest, and be kind to all. Give your animals a great big extra hug and share your love with them until we connect again on Robust Lifestyles. Stay strong and healthy.