Keepin it Real - The Gorham Homestead Podcast
This is where we talk about real life on the homestead, real food and real natural medicine. We talk about homesteading, building community, prepping and survival from a homemaker's perspective. We do our best to provide real and practical, old-fashioned solutions to modern everyday problems with a positive outlook on the future.
Keepin it Real - The Gorham Homestead Podcast
Ep. 22 - Tee & Me - Homestead Challenges & Winter Preparation
What happens when life throws a series of unexpected events your way, and how do you adapt to maintain stability on a homestead? We share our personal journey through family milestones, particularly a recent wedding, while simultaneously navigating the challenges of my mother's health as she transitions to living with us. Amidst these personal shifts, the homestead faced a severe drought, forcing us to feed hay earlier than anticipated. However, the rains have finally come, offering relief and hope as we work to restore our routine and prepare for the colder months ahead.
Our commitment to sustaining our homestead's productivity is more crucial than ever, pushing us to diversify our ventures and support community projects. Join us as we explore the excitement and trials of raising 130 Jumbo Cornish X-Rocks meat birds with neighbors and the joy of discovering the deliciousness of Jumbo Pekin Ducks. We're also planning for expansion, with the addition of American Bresse chickens and the prospect of Emden geese, all while gearing up for Thanksgiving and the changes to the Self-Reliance Festival in 2025.
In the spirit of resilience, we delve into winter preparations and the wisdom of sustainable living, inspired by a vibrant 95-year-old's unconventional health philosophy. Our journey includes participating in events like the Kentucky Sustainable Living gathering, where we share insights on topics like family milk cows. The recent catastrophic weather events have humbled us and reminded us of our purpose. Our focus remains on community support and readiness. As we continue to grow and adapt, we're reminded of our humble beginnings and the ongoing journey toward a self-reliant and fulfilling life on the homestead.
Today's sponsor: Hamilton Gorham & Duncan, PLLC
Located in Bellevue, TN at 161 Belle Forest Circle. 615-467-3200. Go see attorneys, Tee Gorham or Jad Duncan for all your family's legal needs. Tell them you heard about them on this podcast!
TheGorhamHomestead.com
Hey y'all, welcome to Keeping it Real, the Gorham Homestead podcast, where we talk about real food, real natural living, the real art of natural healing and real life out here in our Tennessee homestead. I'm your host, Dawn Gorham, and today is Sunday, october the 20th 2024. I always have to think about the date. It's bad. I had to look at my watch. I'm a little bit out of context because I'm doing it on Sunday. I normally do this on Thursday, but I will actually post it on Thursday. I wanted to grab tea while I had him for a minute, because I cannot nail him down during the week. So don't say a word. T. No dirty jokes. I can't get him to do the podcast with me during the week because, god bless him, he's just so tired and he doesn't get home till after six. So today you are listening to episode number 22. And our topic today is our fall homestead highlights all the things that we have going on. Let me get my little notes over here so I can see, and T has no idea what we're talking about, so I'm just going to roll with it and he's just going to have to hop in.
Speaker 1:But before we get started, today's episode is sponsored by Hamilton, gorham and Duncan. Since we have T here today, they are your full-service law firm located in Bellevue, tennessee. Call T or Jad T Gorham or Jad Duncan for your family's legal needs and tell them that you heard about them here on the podcast and they will give you special family treatment. Don't laugh, they will, they absolutely will. If you tell them you heard about them on the podcast, then they'll be like oh yeah, let me give you my cell phone number. Yeah, absolutely so, anyway. So where have we been? What's been going on? I have not done a podcast now since August the 15th. Today is our first day back. So lots been going on, lots been going on. Do you want me to start with that so you can hop in, or do you want to just roll with it?
Speaker 2:Tell me what you got.
Speaker 1:What do you got going on so right after the last podcast, we started preparing for a wedding and so, um, and then my mother got ill and got sick ill, as I would say, um and has been in the hospital. So we had the wedding, we had ICU visits, my mother's been down, just a lot has been going on. That has sort of turned everything upside down for me for a little bit. But my, you know, family is our number one priority. So mama came first. Everything else kind of comes after that. But we're getting our feet back under us. Mama's been moved here, we're out of the hospital, she's here with us on the farm and, you know, we're making accommodations, trying to get our routine back, trying to get life back in order, as well as helping her heal through this process. So, anyway, that's sort of that's where we've been Right, right, anything else that you can think of. That's been going on over the last two months.
Speaker 2:No well, we finally got out of the drought, which was nice, oh God, yeah, that was scary.
Speaker 1:We had a bad, bad drought here.
Speaker 2:I mean, the only plus was, I think I cut the grass twice in the last, oh, I'd say 45 to 60 days, and it was a dust storm both times.
Speaker 1:We started having to feed hay in August.
Speaker 2:That's a first for us.
Speaker 1:You have to forgive us. We have the little rabbit ice. We both drink water out of these big old container things and it has the rabbit ice in it, and when you go to take a drink you cannot help but get a mouthful of ice. So if you hear us chomping, I apologize. That's why. Yeah, so we made it through the drought, started feeding hay. We haven't had to. I mean, we have put out more hay, but it hasn't been as bad as it was at first yeah, everything's greened up again, but not really growing much yeah.
Speaker 1:We're preparing for winter. I kicked something under my desk Preparing for winter, so we've done the pantry inventory and, tia's, I have done the pantry inventory.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I have an inventory.
Speaker 1:I didn't ask for your help this time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I did it. I got it all done, I know.
Speaker 1:And I knew what to order. Some stuff I had to order from Azure Standard because we always in October do our pantry inventory before we go into the winter and order the things that we don't grow, because it's the end of the season and that's the perfect time to sort of figure out you know what we were able to grow, what did well, what didn't do well, and then we, you know, fill those gaps, you know, with things you know like wheat, berries and flour and organic sugar and sucanat, and you know all of the things that we can't produce. So I've done that. The wood we got our wood delivered.
Speaker 2:We got our wood delivered, still got more to cut.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we burn wood as our primary heat source in the winter. So we've got a. Is it a cord? Was it a cord? Delivered yeah, a full cord of wood delivered and hopefully that'll. We probably need more, to be honest. I mean if it were to be a really bad winter. But what you're?
Speaker 2:you're looking at me well, I mean, we have at least two cords we do total. Yeah, okay, perfect okay delivered one and we still had one plus what I've cut off. We had an oak tree that fell and I'm slowly piecemealing that into firewood.
Speaker 1:Nice, okay, good deal, all right.
Speaker 2:I need to sharpen my chainsaw.
Speaker 1:And it's time to sort of figure out all of the winterizing things Right, like our heated water bucket that we have for Rip and Dolly and the tank stock tank heaters. We need to test those and make sure those are still working. We need to unhook the irrigation system. I mean there's lots of things that we need to get done in October before we go into any. I mean we've had some cold nights.
Speaker 2:It's been in the 30s. We've already had our first three or four frosts. Now that we've had this, past week?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we need to winterize everything. Get everything ready, batten down the hatches, clean out the. Did you burn that creosote log, like you said?
Speaker 2:you were going to, I did. I did the other night. Okay, good, you know I didn't read the instructions. It actually says have a fire or two and then do it. You're not supposed to like, but I'd already lit it that doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:What if you've got like?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what if you've got a huge bird nest up there or something.
Speaker 2:We probably did.
Speaker 1:We've had about eight birds I know that makes me so sad and they're so pretty little birds too.
Speaker 2:They're blue, they have blue feathers, they're adorable and they get caught in our wood-burning stove, and I find them well after they're dead, although there was that one that got out. I mean, I got it out and it flew all over and it finally flew into and drain some of those water hoses that we have. Is there anything?
Speaker 1:Do you think we ought to unhook the automatic waterer from the stock tank or just wrap heat tape around it? Because I think we could order heat tape and keep that son of a gun warm.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's what we need to do. I like that. I mean, we haven't had to fill up water for cows in what six months?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does really really good, that's nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I have a bad habit of forgetting that I'm filling up the water for the cows and the next day, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how we burned up our well pump Probably Multiple times of doing that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's sort of where we are for going into the winter. All of the tomatoes are in the freezer and I'm getting ready to get those out. Oh, one more thing that we need to do is the bees that's. You know, it's our first year with bees, so it's our first year to go into winter with bees, and I'm told that they need to be condensed down into one box so that they have less that they have to work and have to do over the winter. I don't really know how that needs to be done yet, so I'm going to contact either Joe from a bees closet or one of my other bee mentors, mentors skeletor yeah, bee mentors, this must be a skeletor to get them to come over and show me since I've never done it before, cause I want to make sure, cause they're doing really great, like these ones that I got that are local bees that I got from Joe at a bees closet. They are very docile.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're laid back very gentle and they're doing great. I mean I haven't had to mess with them, you know. I know you're supposed to feed them through the dearth and all that kind of stuff, and I did go out and give them some sugar water, some. I didn't do a whole lot and they did great. I mean they're still thriving. So I know I need to get some bee patties to put in there to feed them over the winter. Or they might die over the winter or they might die. So I will definitely be feeding them through the winter. Just don't know what that looks like yet.
Speaker 1:So anyway, okra we've had okra. Palooza, from our neighbor, has brought me two big old garbage bags full of okra. So I have more okra than I can even fathom. Some of it I ran through the freeze dryer. Some of it I froze. Some of it I ran through the freeze dryer. Some of it I froze. Some of it I chopped up. I have some that I'm going to make pickles out of. I just haven't done that yet. And tomatoes are ready to go and it's time to make winter soups. Yes, so that's what we have on our preserving front for October. Yes, yes. Is there anything else you can think of that. You and we didn't get pickles this year and I know you're sad.
Speaker 2:Yes, we um, I thought we were going to try to get a couple of bushels Our uh groundhog ate all our pickles. Apparently, the groundhog likes cucumbers as much as I like pickles, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to get that son of a gun next year. I've got the trap out there. I'm just not real sure how to set it. They say there's a specific way you have to do groundhogs because they're a little bit smarter than the average bear or dog or whatever. So I'll figure that out. I'll get that little critter taken out next year. I'm declaring war.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Groundhog war.
Speaker 2:It's funny Every time I had a gun with me I would not see him, but it seemed like every time I went down there without one, there he was Mm-hmm. But we'll just see. Okay, if I can't get it, hopefully Rip and Dolly, or you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rip and Dolly aren't going to, they're only concerned with the yipping coyotes, that's all they. Anything else that comes up, they lick it to death. So, animals, that's where we are. What's going on with the animals Milking? We've been in a dry period since August, the 1st August, september, october yeah.
Speaker 2:No, no, since September the 1st.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was going to say so yeah, August 30th was my last day to milk All right.
Speaker 1:So milking starts back up. Prissy and Scarlett are due to calve. Their due date is October the 31st, so looking forward to seeing what they have. I'm really hoping that Scarlett has a heifer Prissy. I don't care what she has, because I can't get an A2, a2 calf out of her anyway because she's A1, a1. So I don't care what she has, it's going to be sold regardless of what it is. So community chicks.
Speaker 1:Oh, what I was going to say is the good thing about having a dry period and having the farm shut down for the last two months is that it gave me an opportunity to really reimagine and sort of reinvent how we do things before we start back up.
Speaker 1:It's hard to change things midstream when you have customers going all the time, but shutting down gave me a chance to really rethink this and how we can be profitable.
Speaker 1:And so, going forward, starting November the 1st, my customers will be paying monthly instead of by the week, because that was a lot for me to keep up with. They pay up front on the 1st and I started offering add-ons like do you want butter per month, do you want eggs for the month and giving them a discount not much, but a little bit of a discount enough to make it worth my while. And there's two and several of them have taken me up on that, like I got one that wants a chicken a month and one that wants you know, wants a coffee creamer and wants butter, and so that's, that's a way that I found that I could add more value for my customers as well as more profit for me, so that I can actually make this sustainable Cause the end goal. If I don't start making money this year, the IRS is going to say sorry, no, if you're not a farm anymore, so I have to make a profit this year. It has to happen.
Speaker 2:So if I don't make enough money, they say, hey, you're not a lawyer anymore.
Speaker 1:I think they would say you can't write off your office deductions anymore, because how are you feeding yourself? Is what they say.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:They would call you a hobby lawyer. You're not a lawyer. You're not a lawyer.
Speaker 2:You're a hobby lawyer.
Speaker 1:Hobby lawyer, sort of like Hobby Lobby.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, so, yeah, so we got to turn a profit this year. It has to happen. So that's one of the things that's going on. We've got 130 chicks in the brooder. They are almost four weeks old, ready to go out to the chicken tractors and those. I really made a commitment this year that I was going to try to do more things to build community within my actual walking neighbors neighbors not just, I mean, I love doing the dixon county homesteaders alliance group, but I wanted to really um bond with my actual community, like that I could walk to their house or get on a side-by-side and go to their house. So we're doing a um community batch of um Jumbo, cornish X-Rocks yeah, meat birds and we're all going to process them together. We're all sharing in the cost. I'm doing the work, but that's okay. I volunteered to do it. That was, you know, part of that's part of my labor of love for the community building and I think some of them are going to come over and help.
Speaker 2:They offered to come and help with the chicken brooder to get that revamped and the chicken tractors to do some repairs to those. So we'll see how that works out. Yeah, in fact, after we get out of here I'm probably going to start working on the tractors. Just got a couple little minor.
Speaker 1:We need some brackets on the metal brackets to hold those in place and just to, just to shore them up and make them more secure.
Speaker 2:This will be the fourth, third year, we've used them.
Speaker 1:Third year? Yeah, Third year we've used them.
Speaker 2:I mean we built them on the concrete pad. We're standing in right now with Tony.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:With Tony Carroll. Yeah, it's been a couple years. They've done well though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is another year we're doing Thanksgiving turkeys. We have had some loss this year, some weird loss, just turkeys dropping dead for no reason. Um, but turkeys are. Turkeys are fragile, they're finicky. They say once they get to 16 weeks old, or 12 to 16 weeks old, that they're indestructible.
Speaker 1:But and in years past that's been true, and this year, though, it's just been strange, and I don't think it's the bird flu or anything like that I think they look like they got chicken pox, which is not dangerous to humans in any way, shape, form or fashion. It's not transmissible, it doesn't affect the meat, anything like that. It's just one of those things that sometimes turkeys can get and the meat, anything like that. It's just one of those things that sometimes turkeys can get, and we've never dealt with it before and there's nothing you can do about it. You just kind of have to let it run its course, the same way you do with human chickenpox. So that's where we are on that. We still have 23 left, and I have 22, no, 21 on order and then one for us. So we only have one left, that is a buffer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of scary.
Speaker 2:We still have freezer ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that would be for us. I mean, I would never sell that. That would have to be.
Speaker 2:Remember early on we lost a couple of them once they got big because the guineas were chasing them and they were getting tangled up in the fence and hanging themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was accidental. That's because they're dumb.
Speaker 2:Yes, I get that.
Speaker 1:That's they're dumb. They're just turkeys are dumb.
Speaker 2:Dawn and I actually hunted down the guinea who was causing all the problems, and well, you can imagine how we solved that problem. But yeah, the guinea is no more.
Speaker 1:One less guinea. We're down to five guine and I think they saw what happened, so they're toeing the line. Guineas are not causing a problem now.
Speaker 2:No, they're being like good old guineas they're supposed to be.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, and we've added several more ducks. For somebody who said I didn't like ducks and didn't want ducks, I sure do have a lot of ducks. Duck math, I think, is as bad as chicken math.
Speaker 2:How many do we have now?
Speaker 1:I have no idea, I know we have.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking like 30-ish.
Speaker 1:Dirty ducks Maybe. We've got a lot of khaki camels. We've got ruins. We've got black Swedish, we've got the new babies. We've got Muscovies and then the newest ones that I'm really excited about. I don't know that T's delved into it enough to be excited.
Speaker 2:I am head over heels.
Speaker 1:Jumbo Pekin Ducks. We ate a Pekin Duck, was it a month ago?
Speaker 2:About three weeks ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something like that. I'd never cooked it before, never eaten it before, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 2:Like I had a mental aversion.
Speaker 1:I wasn't sure I was going to like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very good. The only thing that surprised me is it reminded me of salmon, in that it's very rich. It's very rich, yeah it filled me up a lot quicker than I thought.
Speaker 1:But you know, normally, yeah, when you have a meat that is like that, though, if it's rich, then typically that means it's more nutritious, right, you're getting more out of it. So, yeah, I was really pleased with the Pekin ducks, and I started out with 10, and now I only have four, because I'm stupid and I thought they're ducks right, ducks can deal with water. So I put one of those baby kitty swimming pools in their little junior high brooder, and six of them got over in the water and couldn't get out, and so when I went down there the next morning, six of my precious little Pekin ducks that I was so excited about had drowned, and so I was really sad. But the four that are remaining are really really doing well.
Speaker 2:What is that other little bird that's in there with them?
Speaker 1:That was the surprise chick that Murray McMurray sent with the meat chickens. They always just throw in a random chick.
Speaker 2:Have you looked at that? It looks like an unmade bed man. It's got its feathers.
Speaker 1:It thinks it's a duck. Oh, it thinks it's a duck because it has lived with the ducks since the ducks were, because it was too small to put anywhere else. So I just put it with the baby ducks and it will not anywhere. The baby ducks go, that chick goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've noticed that. I mean it hangs right with the corral.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have no idea what kind it is though.
Speaker 2:I hope it starts quacking. That'll be hilarious.
Speaker 1:You never know, it might it might. And the other thing we've added is the American breasts from Breast Farms. These are chickens and they are a meat bird and also an egg laying bird, but they are supposedly like the Wagyu beef of chicken. They are that well, the French breast. So the French. I'll just do a little backstory and you can go look it up. But the American breast is a little bit different from French breast. You can't really call them the same.
Speaker 1:But they raise their birds on raw milk over in France and then when they get ready to serve this culinary delight, it is supposedly like divine. It is such a good chicken that they say you will not ever want anything else, and they serve it in very high-end restaurants. So, and the good thing about them is they can reproduce and it does take them about four, four and a half months to grow out to full size so that you can process them. So it does take some more input, does take some more work, but you can hatch them, you can keep them going, you can get their eggs and put their eggs in a brooder, you can have a mating pair. There's lots more things that you can do, because with the jumbo Cornish X-Rocks that we get from Murray McMurray.
Speaker 1:While I love them and I love how big they get, it's a constant input. They can't breed. So I'm having to always order them in, and if something were to happen and I couldn't get them shipped to me, I would have nothing but egg layers. So I'm really excited about adding these. I plan to breed them, I plan to get good at breeding them and I plan to sell them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll even sell them cooked, whatever yeah.
Speaker 1:We're going to do all of it. $60 a wing, $60 a wing.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like Wagyu meat About $60 a wing One, two wings $120.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Chicken feet for your broth. I need $20 for the feet.
Speaker 2:Whole chicken about $1,200. Sounds fair. Whole chicken about $1,200. Sounds fair Wagyu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you know the geese that I want the Emden geese To order, one of those ready to cook, processed in a bag like we process them, is like $400. Yeah, yeah, american money.
Speaker 2:American money yeah.
Speaker 1:We're adding Emden geese, but they're sold out for the year so I haven't been able to order any. I keep getting on there about every week looking, but it looks like it's going to be spring before I can get geese. But we are adding we're going to have the goose we're going to have. Your goose will be cooked too.
Speaker 2:Yeah for $400. You can have a warm homestead.
Speaker 1:goose Does that mean we can't eat it, we have to sell it $400,.
Speaker 2:I'm not eating it.
Speaker 1:No, seriously, but I think that I don't know. That was on a website. I looked it up because I was hoping to find a goose to cook, just so we could have it and eat it before we order them and see how we like it. Sort of like we did the duck Right. But no, I'm not paying $400. I'll wait and grow it out and if I don't like it I'll just not have any more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's trial and error.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and American Breast Farms right now also has about 30 roosters that are four and a half months old. He contacted me earlier and said that they had some for sale, so I went ahead and got 10. They're shipping to me tomorrow and they are ready to process. So I'm really excited. There's the ones that we have, the chicks back there. He's selling them for $10 a piece and they're four and a half months old and I was like, absolutely I should have gotten all of them, but I didn't. I just wanted to try them. So got 10 roosters that are going to be shipped to me tomorrow that are four and a half months old. I can't wait to hear them at the post office when I go pick them up. They complain about the cheep, cheep cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep.
Speaker 2:I can't wait until they're cock-a-doodle-dooing back there.
Speaker 1:That's going to be funny. So, yeah, anything else that you can think of?
Speaker 2:Not off the top of my head. There was something else we had going on. I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Self-Reliance Festival's over.
Speaker 2:Self-Reliance Festival's over.
Speaker 1:We're going down to one time a year, starting 2025. It's going to be in the fall. Not sure of the well, I'm not saying I'm not sure, but the details, the very exciting details of all of the 2025 changes will be released after the first of the year. We're just not disclosing the information at this point.
Speaker 2:We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you. We're going to keep that to ourselves.
Speaker 1:We're building the excitement. That's what we're doing. So I don't know what my involvement will be next year. Things may be changing. I'm not sure We'll see going forward, but I don't know what my involvement will be next year. Things may be changing. I'm not sure We'll see going forward, but I don't know. It's always exciting, it's always fun. No matter what, I'll always go.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're an officer or something. I'm not an officer. I thought that's what Nicole said. I'm staff. Staff, but you're like oh, she said technically Leadership Technically that I'm leadership, technically that she's leadership.
Speaker 1:Which means I think she just didn't want to hurt my feelings. Technically, you're like on this, but when? We make the real decisions we're not going to let you, we'll not include you, we'll tell you yeah, just tell me, that's fine with me, that's totally fine with me. Getting into winter. It's really we're shut down for the winter pretty much from Thanksgiving on, which is good because that gives us time. This year it's a good time. Mama's timing for being sick was a really good timing.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we can help her recuperate, recover, get back on her feet, get through her illness. Hopefully she'll be all well and good to go by spring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that worked out really well for all of us, I know right, and we normally have a huge Thanksgiving harvest here to celebrate the end of the season. I'm not sure what that looks like for us this year. We may skip it just because there's so much other things going on, and we may opt for Easter instead, because Easter we can do things outside. We can have the Easter egg hunt outside and not have to At Thanksgiving. Everybody's sort of confined into this building and it gets a little tight. So what do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. We just need to have an immediate family Thanksgiving For Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that may be what we do, and we're also going to have to work on making permanent arrangements for mom. Don't know what that looks like yet, but if that looks like adding on to our house or if we buy a tiny house that's like ADA or they call it accessory dwelling unit, if that's something that we could do, just got to kind of that gives us time to not have to have things here in the cannery. That's a good place for her in the meantime while we make those decisions. You know and it also has brought into focus my thoughts on me and T aging in place, because some of these decisions that I'm making for mom, because some of these decisions that I'm making for mom, could also be decisions for us long-term, if Chase ends up wanting to keep this property and we need somewhere for us to be, where we can have all of these accommodations. We need to think about this long-term for aging in place, because you're an old dude, oh shit, I am so immature, though.
Speaker 2:Long-term for aging in place Because you're an old dude Shit. I am so immature though I just feel like.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be like that guy at the lunch or the picnic today, which?
Speaker 1:guy, the 95-year-old. Oh, I loved him. I loved him so much.
Speaker 2:And he was sharp as a whip. I mean he just and he has him a girlfriend.
Speaker 1:They're coming here to visit.
Speaker 2:That's what I heard. Yeah, the other guy was real young, like 82.
Speaker 1:Really young, yeah, yeah, Spring chicken yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I'm 57. We don't need to, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:I know we still need to think about these things.
Speaker 2:My body's breaking down, but health-wise.
Speaker 1:You know what he said. His secret was. What secret was what? Stay away from doctors and stay off medications. Well, we do a pretty good job of that, yeah. So I was like, yes, that's my plan as well. So, anyway, so upcoming, we got Kentucky Sustainable Living coming up. I will be talking all things family milk cow that is in Bowling Green, kentucky, at the Ag Expo Center. That's coming up this coming weekend and that is what October the 25th, 26th, 27th I think it's the 26th, 27th.
Speaker 2:So Saturday, sunday, which day are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm going to be talking on Saturday and I actually get to talk on the big stage. I know, right, I'm excited. Well, you know I'm not nervous about this one because I could talk family milk cow all day long, right. And now I've kind of done it enough that I know my order, in which things should be addressed and when people start asking questions. I mean, like I could be there for three hours.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, I get You're on your game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know my stuff when it comes to keeping a family milk cow, so I'm really excited about that. So if you're in the area, please join us. Come see us at the Kentucky Sustainable Living Very excited to be a part of that this year. I'm sad that the Back to the Land Festival was canceled, but a lot of those speakers who were going to talk have gone to help our friends, brothers and sisters in North Carolina and East Tennessee. So our hearts, our thoughts, our prayers go out to those people. It has really brought into focus a lot for me and T and we've had a lot of discussions about. You know this is why we do what we do, but at the same time, you know, I've always been terrified of tornadoes.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Well now, I'm terrified of tornadoes and mudslides.
Speaker 2:Well, we had a tornado, our first year here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm scared to death of them.
Speaker 2:Right, it's not like I run out to greet them, no but I'm truly terrified of tornadoes.
Speaker 1:But you know there's God, bless those people, and I suspect that a lot of those people were prepared minded people. But there's nothing you can do to prepare for that. That is just an act of God that you know like a, you know like a nuclear bomb or you know something crazy. There's just nothing you can do. And that to me that was very humbling Because I had kind of gotten to the point where I'm like in my mind, really prepared for anything, like I felt like I could handle anything coming, and that really knocked me down a notch or two In that that's just what's the word I'm looking for. That is just like an overwhelming thing that you can't.
Speaker 2:Thing. That's the word you're looking for Thing.
Speaker 1:Thing you think I'm looking for thing. Yeah, it just makes me really sad and I don't think we'll ever really know the devastation. I don't know that they'll ever have a real number, do you? No, I don't think they will. I mean, I don't know that they'll ever have a real number, do you?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think they will. I don't think they're going to find all the missing people.
Speaker 1:I don't think they will either. It's just heartbreaking. Heartbreaking for people who have lost people, Heartbreaking for you know, I think about the little kids and the babies and just all of that stuff. But we can always learn a lesson in any terrible, awful situation, and the lesson that we can learn is that number one community. Those people are helping each other like you wouldn't believe. The people who are prepared and the people who didn't get their things washed out from under them are helping their neighbors who did. And so that is the great thing about living a prepared lifestyle is that you make yourself not a problem Like people.
Speaker 1:Emergency people can give help to other people because we don't really need anything, and taking ourself out of an emergency situation so that help for other people who are elderly or less fortunate than us, that's part of being responsible. And so number one is community. Number two is just the sheer importance of having generators and a way to have water and a way to feed yourself. Those are the three main things. You know that you've got to have some access to, Definitely, so anything else, no, the garden's pretty much done.
Speaker 1:Garden's done. We're about to get out there and pull up that fence. You think we ought to pull up that fence?
Speaker 2:Probably yeah, because we've got to take up that.
Speaker 1:It's our third, fourth year with that weed barrier, fourth year, fourth year. So we got to pull up that weed barrier. It has broken down it is no longer doing anything. Yeah, so it's time to pull that up. I want to amend the soil underneath it. I want to amend the soil underneath it. I want to put down some tarps. Let all that stuff die over the winter. Put down some manure and you know all of the things that we can put under there before we put the tarps down. Shovel some compost.
Speaker 1:You know a bunch of stuff out there, some biochar, biochar, yeah, and get it all ready for knocking it out this spring yeah, I love garden season, I know and get it all ready for knocking it out this spring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love garden season, I know and I hate it.
Speaker 1:See, I don't like gardening. I know, as a homesteader I shouldn't even like that's blasphemy, but I don't. I don't like to garden.
Speaker 2:That's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I like to preserve the food Right and I like to pick it, so that I mean I like the, I know, and I like for you to pick it. I like the harvest, see, I don't like going out there in the heat and sweating and bending over, and I like being in the kitchen yeah, where a woman should be right. Barefoot and pregnant.
Speaker 2:Oh me, yeah, so oh and I don't know if told me about it, but I haven't looked into it.
Speaker 1:They are the prettiest pears I've ever seen in my life and I'm really excited to put those up and make some pear preserves.
Speaker 2:We don't have a pear tree in our orchard, do we?
Speaker 1:No, we have several, but they're not producing. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:One of the ones we did in Bellevue. They produced really quickly.
Speaker 1:We just couldn't reach them. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So I don't know, I don't know, I need to get Tim Riley. Tim Riley is our tree guy. The tree man, the tree of life.
Speaker 2:He may not know much, but he knows about his trees. Yes, he does.
Speaker 1:I think he knows about a lot of things. I think he does know a lot too. Knows a lot more than I do, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, probably just need some TLC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the apple one produces, but like plums we haven't been getting any plums.
Speaker 1:No, we may just need another variety of plum to help that one along Sometimes that's the thing we probably need to replace a few.
Speaker 2:This winter Got a couple of those that didn't make it. Other than that we're about at the end of the year it's wrestling season, so that means farm shuts down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, farm shuts down, everything becomes all things Chase. So you'll be all things Chase, I'll be all things Mama for a little while, and then batting down the hatches for the winter and living off the pantry, which is fun. I love doing the pantry, so we'll be doing the Pantry Power Challenge again in January, which the boys like because I cook a lot.
Speaker 2:A lot.
Speaker 1:Chase actually complained the whole time we were doing the Pantry Challenge and then as soon as it was over, he was like why doesn't Mom cook anymore?
Speaker 2:Why are we?
Speaker 1:not doing the Pantry Challenge. Can we go back to the pantry challenge? Because then it became oh, I'm going to stop by the store and get something, or we're not. You know, because you get lazy when you don't have to.
Speaker 1:But we do better. We're doing better because our diet has to be cleaned up for all things going on in our lives right now, and we do good most of the time. Usually, it's just hard when you fall off the wagon. It's hard to get back on it. You're right, all right. Well, I think that's it. Before we wrap up, do you have anything to say to the listeners? You won't be back for a while.
Speaker 2:Where am I going?
Speaker 1:You'll be doing all things. Chase, you'll be wrestling, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So he probably won't be back on the podcast for a while. Probably not, especially once we start practicing five days a week. I'm not really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:now that I think about it, make you hurt thinking about it.
Speaker 2:Last year I was all gung-ho, Heck. Yeah, I'm an assistant coach. Now I'm going. Oh man, kid needs to graduate. I'll be sore for the next four months.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But if you need a lawyer, give me a call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so don't forget Hamilton Gorman Duncan, our sponsor for the podcast. Give them a call. They are in Bellevue, Tennessee, and they will help you out with any of your family law needs. T's partner, Jad Duncan, can do your trust. T can do your will packages, Any estate planning their firm can do Divorces, child custody, misdemeanors.
Speaker 2:Personal injuries.
Speaker 1:Personal injury? Yeah, anything like that. You can give them a call. We did have one of our community members call us, call us on his way home from Self Reliance Festival. So it's good to have friends in low places. Yeah, he called us from the back of a cop car, which is always a good opening line. Hey, I'm in the back of a cop car, so shout out to our buddy that was in the back of a cop car.
Speaker 2:Don't say a word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, note to self hey, don't consent to search and seizure or search and don't talk. That's all I got to say about that.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:All right. So thank you much for tuning in and I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast. If you like the podcast, it would be really great if you could subscribe and leave the leave a review. It helps other people to find our podcast and you can find us on the socials at the Gorham Homestead and at thegorhamhomesteadcom. And whatever you've got on the docket, y'all remember, just keep it real.
Speaker 1:See, y'all See ya Go Vols my daddy was a guitar picker Playing all the local clubs and my mama was a waitress where they parked M18 Wheeler trucks. We didn't have much money. Times were kind of hard, living in a trailer on the edge of grandpa's farm. Yeah, I may not come from much but I've got just enough.
Speaker 2:As long as my baby's in my arms and the good Lord knows what's in my heart I refuse to be ashamed, it's just a southern thing.