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Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
Bees, Donuts, And A State Rep’s Life
A car registration, two dollars, and a clerk’s offhand comment set Greg Hill on a path that few would predict: seven terms in the New Hampshire House, deep committee work, and a front-row seat to how a volunteer legislature actually runs. From there, the conversation zigzags into the unexpected worlds he’s mastered—beekeeping, sailing, and mini donuts—and what each taught him about patience, process, and community.
We get candid about the “inside baseball” of legislative administration, why institutional memory matters, and what it takes to chair the school building authority. Then the hive opens: millions of bees, swarms that choose their own destiny, and a brewing debate over chemical treatments like oxalic acid to fight varroa mites. Greg lays out the stakes with clarity—how honey color comes from nectar sources, why labeling lags reality, and how a neighbor’s herbicide can unravel a colony in a day. Bears, electric fences, winter insulation, and the strange joy of letting bees be bees round out a pragmatic guide to backyard apiaries.
The water calls next. Greg traces sailing roots from Cape Cod beetle cats to line-of-sight charters in the British Virgin Islands. We talk seamanship, timing hurricane season, learning unfamiliar waters like Croatia or Greece, and the quiet beauty after cruise ships slip past the horizon. Finally, we savor the story of the donut machine bought on eBay, a family concession trailer, and cake-style mini donuts so clean and warm that campers planned vacations around them. The secret is simple: great shortening, honest ingredients, and doing it for love, not margins.
If you like stories where craft meets curiosity—policy shaped by process, bees guided by nature, voyages marked by good judgment, and donuts perfected by care—this one’s for you. Listen, share it with a friend who needs a smile, and leave a review to help more people find the show.
Anything But Politics is a groundbreaking new podcast that is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers. Co-hosted by former journalist and media expert Tiffany Eddy and seasoned lobbyist and ex-politico Tom Prasol, this video podcast dives into the personal lives, passions, and pivotal experiences of notable figures, offering a refreshing and intimate look at who they are beyond the public eye.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm Tom Praisall.
SPEAKER_03:And guess what?
SPEAKER_02:It is time for another episode of Anything But Politics.
SPEAKER_03:Where we talk to local political figures and business leaders about their personal lives and really not much about politics.
SPEAKER_02:No, and uh today we've got a really exciting guest. Um he is a seven-term state representative representing Northfield. Um and I think we actually started around the same time. I think he began in 2010. I started lobbying in 2011. So we've really grown up together. But I guess uh, you know, without further ado, we'll introduce Representative Greg Hill. Thank you for inviting me.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate it very much.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, thanks for coming on. So excited to learn more about you. So um I guess the first question is is what brought you into politics?
SPEAKER_01:So um registering my car, actually. Um, get out. No, I um I was in the town hall in Northfield, uh, and the clerk suggested to me, oh, I thought you came in to sign up for state office. And I we kind of laughed about it a little bit. And while she worked on the computer and did all of the work, I said, What's involved with that? And she said, You if you have two dollars, you can sign up and run. So I went home and told my wife I just did a stupid thing. I say that regularly. And it uh and ran and won. So I ended up in my freshman year, I was representing six or eight, that was the year we had floterials. I think I had six or eight towns. I think six of them I had never been in before.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um before election day. And uh and I made it. I made it in with we had the large if you remember, we had the largest freshman class um maybe in history of 140 some odd people. Yeah. Wow. So it was um it was different.
SPEAKER_03:So no political experience, and you just put your name on the list. Did you and you won? So I'm wondering, did you did you go all out campaigning, or is it just that you have a very friendly name? Like Greg Hill kind of sounds like that kind of guy that's your buddy and that you have a beer with.
SPEAKER_01:I don't have any idea. Um the only thing I did, I I've never knocked on a door because my town doesn't like people knocking on doors. Yeah. Um it's just one of the oddities. Um I did do a couple of mail mail out, you know, just here's who I am kind of thing. Um and I did one or two candidate nights. Um but other than that, I spent the whole day. I figured my town knew me from town meeting. So I spent the whole day in Loudoun um shaking the hand of every person that came in, and and I won Loudoun in Northfield, and that was enough versus all the other towns that were smaller.
SPEAKER_02:So when you say they knew you from town meeting, did you serve on like a local planning board? Just being outspoken state.
SPEAKER_01:Just asking questions more than anything else. Um trying to learn this process. I my grandfather was in the State House in um Massachusetts. I um I never knew that. He was retired by the time I grew up. But um, and my father was always in local town politics, uh school board um in Massachusetts. It must be in DNA somewhere along the line somehow, but I have no idea. And uh it was supposed to be one term that I was doing this. If I can find somebody else to take over, I'd be great. That's that's my goal.
SPEAKER_02:It's like the mob, just when you think you're out, they just they just drag you back in. Not in the cannolis. Yeah. Yeah, leave the gun, take the cannoli. Yeah uh but you know it it's but there's something to be said about longevity in the State House and and developing institutional knowledge. Um, I know at this point you are currently chairman of the Legislative Administration Committee, which I'd love to hear about, you know, for our listeners at home, if you can kind of talk about what they do. Because I know you serve on the Transportation Committee, and I mean that's fitting given how you signed up to vote or signed up to run with your car registration, those bills would go to transportation committee. There's a link there, yeah. Yeah, I'll I'll find it. If there's a link, I'm gonna find it.
SPEAKER_01:I came in in education, and um and since then I've served on education a couple of terms in labor. Um I've been on election law, I was vice chair of election law. Um I'm missing a couple of transportation was in there. Um so I kind of have moved around, and then I spent a couple of well, I don't know how many years now on on uh legislative administration. One with um my current ranking member is the chair, um Janet Wall. Yep. But um it uh legislative administration pretty much deals with how the legislator uh the legislature operates. So we're dealing, well, the perennial bill is raising the salaries of uh of state legislators. Um and and that's always uh one of those kind of fun topics. Right now we're dealing with a couple of things like portraits um and and where they're going to be placed or if they're gonna be placed, stuff like that. Um it's not the most exciting. It's really I think I should call it the inside baseball uh committee. Um traditionally it's been those representatives that have served the longest. It used to be, you know, the ranking members and the and the majority leaders and all of that. Yeah, because there's not a ton of bills that go to that committee. Um usually not. There's usually in the which is perfect for me. Um that was why I I um kind of volunteered for it. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:That's why you can serve on two committees.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, yeah, that was there's another I'm not the smartest guy in the world. That's uh serving on two is uh is probably more than I want. And I'm also the chair of the school building authority. So that um sucks up a bunch of time too. Any of the applications for new schools comes through me.
SPEAKER_03:And so you do this in and as we know, like New Hampshire, we have this kind of volunteer legislature in a way, because you're not making a ton of money. But what's your what's your day job then?
SPEAKER_01:So um my wife says in real life, I um I am a financial advisor. Um I design pensions, I I um play around with other people's money more than anything. That's good. That's what keeps the wolf at the door.
SPEAKER_03:Keeps the wolf at the door. I love it. And uh just because you're wearing yellow, uh, which is a wonderful happy color, it reminds me- It really brings out the tan too. Yeah. It brings out the color of your eyes, actually.
SPEAKER_01:We'll talk later.
SPEAKER_03:But it makes me think of uh bees. And so you were just kind enough to show us this uh crazy video of bees swarming your cars. But what do you do with the bees and and how did you become a bee man?
SPEAKER_01:Um again, not by design. Um it was uh it was a last-minute gift idea for my wife. I bought a a couple a couple of Australian hives off um that were kind of unique, and and we talked about it years ago. Um we've been married forty and a half years, and it um it gets harder and harder, as you know, to think of something innovative um at Christmas time. So um we we jumped into the B world and took glasses and all of that kind of fun stuff. Um got thrown out of classes. We we've we've done a lot.
SPEAKER_03:Let's hear about that.
SPEAKER_01:Um there's a uh there's an inner conflict within the B world. Um it's uh I see the little eyes. Uh, I love a good conflict. I love a good inner conflict with the Trevor Burrus, Jr. So you can relate it actually to the vaccine, no vaccine world. It's very close to that. Um there are certain numbers of people that believe you have to chemically treat your bees in order to have them survive through the winter. Okay. And and they believe if you're not treating your bees with um oxilic acid, which is pretty stiff, but what it does is try to kill varroa mites that are in your hive. Okay. Um and if they um if you aren't treating them, they believe you're actually creating more mites that are going to infest their hives. So they talk about uh, you know, mite bombs that you're creating. And and it gets personal, it gets really nasty. We were tossed out of a out of a club, um a bee club, where you're supposed to sit around and talk about all the fun things you do with your bees. And uh we were we made it clear that we weren't going to um kill our bees to save them, and uh and they were we were shunned at that point. Um so it most of the people that are non-chemical beekeepers uh keep it to themselves. Um it's pretty much.
SPEAKER_02:So I have a question that's kind of related to this because so I was actually just at the grocery store uh picking up honey because I'm making honey mustard chicken thighs for dinner tomorrow. And um but you can buy no invitation. Did you hear any invitation? I only bought four chicken thighs. But uh Thanks, Tom. Yeah. Anytime. Um but you can obviously you can like most foods, uh, you can buy organic or non-organic. Is the does treating with a chemical have any impact on whether or not you can label your honey as organic?
SPEAKER_01:Sadly, no, but it's a it's an excellent question. In fact, it's one of those things there's a not a convention, but there's a group of people meeting next week and up at where the Mount Mountain View Grand View Grand.
SPEAKER_03:Mountain View Grand, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that will be one of the questions that when they find out that I'm a legislator, it's always um, well, what can we do to what can we file to make it um better? And beekeepers really just want to be left alone, I think, more than anything. But there is a issue whether honey should have um some kind of I don't know if label is the right word, but something so that you can indicate um no, I didn't shoot any oxalic acid into the honey. I mean, you're infusing your honey or your hive with this um chemical.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And you'd think it some trace of it has to get into your honey somehow. But but we're not really we're just hobbyists. We're not uh this isn't a there's no money in this. Um you're not selling it.
SPEAKER_02:So you're not selling your honey anywhere at farmers markets or anything like that?
SPEAKER_01:Um my wife does occasionally, not not at a farmer's market, but just to people that she works with or something like that. And a couple of legislators um are forever um asking. Yeah. Um just and it always looks like there's a bribe going on or something when money swaps in reps hall, you know. Yeah. But it um it's uh it's just um you you end up with too much of it. We've had um we've been attacked by bears, um, and and so you end up with uh all of the hives that you can't rebuild, and so you have to um harvest the honey from there. Yep. I think we have something like uh I don't know, twenty or thirty gallons of honey at home sitting. Yeah. You know, it just it just accumulates, and they keep making more of it, so you know you've got to do something. One bee, one bee is a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey over their lifetime. So how many bees do you have currently? Ballpark?
SPEAKER_03:Um line them all up and count them?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's numbering them, is the hard part, you know. Um it's probably take attendance. Three or four million, maybe. Oh my goodness. Wow. That's a lot.
SPEAKER_03:That's a lot of bees.
SPEAKER_01:They only lay only live like a couple of weeks, you know. They're they're or they're they go, they turn over really quickly. The typical bee only lives a couple I mean you can get obviously they last um but they go through this whole stage of being nurse bees, and there's actually uh uh undertaker bees. There are bees that clean out the hive and get rid of a the dead one. It it really is fascinating.
SPEAKER_02:I I mean I feel like we could talk about bees forever because I uh one last question I have on the on the bee subject is uh I've got more. It probably won't be. Um I also saw when I was looking through the massive honey section at the grocery store that there's like unfiltered, there's like amber, there's dark honey. And we talked about this a little bit with you know Senator Pearl when he was on in maple syrup. So what are the factors that create the amber or the darker?
SPEAKER_01:Where they're where where they get their um pollen? Well, part of part of the pollen, but the nectar and all of that. It um it depends in a lot of cases it depends on what's what's out there, what's uh what's in season, you know. Um right now you're seeing a bunch of stuff that comes in through from the goldenrod um or not weed. You can actually send away this kind of fascinates me, but I've never spent the money. Um I am a cheap Yankee after all. But you can send away for sample. Yeah, right. There you go. I have to. Yeah. Um you can send away your honey to um like University of Pennsylvania, and they will come back and tell you how much of it comes from what area, whether it's, you know, um beach, whether it's but most of the most of the materials that they use comes from trees rather than flowers. So uh, you know, you'll end up with uh whatever tree is in bloom or something like that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's really so that's what makes the colors different. Um it's really hard. You can't control these things. They go where they want to go to get their materials. So I've never known how they actually make, you know, uh specific honey or specific colors of honey, um, because the bees just bring it all back and shove it in the little hexagonal hole, you know. They don't really know that we're just making you know orange honey today. You know, they don't they don't you can't control that.
SPEAKER_03:They don't have the recipe book.
SPEAKER_02:Are they like homing pigeons? Like how do they know when they go out and they land on a flower tree? How do they know to come back to the hill apiary?
SPEAKER_01:Well I'm telling you, this is fascinating. We can go on for hours, but but they um they do cleansing flights, they go out and orientation flights. So when they are newbie, newbie, um they will go out from the hive and just fly a couple of feet from the hive until they can start recognizing what it looks like coming back. It's almost like you were driving somewhere and you keep looking behind you to see what is it going to look like when I'm returning home so I can get to the same spot. Oh, yeah. So, but they will go, you know, three to six miles, people claim, um, for the right thing that they're looking for. So they have to have a way to come back to that hive. Um I'm s I I'm sure there's ones that get lost somewhere along the line. Some bees uh will actually sleep when they when they can, when they're and you'll find them inside, you know, a flower or something like that, and they're just asleep. It's kind of there's actually a whole nother section of beekeeping that people try to track and catch wild bees. Um it's called bee lining, um, which is where that comes from. But they will they will um set down a little bit of honey or something sweet, and the bees will land there and they'll mark them um with a little job of paint or something on the bee. And then they get the direction that the bee takes off from, and bees will come back if they find something that they like, they will come back to that spot again. So they will time how long it takes for the bee to go in that direction, empty whatever it's picked up, and come back, and then they calculate how far away this hive is, and then they'll try to walk on that line all the way so that they can keep catching it as it on its way back from its hive, is its natural hive, its wild hive.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then eventually they find it. Um I I talked to a guy one night for quite a while at a bar. He was doing it in Maine whenever he went away on vacation. And and Maine, with all of the rocky coastline and the fingers, when they fly across one of those fingers, he can maybe see where it's gonna be, but he has to go miles and miles to get back to that spot.
SPEAKER_03:That's a lot of persistence.
SPEAKER_01:It was. But it was his that's his hobby when he goes away on vacation. He when everyone else goes to the beach or something, he he tries to track down wild bees. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_03:Bee lining. Now you were talking about the fact that uh at your at the bee clubs you'll talk about fun things you can do with bees. So I'm just wondering. Which one that's a fun thing. What else what are other fun things you can do with bees besides make honey?
SPEAKER_01:Any tricks?
SPEAKER_03:Is it like a flea circus?
SPEAKER_01:Um No, but there's always yeah, it's very much like um it's it's more things, um, you know, how do you how do you keep the next line of people coming? You know, how do you keep attracting new people and keep the bees um active, you know? You know there's bees at the governor's mansion, right?
SPEAKER_02:I believe that that was uh one of Governor Sununu's wife's uh priorities, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. She has um she's part of or was part of the Capital Beekeepers Club. Um and they have they have a hive. They have well more than that. But but it's trying, there's a million different kinds of hives. Um so you can get them from Europe or m or you know Croatia, there's Croatian hives, there's Slovakian hives, there's all kinds of things. We have a couple of Australian hives, um, which were the original ones. Um there's horizontal hives, there's uh you know, you can like anything else, you you start um boring people left and right talking about bees.
SPEAKER_03:I think it's fascinating. And I'm wondering too, because you you showed us that video before we sat down, which I'm gonna ask you to send it to us so we can show everybody. But what happened in your garage? Why were all those bees on your car in the garage?
SPEAKER_01:Um You left a sweet treatment. I was um I think we were just um so uh honey sticky, right? So sometimes when you're pulling frames out of a hive, um the stickiness is stronger than the nails that you and glue that you use to keep them together. So if you had, you know, those I end up putting aside and then repairing them in my spare time. And uh and so I had two or three or four sitting around in the garage, and they decided when when bees, because they expand so quickly, they get to a point where there's not enough room in the hive. So the queen takes half of the population of the hive and leaves to go find somewhere new. And and a new queen is made in the in the existing hive. An election, if you will. Just like that. That's see, he's been studying on the hang with him a lot.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I mean, I I will say I think it's uh it's fascinating. We could talk about it for hours, but I just want to also say thank you because bees are endangered, are they not? And they're so well I mean that's what at least we're here.
SPEAKER_01:And they're integral to our ecosystem. So the the pro this is another part of this political world of of beekeeping. Um bees are commercialized. Uh there's different estimates, but some people are saying somewhere like half of the bees in the United States are used for the almond industry. So um bees will tend they come in on you he you'll hear of tractor trailers tipping over and a big load of bees. It's because they've been shipped from from major crop to major crop. So they come and do all of the blueberries or they do all of the apples or they but almonds suck up a huge amount.
SPEAKER_02:Interesting.
SPEAKER_01:When you so if one illness takes over in in the bees, it runs right through that large number of or that large population. So I don't know. I you know, we've never had any illnesses that um we really are very poor beekeepers. We let the bees be bees. We let them, if you know, they've been doing it a lot longer than we have, and they'll figure it out, is the way I'm looking at it. So I'm not sure that the the pesticides that people put on their yards. I mean, I have lost bees because my neighbor put uh Roundup or something, and uh and then you come over and your bees all lying there with their little tongues hanging out, because they've gone over and tried to get nectar from the dandelion that's been sprayed with something, and then they bring it back and that runs through your hive and you've got a dead hive.
SPEAKER_03:So one more question on the bees, I know we're just saying that. But when they like you said they only live for like three weeks. So do they do they procreate?
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. Um, and so you know, by the time that they hatch, all of a sudden you end up with a massive amount of additional new bees.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And so they have to go somewhere, and and so they either swarm and break off half the hive and go somewhere else. Or um your hives you have to start putting in another hive so that they have someplace to go, you know. It's a lot of trial and error. It's way more work than than uh makes sense to me. Um I try to let them I try to keep as many around so that if I lose anything through the winter, I still have bees to start with.
SPEAKER_03:But how many hours a week do you think you put into the bees?
SPEAKER_01:Under ten minutes.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:I don't yeah. I'm not a typical bee. I don't they're bees. Let let them be bees, you know. I mean, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_03:I say that about Tom. Just let him be Tom. You know, he's Tom. What am I gonna do with him? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh no, I don't, we don't um it's not that difficult. Now I have to insulate them. I have to put some keep them warmer for the winter. But it um that's about it. It's not it's not real tough. Um people always say, I don't have the time to do this.
SPEAKER_03:Um kind of What about the bears though? Because I had chickens once and the bear would come every August, would destroy the coop, eat some of the chickens, and I would imagine with bees that would be a similar thing. Where and bears are destructive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we had we had seven in the yard one day. Um never had never have seen it before or since, but um the they would they actually texture 111, you know the the um the siding on a house. Yeah. They we keep our bees in a shed. Okay. Um we don't have we have individual hives, but they're inside a shed. So the bears um ripped that texture, just pushed their finger right through it and ripped it all off, and then went inside and just destroyed all but one of the hives. And uh Yeah, they can they can make a mess. Um we just ended up putting up an electric fence. Uh and and I haven't seen them since then. But it's uh it I spent the whole night driving around the shed with my Ford F-250. Um and at one point I open just parked and waited there, and and I could have rolled down my window and stuck my finger in one of the bear's ears. I mean, it was right there. Um and it didn't matter they wanted to get into that hive, and they were going to get in there no matter what. It's a testament to your honey. I think anything I think they're actually there for the protein, the bees themselves, not the honey. Okay. Um, which is another thing that you know you always see yogi or Winnie the Pooh trying to get to the honey. I I think the bees want the the protein from the bees themselves.
SPEAKER_02:So when I was studying, I shouldn't have been reading Winnie the Pooh. I should have been actually That's where it's coming to a peer-reviewed resource. Eeyore. Yeah. No, that's great. And uh thank you for that lesson. I'm actually I feel much more learned after having this conversation.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there'll be things you'll think of and say, I wonder if this works.
SPEAKER_02:Well, luckily I spend a lot of time in transportation, so I'll I'll be sure to come and ask you. Yeah, no, my wife would kill me. Why? She doesn't like the bees. She thinks they sting. Well, they do sting, but Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's only bad when you get them inside your suit, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that doesn't sound fun either. No, not at all. But I do want to touch on some other other things. And you kind of alluded to the fact that your grandfather and your father, Massachusetts legislature, um, local government, Massachusetts. So are you originally from Massachusetts?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm a political refugee. That's okay. Seeking asylum in in New Hampshire. Whereabouts in Massachusetts? Um Stoughton. Okay. You watching the the Karen Reed trial at all? Yeah, I've read about it. So it's the town next to uh Canton. Um I we have friends that a lot of our friends were from Canton and and know all the people that are involved in that whole thing. So yeah, it's kind of fun. Small towns. Uh yeah, it is. Um we had our own instances in town. We had the town manager at one point steal a school bus and we also had a um In Stoughton? In Stoughton. Okay. We had a uh and he and the and the police chief went by the local um strip club and picked up dancers and they had a floating uh party all around. With the school bus? With the school bus. Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:That's creative. It was. That's as you don't hear.
SPEAKER_01:It was a big deal.
SPEAKER_03:Sounds like an Adam Sandler movie or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Well it's kind of an Adams family deal. We had we had characters in town. But it um I spent that's where um I went to school, but uh from probably June to September I spent it on the Cape. We had a um that was kind of where I lived there by myself for the summers. Whereabouts on the Cape? So we still have a house in Brewster. Okay. Um and at one point we had one in Brewster and one on in East Ham, so further down.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of great white sharks out there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Not back then, but no, no, it wasn't. Um I was just showing my wife last weekend the beach that we went swimming in. Um at I worked at Howard Johnson's. That was uh another. So that was my first job was Howard Johnson's on the Cape. What did you do there? Scooping ice cream. Oh nice. That was it's important, especially on the Cape. Oh, it's great. Um they that's when they were 43 and 34 cents. Um, and we'd do two or three thousand dollars worth of ice cream in a in an Night.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:But when we closed at night, we would always get a pint of ice cream and then go down to the beach. Um and I showed her the beach that we went to after we saw Jaws for the first time when I was when we were in school. So it yeah, the Cape never used to be uh the seals, it's the population of seals that are dragging all of the the sharks up.
SPEAKER_03:So Yeah, you see seals, you get out of the water immediately.
SPEAKER_01:Well that's why I gave up. I had a lobster I had a scuba diving for a lobster license in Massachusetts, and I gave that up because I realized I looked like a little fat baby seal when I was in my wetsuit. So that was that was the end of that.
SPEAKER_02:I was once this was right before the uh I think it was around like 2007, 2006, when they really started migrating up here, and I was with a friend and uh out in Dennis, and we went on the boat and they were tubing and they knocked me off, and I remember sitting in the water and I was like, am I supposed to dangle my feet like in jaws or do I lay flat and look like a seal? And at that point I was like, just get the boat over here. Just get the boat over here, and I'm not going back in.
SPEAKER_01:It's your imagination, uh, like everything else. It's your imagination that takes over, you know. Yeah. We I we've seen them. I mean, I we spent all my all my summers were sailing around, you know, mostly the south coast of the Cape. I was a warfrat. I used to hang around and whenever anybody needed an extra decand or something. And we used to sail um beetle cats um from marina to marina. We used to race against other marinas.
SPEAKER_03:What's a beetle cat?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it's uh uh it's a wide short um boat that it's called a cat boat more than anything. It's just a uh real stable in the ocean, wide. Um easy to handle by yourself or with another person. So it was just a type of everybody had them, so it was an easy thing that you could always find somebody to race with or something.
SPEAKER_03:Now are you still a sailor?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um my wife and I rent sailboats in the Caribbean. We charter boats and sail ourselves around uh down in the Caribbean, or usually take one or one or two couples with us, just who have never seen the real Caribbean. You know, it's uh kind of good uh when you can just um watch the cruise ships go away and then you watch what the islands look like after the cruise ships are gone, you know.
SPEAKER_02:I'm a big fan of the Caribbean. Good UVs down there.
SPEAKER_03:Anywhere of Tom can get a tan.
SPEAKER_02:So what's your favorite island?
SPEAKER_01:So we do most of it out of the British Virgin Islands, okay. Um which have changed, so we may have to find uh something different. But um we're we're actually looking now to see what it would take. It takes a while to learn an area um well, well enough to be able to you know, they're giving you a half to a three-quarter million dollar boat. They want you to know where things are. But I've sailed enough so that they don't question my my background anymore in the Caribbean. But it what we've looked at going to like Croatia or or Greece and and it's a much more complicated process. So I'm almost thinking I might hire somebody to sail us so I can figure out where the local good spots are and then then go. So that may be the next one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Do you ever worry about pirates down there? Like nothing? No. No.
SPEAKER_02:No. I mean uh that was a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you ever bump into Johnny Depp?
SPEAKER_01:Have not. Um there's other guys that are uh so the this back British versions backs up to the U.S. versions, obviously. And uh so you're you're within sight all the time of St. John and and that's where usually the or St. Croix, that's where the the big guys hang out, yeah. Although we do go by Branson's Island uh occasionally and sail by that. So does he come out of the biggest? He's gonna ask about Epstein. I wasn't gonna go there.
SPEAKER_02:I wasn't gonna go there. No. Oh but that is over in the U.S. Virgin Islands, right?
SPEAKER_01:Um No, that was British. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There were a couple of things. Let me shut this off. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's okay. It's it's it's good that people know you're on and they're trying to reach out to you right now.
SPEAKER_01:That's what it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, because the podcast is now international. It is in the middle of the year. So which and so are you, obviously being in the British Virgin Islands and then, you know, Greece and Croatia. So it all fits together.
SPEAKER_02:No. So when you're on the boat, do you sleep on the boat?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's like a floating how big how big are these boats? Uh last one was forty-seven feet. Okay. Uh and if it's a and if it's a catamaran, you know, it's it's like a floating apartment. You know, you're four bedrooms, four bathrooms, um, you know, a full kitchen, full That's insane. It's it's awesome. It's the best thing.
SPEAKER_02:And now these are sailboats. So you need the wind. Or are these like just yachts?
SPEAKER_01:You can do either. You can either get power cats or or run sail. Um I I think I've only ever done sail. I have to think about that for a second. But um we're not in any time schedule, so you know, you've got it there for ten days and you go. You know we now know how long it takes to get from place to place. And you're it's all line of sight sailing, so it's not not earth shattering. You could do it. There are a lot of people that um that do it for the first time. The ocean scares me a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:But come on, but you love the sun.
SPEAKER_02:I do like the sun, and the ocean water does help with the Well, you can hire us. My wife and I will go take you down. Yeah. You you rent the boat and we'll sail you. I mean, that doesn't sound half bad, but have there been any any situations with storms coming through while you've been down there or like precarious boat on the water stories?
SPEAKER_01:No. That's good. There's a good track record. Yeah. Or pirates. And we've done it, yeah. We've done it um pretty much throughout the year. Um the winter is almost we've done that once, just because it's so crowded. Yeah. You know, at some point you can almost walk uh on the decks of other boats all the way into shore.
SPEAKER_02:It's like Lake Winnipeg in July, right? What's that?
SPEAKER_01:It's like Lake Winnipes in July. It is a lot like that. In fact, they do. Um Christmas in July is the weekend you don't want to be there. Entire populations of um of Puerto Rico comes to the British Virgin Islands and and it is um it's everything that you ever heard of Winnipeg, it's twice as bad as that. Oh well. It's I've never seen anything. You wouldn't think that there would be that many boats in the Caribbean at one time. It's enormous. But um but we often go during hurricane season um and and have trip insurance or something. So if it's there's something blowing up that's coming that way, we won't go.
SPEAKER_03:So Well, that is fascinating. So what other like I and this is just like a broad question, but because I think but you gave us a very brief list of bees, Howard Johnson's sailing. Um, but what other kind of uh interesting things are you doing that I hear he makes a mean donut. Oh, the donuts, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:You haven't had them? No. We've talked about it and you've said you would bring some into me, but I mean I'm still waiting.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I love fresh donuts.
SPEAKER_01:Um Joe Burke? Yeah. Ask Joe Burke about the donuts. We were in New Hampshire's best donut for a while.
SPEAKER_03:You were New Hampshire's best donut? By who? Who?
SPEAKER_01:Uh, whatever that what's the WMUR, is it? I don't know. Whoever does the the rankings when they have the things out. Um we don't uh again, that's that's not that's just for fun, too.
SPEAKER_03:Um How did you end up with the best donut though? Is it a family recipe?
SPEAKER_01:Um No. So the the quick, well, fairly quick story is um at one point we were going to build an indoor water park in New Hampshire. So we used to go to You personally or? Yeah, my wife and I. Um so we looked at we used to go to conventions around the country for um it's called the International Asia. Research. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was called the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, IAPA. Okay. And you would go and see all of the new things that are coming out in carnivals or rides or roller coasters, all kinds of things. So we were in the Georgia Dome at one point, and somebody and everyone we ran into was saying, Where were those donuts? They were and everyone wanted to try these donuts. So when we came home, um in the summers, I used to take care of my son while my wife worked, and she used to do it the rest of the time. And um and we got talking about uh donuts. And we found one on uh while my wife was at work, we found one on eBay. Like a donut maker, a donut machine.
SPEAKER_02:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:And um and we bought it. So when my wife came home, uh uh we said we are going on, we have a a family trip um to Ohio to go get this donut machine. And we went out and bought a um trailer, uh concession trailer at the same time to bring it home with. And then we learned how to make donuts. And uh so um Ian, my son, was making donuts for, I don't know, five or six restaurants, and uh and then we would make mini donuts at campground and and other little places. So it's the it's the mini we still do the mini donuts on Saturday mornings at a campground up in New Hampton.
SPEAKER_03:And do you sell them or do you guys eat them?
SPEAKER_01:Like what um Well he it put him through school. Um it was he was eleven at the time, he's thirty now. Um and uh and it was it was a big deal. Um it was you know he would make donuts for school and bring them in, and everyone would, you know, uh the he the parents that drop the kids off would buy donuts on the way after they drop the kid off.
SPEAKER_02:Now I love a good donut, right? It's very hard to for me to find a donut that I don't like, but I do have a preference. I prefer the yeast over the cake. Are yours yeast donuts or these are cake donuts. Cake donuts, okay. Now the cake donuts that I really like tend to be the like apple cider.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, those are the best.
SPEAKER_02:Apple cider donuts are typically cake donuts.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I I challenge you um to that you when you have one of these, um, then tell me if you want an apple cider donut. So what are you what flavor donut do you think? Um it they're just um they're they're mostly an old fashioned but we do now all we're doing is honey glazed or uh I don't hate a honey glaze. Yeah. Do you use your honey? No, no, you can't do that. But um no, they're uh they're just honey glazed. Um cinnamon sugar or plain is what we can get away with um at the campgrounds, just doing it.
SPEAKER_02:I like a cinnamon sugar too. I mean, listen, I I think Tiffany, I think we're gonna have to do some taste testing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I I think that that's part of it for I'm sure we can work out something. We would be we would be honored.
SPEAKER_01:It's still in the same concession trailer. Um and we still have the ability to um to tow it around. We do um military appreciation um events for uh a couple of the orchards, and uh but we're kind of retired from it. Uh my son's out of it, obviously. It's uh it's just my wife and I.
SPEAKER_03:So do you have special ingredients that you put in?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, because Yeah, but I can't tell you what that is.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe because obviously, I mean you have the donut machine, but but it's gotta be more than the donut machine.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, what you put into this is gotta be kind of like the bees, we're not in this to make money. Um and we were we we weren't smart enough to have figured this out in the beginning, but it was a tremendous thing to do as a family. Um there's more time that you're just sitting there side by side watching things happen that you can converse about, you know. I can remember my son saying, so tell me about this stock market, what's that all about? You know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um it is it's a great little family event. And if you're making them really good, there's no complaints ever, you know. We've never had anybody say, you know, I don't want to, these are not these aren't for me. Um we have people, this is kind of self-serving, I'm sure it is, but we have people that used to track us down in January and ask, and I don't know how they got our numbers, but they would track us from the campground and say, we're going camping in August. Are you going to be making donuts on Saturdays and Sundays or just Saturdays? Because otherwise we'll come in Friday night. Yeah. Wow. Or we'll come in Saturday morning. And you hang up and say, these people are making their vacation plans around donuts. Yeah. You know? Um every week there's somebody that says, This is the only campground we can go to. My wife will only go camping because the donuts are here. That is amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, what do we have to do to get some of these donuts?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. We'll figure that out. Yeah, we'll work. We'll talk after this.
SPEAKER_03:Anything, well, it's fascinating.
SPEAKER_01:They are um they are good. I mean, it's so right now because they're not, excuse me, but just we don't try to make money on them, so we're we're able to buy the best stuff that you can get. So really it comes down to the shortening more than anything. All the other stuff, if you use good shortening, you can make much better donuts. But the places that are trying to make money um are going to buy cheaper ingredients. Cheaper ingredients. And and uh so you'll get an aftertaste with um we go and and test out places, you know. We'll buy it. Just let me know. Bring them. Um it's me. Andy Andy Sanborn used to do that. Used to stop and bring donuts back to me and say, okay, what do we think about this? And we'd break them apart. And uh there are places that I can't eat a whole donut. Um, they're just awful. And people rave about them. But but ours are um, they don't leave an aftertaste. They don't, you know, they are just really good donuts.
SPEAKER_03:So now that we're talking about all this and and I'm starving and this podcast is going to air, uh, we're gonna drop it on Monday. If someone's listening to this and they're like, hey, I really want to try one of these donuts, is there any way they can get one of your donuts at this point?
SPEAKER_01:Not that I'm aware of.
SPEAKER_03:No. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um these are this is a this isn't a money-making venture by any stretch. This is um for we do it for special occasions. We we'll do, you know, we have people that'll call. Um we had someone that wanted to make a wedding cake out of our donuts. And so, you know, you'll all right. Well, that's kind of special. That's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_02:I just had a great idea for you. All right, I don't know how many bills you filed this year or if you filed any. Three. Um, three that you want to get passed. Just the day of the of the executive session, just make donuts on the State House Plaza, and I guarantee that it will pass.
SPEAKER_01:So so there is a there is a bill this year.
SPEAKER_02:Uh the apple cider donut, right?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Representative uh Laura Twitchy, who was one of our previous guests. I fascinated.
SPEAKER_01:I've already first of all, I've already asked Paul Smith if I have to recuse myself on that day. Um but I also I figured if I'm voting against it and I bring in donuts that day, I probably can sway sway the sway the vote one way or another. Interesting.
SPEAKER_03:Diabolical, I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Representative Greg Hill, this has been absolutely fascinating.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to say that you've found a hobby that you haven't mastered. And I I kind of uh alluded to it, but you're like the most interesting man in the world, minus the Dosekis. Because I've learned so much about things I never thought I would be interested or fascinated with. And I have so many follow-ups I'm gonna have to uh talk to you about. But I I definitely want to say thank you for coming on. I knew this was gonna be a good one. Um I hope you had a good time.
SPEAKER_01:Always do. Uh who doesn't like talking about themselves, right? Yeah. Me, me for one.
SPEAKER_03:But it really is fascinating. I learned so much and uh might hit you up to get some information on the bees. And if you happen to have extra donuts and you don't mind giving Tom and I a call, I think we we would be there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I do it for the protective services people. I'll I'll make donuts uh for them occasionally. We'll have to talk to Joe. Yeah, yeah. Let's do that. That'd be great. Thanks very much for having me. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:And as always, thank you very much to our audience, and uh just so pleased to be joined by Representative Greg Hill.
SPEAKER_02:And this was another episode of Anything but Politics, and we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_03:See ya.