Rogers Radiant Heating - Dux Supply

Roger joins the show from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - This is great ! 

https://www.instagram.com/rogerar_only1

https://www.rogersradiant.org/services

www.trevorbuckco.com 

Edited & Produced by Daisie Media 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to the Trevor Buck Podcast, episode 62. And this episode is sponsored by Dux Supply, and that's D U X S U P L Y dot com. And this will uh I think pertain to our conversation, but we want to welcome Roger, a life lifetime uh youper, to the pod. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah. And you uh you've lived in the UP your whole life.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Well, almost. Okay. I tell people I was born and raised a youper, but technically I wasn't born. I was born in Duluth, and I was almost a a lifelong Duluthan, but m there was no work in Duluth, so my dad moved because my dad was born and raised here.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

So then my dad um ended up moving back to Hancock after he went to school in Minneapolis, and he he tells people occasionally that if there was work in Duluth, he would have never moved back to Houghton. He had no intentions of moving back to Hancock, Houghton area.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

So so here I am, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Okay, and uh and I'm glad uh I'm I'm really happy to have you on because you have uh the the most, I want to say, the booming voice of the UP, so this is great. But uh I I did not know you were born in Duluth, and we can get into this later, but do you think that's where some of your uh style comes from? Because the Duluth the Duluthans are a little bit more stylish than the youpers.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Uh yeah, I'm not I don't dress like a typical youper.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Uh sometimes so this one lady, um uh one day I went to church, and this lady asked me, she says, You look like you're trying to impress someone. So I I stopped and I looked at her. I says, Well, do you think it'll work? I just put a smile on her face.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Right. No, and and I appreciate that. And I remember when I met you out here, you were looking sharp, and uh you'll you'll you you'll you'll have to explain. So so so for for some of the listeners out there, the UP is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and uh they are some of the neatest, coolest uh people I've ever met, and a lot of them have a sense of humor. But coming with that, there's a certain culture in the UP. It's more um what would you say? Roger, explain that the cult is it's more conservative or down-to-earth or um yeah, so um this area is a very conservative area.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Um uh it comes from the conservative part of it is a large population. I mean, like I would s I don't know uh if I could put a number on it, but I want to say a very, very large portion of our population, I believe, are Lutherans, and normally Lutherans are more conservative.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Um, so I I think that's kind of where the conservative comes from.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Right. And that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

That's my opinion anyway.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

No, of course. And I respect that, but uh um yeah, I just I I enjoy people that will uh go outside the box and whether they wear a pink shirt or I I've I've worn shirts. I think I think my my my uh uh graduation picture I had a shirt that had flowers on that might have been a little bit different, but uh so I've I've worn pink shirts.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

My uncle, he's he passed away um from COVID. Yeah, but anyway, I seen him once and he had a pink shirt of mine on.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

I said, You're wearing my shirt. Uh what do you mean? Nobody wears pink but me. What you're wearing my pink shirt. Well, my wife got it at a rummage sales, she said. So like, yeah, my wife sold it. You bought it, and now you're wearing my pink shirt. I can't believe you're wearing my pink shirt.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That's awesome. But anyway. Okay, so what uh what high school did you go to?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Hancock.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Okay, and so uh and so for new new listeners, the upper peninsula, Michigan is separated by a bridge that they're all proud about. What's the name of the bridge? The uh tell us about the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

They just call it the lift bridge.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Okay, that that's great. Okay, so so one of the towns is on the north side and one of the towns on the south side, is that correct?

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yeah, so I live on the north side, so people who don't really like Hancock, maybe, and it's it's kind of a joke, but they say, I wish just somebody would disconnect that bridge and kick you guys off into Lake Superior.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

I love it. Okay, and and growing up, again, for we're um and and I want to share this. You know, this this podcast was started with a dear friend of mine. He is from the UP, born and raised, and he's no longer on it. I I'm not from the UP. I I love all the youpers that I meet, and that's a slang. Where does the term uh youper come from?

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Um probably from the abbreviation of UP. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Okay. You know, okay, so um, and it it's fun learning about Hancock, Houghton, and the area, but but one of the things that that I've heard why a lot of you have a sense of humor is your winters up there can be long and hard.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

And if you don't have a sense of humor, you're gonna die.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Okay, okay. So so so how did and uh my dear friend Ned was uh has shared his experience throughout this winter on the podcast. And so how did you handle this winter? Because it was brutal. You had a lot of snow.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Uh yeah, it was kind of my car didn't like this winter. I backed into my neighbor, like, well, I got an ID SQ5, and it's made a little pride and joy. It's a fun little fast car. So one day after a blizzard, I went and pulled my car out of the driveway and parked it in front of the neighbor's driveway, or in front of the neighbor's um garage. His he parks his plow truck in the garage. And so I was um snowblowing my driveway uh so I could park in back of my driveway again. Well, the neighbor guy backed up, he didn't see my car, and um he hid it on the side. And I was like, oh so it's no big deal. I mean, it's like uh okay, well, I guess I'll pay the fix sometime. And then maybe a month or two later, the same thing. I backed, I was I jumped in my car, I was gonna back up to move my car to the driveway so I could snowblow. I don't have a plow truck, and my my son does, but he doesn't plow for me on weekends, he does his own thing. Um, but anyway, so I'm backing up and I'm looking both ways, and I seen a neighbor out plowing, and I didn't see him and uh my company work van, because I have a business that I run from home, my work van was kind of in my blind spot, and I looked both ways and didn't see anything, so I backed up. Well, he was backing up at the same time I did, and I nailed him right behind the rear tire, and it kind of did some damage to my but it's sixteen hundred dollars worth of damage to the back of my Audi. So no, I didn't get that fixed. So that winter wasn't very nice on me. So and then the snow load, I have an air conditioner, the the the top of my my air conditioner in the backyard is crushed from the snow. Uh yeah, it was it was wild winter. Okay, so it's easier to pick.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

So driving an Audi up in the UP, that's a little alternative, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Oh, that thing's funny. So anyway, I went I went to a tire store. My nephew uh works at a tire store here in Hancock, Fine Line Tire. Um my um former uh in-laws own it. Um anyway, um, so I told him uh I was going down to Detroit for Christmas time a couple years ago. Two winters ago. And I told him, I says, I need some good snow tires on there. It's the best you have. But I don't know if they're the best or not. I I personally I think they are. They were at $2,400. So if you can't get really good snow tires for $2,400 for sport tires, there's something wrong. But anyway, right. I um I don't know if you're if you're um if you know Hancock and how it's shaped, you um when you're coming from Houghton into Hancock, a lot of people instead of going through downtown Hancock, they'll go straight and you go up White Street and you come up to a blinker light at the bottom of Quincy Hill. Quincy Hill brings you up to Cali Matt and and on north. So anyway, I go up White Street, I stopped at that stoplight, and so this Audi, it's a Quattro, so it's full-time four-wheel drive. Um, so I um and it was a fresh snow. It's just like in the evening, um, I'd gone out for dinner and I was heading home. Well, there's a fresh snow, snowfall, and there's no tracks in the snow. There's probably, you know, at least a couple inches, because there's no tracks that I could see. And so I straightened it out and I stumped it to the rugs as hard as I could, and I kept it there, and by the time I got to the Critzy Hills lookout, I was going 85, and I didn't it didn't spin not one bit, it didn't pull. I'm impressed with Odis Quattro. And uh it's a very fun, fast, impressive car.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

And I and I want you to shout out the tire store again. What was the name of the company?

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Oh, Fine Lane Tire. Um Corporalism own it.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Okay, and do you know the name of the tires? Because uh years ago, I I I still remember this word, but I remember there was somebody telling me the only snow tires to get, I think it was a Finnish company. I think they call them hockey policy. Did you know that word?

unknown 10:13

No.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

That sounds like is that something to do with Pilates?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I have no idea. Sounds like no idea at all kind of tire. Oh, you don't have no idea what kind of tire it is. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, and I want to ask you this. Okay, so when you uh graduated from high school, at some point you entered into the industry of uh HVAC or heating, cooling. Tell me how how did you how did that come about?

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Okay, so my dad, um my dad went to um, I don't know if it was a two-year, four-year, whatever. He went to Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, which is a trade college, trade school. Yep. And so he got his degree in sheep metal there, and he moved to they were living, my mom and dad were living, uh actually they were living with my aunt and uncle Edith and Walford, Simonson. They were um living with Edith and Walford, and they couldn't find my dad, there just wasn't working bullets. So he moved up to back to Hancock because he was born in Hancock, born and raised, and there was all kinds of work at the Michigan Tech the college here in Houghton. So uh so he joined the union, and so then I come along when I'm 18, and um so I got out of high school, I married my high school sweetheart, um, that we started dating in in high school. And so then anyway, I in order to get in the union, which I thought was, you know, kind of neat, yeah, yeah, kid uh union kin knocker. Yeah, so it's n not always what you know, but it's who you know. So my dad was well known um in the eating industry. Um everybody knew him and liked him and um so his um along with his um um guidance or whatever you call it, he got me into the union. So went through a four-year apprenticeship and then I worked Oh, I had twenty-nine years in the union. Um my dad was the only union sheet metal contracting business in the basically in the entire what we call a copper country.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yep, yep. I love I love hearing about the copper country. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Yep, so then when my dad retired, my younger brother um bought the business and the first thing he did was drop the union.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Okay.

unknown 12:42

So that was a that wasn't very good.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I mean, it was that was his decision.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

But um anyway, the union didn't like that because my dad Bob Sheetmetal, the business that I worked for for my dad, was a union business. Well, when you're a union business, um you can't just drop the union. It's illegal. So because he dropped the union and Bob Sheetmetal is a union business, the union came after him with a lawsuit and they wanted X amount of dollars. Well, my brother Byron and the union attorneys, whatever they settled out of court for a sum. Okay well, so anyway, I so I dropped out of the union because I well, I called and asked them the um so up here in Michigan, um, unlike some areas where you can solicit your own work, you have to go through an agent. So I asked the agent if there's any um work for me. And he said, Well, there's 13 guys on the bench, meaning laid off.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

I said, Okay, well, you've answered my question. He said, Why? What's that? I said, Well, I've been working for Bob Sheep Metal. Um, my brother Byron bought the business, he's dropping a union, so I have a choice. I could be a gung-ho union man and stay in the union and go on unemployment, which I refuse to do, or drop the union and work continue working for my brother at the same wage that I'm making now in a union.

unknown 14:06

Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

So that's what I did. And then I worked for my brother for about a year. And um, when we were working for our father, things are all hunky dory. You know, we all love and respect our father, and well, we all brothers get along too, but it's just a little different. So at the time, I just figured if I gotta be putting up with nonsense uh because we didn't quite get see eye to eye on things, I might as well just go off on my own. So I went off on my own and opened up my own business. And then this summer, this past summer, I was supposed to be able to retire. If you have 30 years in, you can retire at 55. Right. Well, I'm six I'm s I'm 61 now, but um, so anyway, went through all the rig of my role, and the union says, Nope, you're running a non-union heating business, so you are in direct violation of our term of agreement with you. Um you are now being penalized until the age of 65. So now I have four more years to work, um, own my own business, of course, but at least now I know when I retire at 65, I now know how much they're gonna give me per month.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

But the stipulation is to receive this union pension. I can't own a business and I can't have any licenses.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

So now I know. And hey, hey, Roger, I wanna t I wanna I want to say thank you for sharing that because I don't I don't know all the differences between union and non-union, but that was uh Well, I I mean I that's probably one of the reasons why uh America doesn't like unions because they're too controlling. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

They tell you how to think, they tell you how to act.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

I remember, I mean, I guess uh I can be proud to say I'm a Republican, but I was at a job site and um it was um election time and all the union members in the job trailer were talking about, you know, Democrats. And it's like I I told the guy excuse me. I told the guys this I'm gonna go into that voting booth, I'm gonna grab that lever, I'm gonna just smash that thing down and vote every Republican in. You're like, Bobby, you can't talk like that around here. So why can't I? You you guys are trying to, you know, indoctrinate me into being a Democrat. It's like it ain't gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

I was born a Republican, you would just, you know, one day give up your right to be a Republican and be a Democrat. I mean, it's like okay, don't get me going on that one.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

No, no, I and I like to, but but I do want to shout this out because I know the union training programs in in in the in the many trades. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

What I learned from the union, I couldn't I could not learn anywhere else. So I'll give kudos to that. But it just once you're in the union, you don't just get out.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Right, right. And I want to ask you so so you worked on uh large uh commercial HVAC projects?

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Oh yes, yeah. Okay, so a lot of industrial jobs.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Okay, so who who fabricated the what do you want to call them? The ducks, the the big sheet metal? Is that is that done on site?

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Um no. Well some of it is, but most of it is done in a union shop and it's just um it's um you know trucked and um in fact uh one of my f very first jobs I worked at was um I'd have to go, I was working at the old KI Sawyer air base.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

And they were taking out all the old ductwork and putting new ductwork in. Um because all of the old ductwork had asbestos on it. So we were removing all the asbestos um covered ductwork and replacing with modern stuff. And they had a big huge like a like a box truck, but it didn't have the box, it just had like wooden panels for the sides.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Like a steak body, but it was a big massive, you know, truck, semi-tet truck, whatever. And so my job was uh like whenever they needed ductric, drive down to Marinette, Wisconsin, where the company was located, and load up all the ductwork for the job and bring it back. So I was like uh that was that's how I started my apprenticeship, um, being a truck driver.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yep. Yep. So and and I want to share this with you because uh w w when uh the sponsor, one of the sponsors of this uh podcast is Duck Supply. It's a fellow youper, and we can uh discuss half-line, but so but they're non-union, but they they build ductwork and and they put it they put it on uh you might want to say carts. So so that so so they label all the parts and pieces where they go, where the area is, and they deliver them to the job site, and it's it's super efficient for HVAC companies, but union companies cannot purchase from them.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

And no, it's like that's that's why that's why so many people just get, you know, they get so annoyed with union because there's too many rules and regulations.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

I mean, I've worked on big jobs where if you drive one guy who bought a brand new Toyota, eh, bad thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Okay, okay, yes, yes, yes. I'm I'm glad you shared that. Yes, that that's so anyway.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Uh this guy with the brand new Toyota one day after work, he came out there, and all the tires were it popped. Um, all of the glass on the Toyota pickup were smashed, and the car was, I think it was a yellow uh pickup, and it was painted with polka dotted dots. Okay, in the whole thing is just like oh yes, you know, so we're leaving at the end of the day, and we this thing is sitting at the edge of the parking lot and it's like, oh boy, sorry, guy. Shit the butt of Toyota.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Right? And was this up in the UPE where that happened?

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Okay. So so today, uh visiting is the union culture still really strong up there?

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Um I don't know if it is today anymore. I mean, statistically it keeps dropping, but um, I know another a friend of mine that I worked with, uh, he dropped out of the union, opened up his own um a non-union heating business, RC Mechanical. And when he did that, oh, the union was pretty upset because he was bidding on big, you know, huge commercial uh sized jobs bidding against the union, and he had a little bit of vandalism, and I think they somebody stole one of his vehicles, and um yeah, so the union union doesn't take too kindly if you um cross them or you know, break away or yeah, so so currently what what type of projects are you working on?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Commercial, residential, do you do any residential?

SPEAKER_03 21:00

So I that's all I do is residential. The only commercial I do is um because I have in Michigan you to do a commercial boiler, you have to have a commercial boiler installer's license. So I have that. So I do a lot of commercial boilers, but otherwise, um that's all me and because uh I have a it's just a two-man business, me and my son.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

And um so I can't really, but the two of us we can't tackle anything too large.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Okay, sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

So our our business, our workload is mainly changeovers. Um changing out forced air furnaces and um boilers and um and just putting replacement, taking old out, putting new in, or we do some new construction, but very little.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Okay. And uh I want to ask you this are uh are these mini split systems very popular up there?

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Okay. Well, what what do you think about them?

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Um I like them. I mean, I don't have a problem with One that's in fact that's what I have in my house that the unit got crushed for through the from the snow lower.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yep, yep. I I I think they're great. I think they're great. I I've had great experience. I've had two homes with mini split systems, and I think they're great.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah. We had uh we had a customer that had one and he didn't like it. She's she the lady says, Well, she says, I just want you to come here and rip it out. And so my son didn't have an air conditioner. It was, you know, the mini split air conditioner. He didn't have one in his house because he had hot water heat, like uh like me. I have hot water heat in my house, a boiler.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

And so anyway, so he took this thing out, and my son took it home, and he's like, Okay, I'm gonna figure out what's wrong with this thing. So he is oming out parts and stuff, but he found out he found a bad part on there that omed out bad. Bought the part, replaced it, it was like five dollar part. So here you got this, you know, a mini split uh installed for I don't know, I mean five dollar part, but I mean other miscellaneous items for installing it maybe under $100. So that's a good deal.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Okay, so so uh now now we're gonna talk about some uh some youper or upper peninsula Michigan culture. So you have to let's talk about pasties.

unknown 23:18

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

So so when you you remember eating pasties as a child?

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Uh yes. Okay. Yeah. So many times, well a lot of people, um everybody um not everybody, there's a at least in our family anyway, everybody's Finnish or Swedish or you know, so and it's um the pasties were something that came from the mining days. Um it was something that it was a meal that they could bring down into the mine and you could eat it and with grubby hands, whatever it didn't matter. So that's kind of where it started, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

And and then um because everybody's l it loves them, everybody's learned their own little trait on how to make them. Some people um you know use different types of meat.

unknown 24:10

They've I mean now they have people are going off and making breakfast pasties and whatnot. Some people some people like the cubed potatoes.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

I like the cubed potatoes, some people slice them.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

This is good.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Let's keep talking. This is great.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

And um a lot of people don't do gravy with pasties. And and uh Ryan, Ryan Jopy had it on his podcast, he talked about Crupps gravy. Hey, I I'm I'm uh I'm just backing Ryan. Crupps gravy at one time was the best, it was the absolute best gravy, and when you'd go somewhere to ask for it, do you have gravy with your pasty? No. Well, why would you have gravy? You unless you've had really good homemade gravy, uh you'd never put ketchup on a pasty ever again. Well, anyway, the original owners of Crups, um, they sold, new people are doing it, and I've tried it, and it's not the same. The pasties aren't the same, and the beef gravy is no longer the same.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

Okay, so at one time Crups was the best.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Okay, so so so I want to ask you this, and I'll even uh make the arrangements, but there was a company that came on from the UP, and the name of their company is East Fork Pasties. Yes. And they're they're located in Calumet. Have you had them?

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Yes. I have never had one, but uh my my my uh younger brother is father-in-law, um Tara Keith Simitz.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

He goes there. They're they're only open on Mondays. He goes there every Monday and he says they're the best pass he's ever had. So I've never had one, but I guess um I'll have to try it some Monday. So no, I guess they're so popular. If you don't go there early in the morning and stand in line, I mean they're literally there's a line outside to get to pass.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

It's not just it's not just Mondays, though. Maybe when they first open, but um I'm maybe it is.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Maybe they are, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

So I don't I'm not really Yeah, yeah. We're we're gonna get you to East Fork Pasties because they came on the podcast and it was an awesome so but but but I but I love the uh I love the Euper uh pasty smack talk. That's great. How about uh growing up, do you remember um when was when was the first time you remember taking a sauna? And I and I like to call it sauna because that's how our Westerners pronounce it, and I know you guys pronounce it differently, but uh d tell me about the sauna culture in the UP because that's uh okay, so my so uh as far as I can remember, my I uh my my grandpa Arnold Rudavara had a sauna in his basement.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

And I remember as a kid going with my mom and dad, and and we'd go to grandma and grandpa's for a sauna. Um typically sauna night was Saturday night, sometimes Wednesday night. But then um my mom and dad, we uh and my grandpa and myself and others, we m my dad built the house, and in that basement of that house he put a sauna. And um, yeah, so the whole while they lived at a house, that sauna was going all the time. And so that's how I started. I started my life with a sauna. Actually, when I was when I was growing up and we had a sauna in our basement, I probably had a sauna every night because the sauna was heated, but not only did it was it too wash up, take a sauna, but that heat actually helped heat the house, offset the heating, natural gas heating goes. So now I I have a gas sauna in my house. But um, and it's a gas sauna stove. I turn it on at typically every night at eight o'clock, I turn it on. Um, it's got a one-hour timer, so I hit it twice, and then after two hours, I mean I can I could take a sauna at 11 30 before I go to bed, and after two hours of those rocks eating, one ladle of steam in your boat, putting your head between your legs. That steam is so stinking hot.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Okay. And just so our just so our listeners know, I am a I'm a big fan of sauna. I call it sauna, but and uh it I think it's I think it's healthy and I think it's great. But growing up, there was a culture, and I don't know if it started in the UP, but a bunch of boys or men going into the sauna all naked.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Yeah, everybody's naked now that's weird. They're just uh I don't care where you go, you're gonna never, ever, ever, you will never ever see a group of guys all with swim cunks. Like you just don't.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Right. Everybody's naked.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

Okay, so I think it I think I came from Finland because in Finland, nudity's not like a big deal. It's like I've heard people that have gone there, like even girls that were nannying over there, it's like yeah, it's just like over there, it's like um nudity in America is different from nudity in Finland. It's just like it's it's not a big deal. It's like um, I don't know.

unknown 29:24

It's a cultural thing.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

And that's the UP, the people's sauna. I mean, okay, the boys and girls, I don't know if you're gonna take a sauna with a stranger that's not your wife, yeah. You might take a sauna and you'd have a swimsuit on.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Typically it's just everybody's naked.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Okay. And and that's why and I always found it strange, and that's why we we sell uh we call them sauna shorts, and it's it's fun because it drives people nuts. But um, yeah, I just as a I went a couple years ago. I I went with a bunch of and they were primarily youpers, and I went to a sauna night, and they were all naked, and I was the only one wearing shirts, and like I I just yeah, I I don't I don't want to see another man's business.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

I just don't yeah, well, well the the the thing is in Finland um Finland's not known for you know big junk. So everybody's big junk there's no children hostile.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

But um oh that is great. But I like it.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

But anyway, so just you know, sauna etiquette. Some people don't like, well, I'm not gonna sit on your sauna bench. It's you know deep bunch of dirty butts on there. It's like, okay, so now in my sauna, I got a bunch of my sauna is eight foot by eight foot. So I have a bunch of um they're towels, specific towels that go on the bench. So if you want, you grab a towel, place it on the bench, and you put your nice clean button buttons on my clean towel, and when you're done with the sauna, I'll throw it in a wash and a wash it.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

I love it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Yeah, I got I got a bunch of backrests, so you don't have to sit, you know, in a you know uh so you put the backrests at an angle, you can relax. I got pillows you can relax on, and if you want, you can lead down. It's like, oh yeah. The sauna is like it's a relaxing experience. It's not something you go in there and you're like, oh, I just wanted to get out of here.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Right, right. No, I I'm happy assured that that's awesome. And uh I wanna I want to ask you this. I I read um you do some mountain biking.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Oh yeah, yeah. Um so my son is well, I don't know if I'd really call him well, he might be an extreme sports kid.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Um there's there's videos of my son on YouTube and stuff where he starts off at the top of the hills in Copper Harbor, and it's wide open from the top to the bottom. There's no breaking, there's no nothing. It's just completely wide open, and it's like it's nuts. Well, anyway, him and his wife got me into it. So I first of all had a regular, just a regular conventional um mountain bike.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

And um, I was a smoker all my life. I don't smoke anymore, but my lungs aren't what they used to be. Um so and this peddling this uh mountain bike up the hill was killing me. So I went and bought a uh e-mountain bike. And I tell people, you know, they're not cheap, but it makes it actually makes mountain biking fun because you can go flying down the hill at whatever speed you want, but when you get to the bottom, uh you just fly back up the hill again. And you um you literally don't stop, you just pedal it wide open from the top to the bottom, uh from the bottom back up to the top, and you take another run.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Whereas my other uh when I'd go riding with my son and his wife, um, I'd have to stop halfway up and push my stupid bike.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, I I I've only had out here, uh there's a fella, a friend of ours, uh, but he calls them the I I've only had the Amish, the Amish mountain bike. I haven't got the e-bike, but but I've heard the e-bike definitely is a game changer. And I I look forward to someday having that because it it opens up a whole nother range of uh enjoyment with mountain biking.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

So uh so I was I was visiting with a buddy of mine, Barry Waddy. Actually, Barry he lives out there and he's he was my best man when I got married. But anyway, um so uh we're me and Barry were talking about mountain biking, and I was telling him you know what I got. He's like, Oh Rod, you gotta get a you gotta get an e-mountain bike. All the Waddies out there, they all got e-mounted bikes. Barry and Todd, and that they all go riding together and stuff. So anyway, I ended up breaking down and buying one.

unknown 33:58

And uh my brothers, they have more money than I do.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

But um all of them are they're too cheap to buy a a mountain bike.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

So uh I mean uh an e-mountain bike, because they're not cheap.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Yeah, yeah, no, no, I know they're not. It's an investment. But do you ever go uh mountain biking up in Mount Bohemia?

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Um no. Um actually there's um my son was just telling me, so his my son's wife, I don't know what her actual title is, but she belongs to the Copper Harbor Trail Club board. She's a board member. She um I don't know what uh what else she does. She puts on stuff and she helps um with races because they have the Copper Harbor is like mountain biking mecca in the area. They have a lot of racing and and Emily Alex, you know, my son Alex's wife, Emily, she does a lot of um a lot of the stuff, you know, organizing for the trail club and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

So that's awesome. No, that and I want our listeners to know if you're into mountain biking, like hey, check out the upper peninsula of Michigan.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Oh yeah, people people come from all over the United States for this. This is the same thing. I mean, uh when there's races, they have races every offhand.

unknown 35:25

I can't really think.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

I think it's their own liberty, maybe near the end of summer. But anyway, yeah, people come from all over.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

And if anybody uh listening to this from the Copper Country or the Keweenaw Peninsula listens to this podcast and wants to come on and talk about it, I would love it. And I want to ask you this. So um you you like frogs. Tell me about it. Frogs are cool. I love frogs.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Okay, so back, I'm not married anymore, but back when I was married, me and my wife lived next, we had 40, 30 acres of property. Yeah, and about maybe probably under 10 acres of it was dry land, and the rest was all swamp.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

So, you know, we have harsh winters, but the I don't know, I don't remember how many years we lived there, but I always knew when spring came because the snow would melt, and once the snow melt would melt, then the frog started singing. And to me, that was pure music. I could sit outside, and I mean, when you have a 10 billion frogs all singing at the same time, it is so loud, it is so deafening, but to me it was like music to my ears.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Isn't that awesome? You know, with babies.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

I just love the sound of the frog. So then my sister Debbie, she knew I loved frogs, so she started this obsession of mine. She bought a a music box.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

It was a frog.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

And when you flip the frog's head up, it would you go rip rip. That got me to this obsession with frogs. I said I'd go everywhere. If I go to a gift store, I'd look for frogs.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I love it. I love it. And you know, we don't have the snow like you do out here, but I I do have a similar experience growing up in the spring. You know, we have uh we have rainy winters out here, but yeah, I love the sound of uh frogs. And out here, they make uh new developments put in these wetland areas so that it tracks frogs. And I would love waking up to just hundreds of frogs just croaking. I love that. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

Oh yeah, yeah, that was uh I don't know, I just um so now now we live in a city, there's no I mean, I guess there's there's probably frogs out there, but you know, when you're living not that Caluman is a big city, but when you're living in town kind of, there's enough, you know, uh I get woken up in the morning by dump trucks, you know, going through their gears or whatever. And it's like you just on a rare occasion if there's not a whole lot of noise, you can hear birds chirping and singing outside, you know. But um isn't that awesome? I like uh that's I I love like that's why I enjoy walking, like out in the woods.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

There's nothing more satisfying than going for a hike or backpacking out in the woods and hearing all the birds chirping and isn't that girl. Walking along a trail and and uh like around a lake or something and scare a a duck or a goose.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

We don't well they they scare me more than right. But it's like, yeah, just listening to the sounds of nature and like oh yeah, it's like sometimes sometimes my brother's ras me is like, Roger, you really are a tree hugger. Yes, I am, I'm proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

I am too. I'm the same. And I really appreciate you jumping on. And uh don't hang up here, but we're I'm gonna I'm gonna close this out. But this episode was edited and produced by Daisy Media. And like, follow, subscribe, and give us a five star review. We're almost getting to a hundred, and you can hear this on Apple and Spotify. And uh thank you, Roger. Good night.