Ep. 13 - Save for a Snowy Day

Best episode of the year, so far. Anna and Tyler talk winter weather tips.  Tyler gives some tips on protecting plants and making sure to provide adequate nutrition to livestock in winter weather.  Some of the tips, would have been nice to know a few months ago, but remember, now you know for next year.   

Anna continues with financial tips to help you get your finances in order. She also gives winter emergency prep tips.  Tyler responds to a question from a viewer about fermented feed and the info he found.  If you like the stories they tell, this ones got a few.  

Transcript

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We're back doing a podcast. 

We are. And there's a big chance of snow this week. 

Oh yeah, it's going to snow. Hopefully. There, you know, I could see how it would miss us. Yeah. They got us hyped and we're just like, oh boy. 

Yeah, fun fact, we love snow. 

Yeah, I am. 

It's gonna snow whether you want it to or not, so you might as well enjoy it. 

Yeah, I do like snow now. And ice, knocking out the power. 

No, I don't like ice. That's where I draw the line. 

Yeah. I don't like ice. I do understand for our farmers what all they got to go through. They have to make sure the animals are still fed and make sure waters are broke. 

Yeah, that's a tough one, breaking ice. 

And I feel for you, but I do like a good snow. 

I do like a good snow. 

I like to play in it. Always have. 

Oh, yeah, we used to go sledding. Sledding around. 

I remember, like, I remember the first time that I went sledding. it was, it snowed there and Gary Dawn lives across the field and they come over there and got us and me and dad went over and I think it was me and Brandon, I don't know, remember who all was there, but we're sledding there and that was fun. And so that instilled a love of playing in the snow and sledding. One time we hooked up, we had a car hood and would hook it up to the back of the four-wheeler and pull each other around. It was fun. But safety, that is, there has been, have been injuries over the years. 

Injuries. I remember 1 injury. 

This is an embarrassing injury, yeah. I'm sure I'm thinking of the same one. So Probably older, 19-ish years of age, 18, 19, I would say. And so it snowed and my buddy Ron, he comes over on his four-wheeler and we decided we're going to sled behind this field, behind my dad's chicken houses. 

Which is very steep. It's steep as a cow's face. 

It's a steep hill. Like it seems like it goes in and then comes back out. And there's covered in rocks, like little chunks of rock, but it's no good. And Ron drove his four-wheeler up and down and compacted that sucker. And we are sledding and getting pretty good speed. Well, we're using, I got on this little plastic sled, you know, not very thick. And going down and had a can of mints in my back pocket. So that's important to the story. A can of mints, I believe they were wintergreen flavored. And so going down the hill, I catch some air and come down like, and I instantly knew I was injured. Like I like, oh, my back. And my lower back. And Ryan's like, he comes, he's like doing a wheelie and kind of lands beside me. He's like, are you okay? I was like, no, I think I hurt myself. And so. 

I bet those were your exact words. 

And so like I go and inspect and I'd crush that can and it somehow cut me. And it was again in my back pocket and it cut me pretty good. And I was bleeding pretty bad, but I also think that I broke my tailbone because I couldn't sit down for like a month. I remember like having to go chase cows and ride the four-wheeler and I had to stand up or doing other types of activities that involve sitting down and pushing. So I'm pretty sure I broke my tailbone, but I never did go to the doctor. So may not have been officially broke, because I remember it's like, well, if you did, there's nothing you can do about it. 

Yeah, I think I broke mine once. You were there for that. 

On the rollerblades? Yeah. 

They were selling at one of the festivals like professional quality roller plate. 

They had the grind plates on there, the grind rails. 

They didn't, they weren't the kind. 

That's how she broke her tailbone. She went up, did a 360 side, what do you call that grind? A 50-50 grind, and then jumped off and tripped and fell. 

Yeah, that's lies. Anyway, so they didn't come with a brake on them. So you knew they were real, and they were so smooth. And it was, So it used, Harps used to be over where the New Mexican place is now. 

And Dollar Tree. 

No, but nothing was open. Like they didn't have any business open. And that's back when kids would hang out at the festivals and we'd cruise around. Well, anyway, I just took off down that parking lot with my new roller blades and I got going faster than I meant to. 

And it's rough. Like there's gravel? 

Yes, so I hit a gravel patch. And without warning, my feet just flew out from under me and I just sat down. Or that's how I remember it. 

Was like, if you've ever played Mario, it was like a ground pound. That's what I said. 

It felt like that. And so I don't think I could walk. Like I had to just like roll over and crawl. And then Brandon was laughing at me a little too hard. It was a little. And other people who shouldn't have felt sorry for me even felt bad for me, you know, after. what I said about them. But anyway, anyway, it I had and then at the time at U of A, I was in the dorm that they had four stories, but allegedly they or they built the elevator shaft wrong. So it never had an elevator. And I was on the 4th level. And so it took me like 10 minutes for over a month to go up those stairs. It hurt so bad. I think the rest of that spring semester, it plagued me. 

Yeah, mine hurt, like it wasn't, I was cured in like a couple weeks. It hurt for a long time. Yeah. because I'd know it every day. I was reminded of it at some point during the day. I'm a regular type of guy and so I regularly felt it. 

You regularly need to sit down. 

Yeah. Oh man. 

Oh gosh, I can't imagine if that happened to you now. Yeah. You're so regular. Here's all this. 

I'm leaving this in. 

Oh no. 

Oh man. 

You always leave something in on me I'm not expecting, by the way. I couldn't help it. 

Yeah. Well, how are we educating folks? How are we saving the world? 

Well, we talked about our tailbone injuries. 

Well, so the aspect of that is the big snow's coming up. Have fun, but be safe. 

Yeah, be careful out there, but please have fun. 

Yeah, but make memories. Like some of the best memories of snow, because A, it's like, no school, woo woo! And then all your buddies are at home too, and your cousins. and you meet up on the four-wheelers, and there ain't a lot of traffic, so you can play in the, we don't live in a populated area, so we could play in the roads. 

Oh yeah, it was great. My mom and dad had a great hill for sledding, and so we did that. And one time, Sarah Jane got so tickled, she peed in the sled. So if you're out there, Sarah Jane, there's a story on you. Anybody who knows Sarah Jane and knows when she gets to laugh, there's a chance that that's gonna happen. 

Should I leave that in? 

Yeah, you should. 

Leave in storytelling on. 

Yeah, I'm sure she's got some stories. 

I've peed my pants some more, so. 

Brandon and them one time, I forgot about this, they built a snowman. And they thought, I'm going to drive the four-wheeler through it. Well, I think it like hit, you pack it. 

Pack it pretty good. 

I think it hit him so hard in the chest, he thought he was ever going to fall off the four-wheeler. Like it was not an enjoyable experience. So don't hit the snowman with your four-wheeler. 

Yeah, practice. ATV safety. That's a... 

We like to go driving around in the snow in the forest, but always make sure you bring, this is safety tip, bring clothes because we almost had to walk out of the forest. And that would have took us a while to get home. It's like a draft 20, 30 minutes out there deep sometimes. So bring good clothes if you're driving around. 

Yeah, while we're giving tips, you know, we work with plants. I thought of give you some cool season or cold weather like plant tips. So this is, we think about it now when the snow's coming. We should have kind of been kind of already been preparing. So what are some things I can do to protect my plants? if they're like, if you haven't brought them in and they got frosted or they're still alive, you may want to bring in certain house plants if you haven't already. But say the landscape type plants, we've been really dry. Kind of rained last night a little bit. I don't know if all over the county, but a good cold weather tip to protect those roots and protect your plant is give them a good watering before, you know, the cold weather. Like Couple, you want to prepare this a couple days, so if you're looking counterintuitive, it sounds counterintuitive, but it fit that water will fill up the pore spaces and, you know, it's not cold exposed air. It'll actually keep the temperature a little bit higher. It's kind of an insulating type of the, insulating the roots. And if we think about it like, Roots may not necessarily get damaged like at 32 degrees. It may be like a little lower. I don't know the precise number, but like with like blooms on a flower, like the flower blooms that we worry about after a fruit tree's bloomed, it's like 28 degrees that we really worry about that they can get damaged. And so if we can protect them, you know, just from getting down below that, we can prevent that loss. So at 32, It freezes and that ice creates and insulates. That's what we think of like when we, if you've ever seen them spray water on like fruit trees with blooms, that's what they're essentially doing is trying to, they put that ice on there and it, the reaction kind of heats up, but also it provides insulation to where it's not, we're hopefully not going to drop below 20 8, 25 degrees at those temperatures to where, say it's going to get down to in the teens or at 0. 

Which it looks like it's a low of 0. 

Maybe we're going to have cold damage. So I'm just guessing, I bet I'm going to have a lot of calls this following and spring going out on farm visits for something's wrong with my plant. Well, it got damaged likely in the, you know, when it got cold. So protecting the plants, what can we do? Like if you're worried about them, you can cover them. With the snow we've got coming, that will provide the insulation down there, insulation, insulation. It'll provide some insulation, but it's If you haven't put any mulch down, that would be another good tip is to mulch those plants to provide a little layer. It'll help kind of keep that soil warmer, but that mulch only protects what it's covering in. 

So I replanted some of my husband's granny's tulips bulbs, and they've already come up. So if I'm worried about them, maybe I should put a little bulb? 

On top of it. 

They've not come up much. 

Not come up much. They're, you know, if it snows, they're, you know, they might be protected, but it'd probably be better to like, put some type of mulch on them. Because I know I've seen several tulips in places popping up here with the warm weather we've been having throughout December and into January. So some of them tulips starting to pop up. I don't know the exact temperature where they get damaged, but if what did you say they're expecting us to get down to? 

I saw a low of 0 and a high of 15. 

High of 15, yeah, so those little tulips. the leaves that are popping up, put a mulch on them, cover them some way. 

I think I'll mulch them a little better. 

And then the snow on top of that adding insulation would sure protect them. So if you're dealing with issues and I'm hopefully... 

So the snow is really a big help essentially with this low temp. So if we have this low temp without snow, there's no chance of that insulating factor helping. 

Yeah, just the insulation of mulch or whatever type of thing you've got. But essentially what we're trying to do is keep that plant from getting down to that temperature to where it gets damaged. Different plants get damaged at different temps. But another thing is like, this is why we like to say prune in late winter, late dormancy, before that early flush of growth. Because say we go out and we've pruned, early dormancy, December or early January. And I know in some situations, it's like we got to start now or we ain't getting it done. But that exposed cut's going to be exposed to these cold temperatures. And that's going to be a place where you're going to have some damage likely. So we like to wait to prune any of those things that we're doing like a dormancy pruning. We want to do that late winter. I always tell people like late February, early March, you want to do it before that real flush of growth in spring happens to kind of delay as long as we can making any of those cuts to expose them to that real cold weather. But Stone County, you know, We say that, and I guarantee you, April, 1st of April, we'll have, probably like some good temps in March, probably good temps in late February and March, and then there'll be some cold nights, but then April, we'll have one night that's going to get real cold. 

I think it's been pretty textbook according to like our last frost date. It's been pretty true to that the last. 

Another, that's another tip is knowing like what zone you're in. Here in Stone County, we're a 7. Like, I think the whole thing, we used to split 7A and 7B. I think we're. 

Pretty much 7 now. 

It's 7A-ish. I can't remember. I know we're 7. 

Yeah, we are kind of on the line. 

So if you have, say you got a cool plant this last season, you bought it and you've stuck it out there and then it's, It died, could be because it wasn't tolerant to our zone. And I have had people from moving from up north come down here and be like, we grew these apple trees up in Minnesota with this variety. And it can be different amongst varieties, they're cold tolerance. So that's one thing we want to know for selecting plants that are tolerant to our zones. Again, we're a 7. And what you'll see is like on that plant tag, it'll say tolerant to zone 4 to 9 or something. So 7 falls within that. And so that plant should be able to tolerate our weather. And then we just come in and do our little best management practices to protect it from there. 

I did plant trees based off the recommendations for Arkansas for my apples, but with these high temps in the winter, I've noticed a little bit of leaf growth. So hopefully they'll be okay. 

What else? Livestock. People driving around looking at livestock. We had a listener, they asked us to if we'd ever talk about it. And so I kind of looked up about feeding and this kind of ties in. So with this cold weather and animals that are going to be outside, people will be like, why don't you just bring them inside? Well, it's not possible. 

I can't bring in all my cows. 

Yeah, I can't bring on all the cows. So what I can do is if we have a good body condition score on them and we're providing adequate nutrition and feed, and especially during this cold weather, We want to provide them adequate, like meeting their nutritional requirements so they're making enough warmth and energy to maintain their body heat and then they can withstand this cold. And if we've got them in a good body condition score already, like again, 6 to 5, 6, 7, preferably in that 6 to 7 range, they'll have a little fat cover on them. And if you look out in a field and see cattle covered in snow, that means they're pretty well insulated and they're doing all right. But again, that's something we would have wanted to be worried about long time ago. If you're looking out there and they're maybe not in the right body condition score, you're definitely going to want to add some nutritional value, some high energy feed, high protein feed to so they're able to consume and hopefully keep their body condition up. Typically, most of our animals, they can tolerate our weather as long as there's not these rapid changes. And I, we've been pretty warm and now we're kind of gradually coming off into some cold weather. You may have a few get sick, but. 

We have kind of eased back in. 

It's kind of eased back into it, but We have this cold weather and then it jumps to warm and then it jumps to cold. That's where we want to keep a lookout, make sure that we're looking for sickness. And that's, they've made a bunch of rules, you know, with the VFD and stuff. People call me and ask me questions about what should I do here? What should I do here? And I'd recommend, you know, have that good veterinary client relationship. Know your vet and know them beforehand. 

Yeah. 

And so, if something does come up to where with the temperature changes and you're getting sickness or respiratory issues, you can get antibiotics. So, I mean, you're not going to get that without knowing, without the... 

Yeah, without the relationship and them having seen your animals and your farm before. 

The veterinary, the little prescription, essentially what it is from the vet. But what our listener would ask is, does fermenting feed help with feed costs? And so we looked into it. Again, we're extension, provide research-based information, type it into Google, Google AI says yes. And then first YouTube video that pops up, somebody homesteading, and they say yes. And then you kind of go looking and what extension recommendation there is. So what does it actually do, fermented feed? If you do it right, it can increase the nutritional value of the feed, which in turn is they're getting more nutrients. There's more, say, beneficial bacteria. So it's making their gut health better, making for better nutrient absorption. And then that's what they claim, and essentially you could feed less. Well, looking into some study that I saw about it, I think it was through SARE, but what I was reading, they did a dry feed, they did a hydrated feed, which is a dry feed that they mixed with water, and then they had a fermented feed. And in their study, it said that they really couldn't calculate how much feed consumption there was. But just looking at the cost of what they'd put in, they had more cost into the fermented feed, like $1,000 more. I think they'd spent like $10,000 feeding them for this amount of time. And they measured like how much egg production. There was a higher cost there for making that medicated, fermented feed. But as far as consumption, that didn't show any less consumption. But again, they said they couldn't really tell. So take it with a grain of salt. And like in my mind, I wouldn't imagine that fermenting feed is going to cause the consumption to go down. Yeah, they may, Maybe they're fuller, maybe they're getting more nutrients to where you can feed less, essentially. But I don't know if it's like an outstanding like jump that it would be worth your time to ferment the feed. Again, I'd have to see more research on it and I'll look into it and maybe come back with a better answer. But just from my quick looking, the pros don't outweigh the cons because if you mess that up, like it gets like you have to care for that and it can spoil quickly and you have to go through this whole process of how you ferment it. So there's labor and time involved in that. And if you want to do that or you think it'd be very precautious that you do everything, make sure it doesn't get spoiled. You were wanting to create an anaerobic or airless environment so that can do its fermenting thing and the bacteria can form. but then it can spoil quickly if we don't take care of it. And then we got mold getting in there, mycotoxins. And then if we're feeding it to like poultry, they can, they all get sick quickly. For livestock, your cheapest feed option is going to be the grass you can produce. And so if you're worried about lowering costs, in feed, I would try to increase my pasture production. So during these time periods when, it's cold, maybe I'm not having to feed them as many days, because I'm more familiar with cattle than poultry, but so a cow, say we've got a cow, she'll consume 2% of her body weight a day in dry matter, essentially. And so that's roughly like 30 pounds that they'll consume per day. If you have a high dry matter, high nutritious feed, they can consume less of that, to get if it meets their daily requirements. Whereas if you're feeding a wetter feed, there's more moisture, not as much dry matter. So they have to consume more of that product to meet their nutritional requirements. So if Fermenting, I'd have to look at if there is, I don't think there really is any cost saving because I don't really see that they can. 

There's no obvious. 

There's no obvious indicator that they do consume less. Like I could see how you could. I could see how you could make a theory that essentially if you get it and it makes it more nutritious, There is also some nutrition loss with it. Like I was looking at it and it said, you could have loss of some vitamins or minerals. What was it? My scene and what we've come, what we figure out how to pronounce Theridine, Theridine. 

Yeah, we were struggling. I haven't seen that one before. 

It said there could be some, and I was looking at some information about how to ferment from North Carolina. state extension. And so if you're interested in fermenting feed, I'd go on the internet. North Carolina state had a how to ferment a chicken feed. But again, you'll spend time doing it. If you don't do it right and it spoils, it could be bad. So, but it could be a fun little experiment. You try and you may find, well, actually they did consume less. But it just, my limited experience feeding chickens and the research out there, I don't see that it's, that it actually saves. And that's like a lot of claims with like, you'll see people say it's everywhere in agriculture. Like, oh, do this and you can feed less or do this and you can put less fertilizer. You can do this and it'll save you money. And then If it sounds too good to be true, then more times than not, it is. But I'm sure at some point, if you were like mixing a bulk load of fermenting a big old thing of feed, I'm sure there would be some cost savings maybe in that way if you could make it nutritious. But again, it spoils. and it's no good. 

But that's a great question. 

Yeah, it's a great question. 

And we're very happy to explore topics for anybody. 

Yeah, and so what I'd recommend to them is I'd just keep providing high quality feed to them, making sure they're able to perform. Again, I'll look at more research on fermenting feed. I don't know, what you got? I have a little bit of real quick. We're going to take a break because we got to reset our timer. 

Sounds good. 

All right, we're back. 

We're back. First, I wanted to talk a little bit about some upcoming events that we have. 

Upcoming events, my favorite. Do you have any? I do. So let's see what I want. 

Or do you want me to hit mine first? 

Let's see what I want people to come to. Let's see. I had to move some things around. 

Yeah, that happens for sure. 

So make sure I'm talking into the microphone. So what I've got coming up, I'm going to try like a cool season gardening like program workshop. This will be out at the community garden, Master Gardener Greenhouse. Kind of, we talked of details. I hadn't got it all worked out, but I know it'll be fun if you've ever come to any of, or an educational, if you've ever come to any of the stuff we've done out there. People seem to enjoy it. 

Oh, yeah. 

But cool season gardening related, and what I thought would be a cool thing is make a cold frame, build a cold frame. 

Oh, that'll be great. 

And then maybe do, you know, let people do some seed starting. We got some seeds, talk about that. Maybe let people start some, you know, broccoli. and stuff. We may even use one of them raised beds and we could plant some lettuce and stuff out there at the community garden. And then I'm also thinking about maybe making it like also like a community garden meeting type thing. Like come out if you're interested in, if you would like a bed at the community garden, come out. I guess I could talk about what the plan is for that. 

What, yeah, and what date is this event? 

Okay, it's February 13th, Friday, February 13th. I hope no one's superstitious. 

Maybe I'm very superstitious. 

If you're superstitious, you might not want to come out that day, but we're going to go ahead and do it. I ain't scared. February 13th, 1 o'clock. It's going to be at the old football field, which is the Stone County Community Garden. We got the Master Gardener greenhouse is out there. It's over on School Avenue, the Martin Street. 

Across from Dorcas. 

Across from Dorcas, you'll see it. That's kind of where we'll start. Or you can just come to the extension office and someone will be here to point you. It's not far away. But we'll do a start there. 

February 13th. 

February 13th. 

What time? 

One o'clock. One o'clock. We do have a pesticide applicator training coming up February 24th as well. I think I talked about that last episode, but if you need a restricted use, your restricted use pesticide license, you have to be trained and you have to have a. 

And please come to that class. 

Yeah, please. 

We're not going to have one all the time. 

Yeah, we don't, it's something we do, I try to do one in the, before Christmas, like November-ish, and then one or a couple in the spring and try to clean up. Like if I have a few folks call and it's like, okay. 

Yeah, that's kind of how I do my ServSafe. It's a little based on phone calls too. 

And, but, You can get a five-year license. So if you did it five years ago, your license is expiring. You need to redo it. There is online, you can do it all online now, so you don't even have to come to these trainings. You can do it online. It's pretty easy to do if you're familiar with computers, but you can find all that information out on our website, uaex.uada.edu. I never can remember which one comes first, but I'm pretty sure UAX comes first. If that don't work, just switch the UAX, UADA. Yeah. But I don't like doing retakes. 

So that's what we're going with. 

We're that type of podcast. We want to be laid back. I feel we've been kind of stuffy in the last couple episodes. Do you feel that way? I think it's coming. I was, I don't know. I was in a bad mood. 

Sometimes people have seasonal things happening. I think, I mean, not to diagnose you, but. 

Yeah, it's. 

A lot. You know, you're looking at a, we're planning for at least six months out and sometimes that just feels like A lot. 

Yeah, it didn't feel very funny. I couldn't even remember any funny stories. 

You were not very funny. 

Yeah, I got scolded for. my behavior. 

Who would ever boss you around like that? Must have been Madison. Maybe not. 

Yeah. 

Well, what I have coming up is February 28th, we're going to have Best Care and we're going to have that over at Van Buren County Library. 

What is Best Care? 

So if you are like an early childhood professional, you need so many professional development hours. And through the Professional Development Registry, you can get 5 hours this year. with Best Care and that's free. So if you're interested in that, please call me or if say that you're interested in going into early childhood, I think it would be a great training to add to your resume. And then also those who foster care adopt might need some hours like that. So please just call us if and if you ever need that any other time of the year, but for sure we have that coming up on February 28th. You need to register beforehand. So call either the Stone County Extension Office, Van Buren, Cercier, Cleburne County offices. And so that's February 28th. And then I have me and Julian Carpenter out of Independence County. We're the local Extension Get Fit trainers in our district. And we're going to have a circuit training and yoga training on March 13th in Stone County. But that is if you've already had the fundamentals training. So you've had to do the Extension Get Fit fundamentals training first, and then you can go to the chair yoga and the circuit training on March 13th in We have a date for our farmstead seminar. 

Oh yeah. 

And so we had that last year. It was our first go and we really took a lot of info from our evaluations to try to build this. 

Pretty much if you came last year and you put something in the evaluation, we looked at it and put this one together. 

Yes. And so one of the things that everybody wanted is you want the details. You want the detailed in-depth information about different subjects. 

So, last year what we did, we tried shorter segments and longer, which is kind of, yeah, a couple of longer segments, but few shorter segments, and everybody's like, Eh, we like the longer, all of them long, less topics, more. 

In-depth, and that's what we're rooting for. So, we should have six different topics that day, and we're getting that all ironed out. 

For sure ironed out, but what we are going to talk about, fruit, like that was one thing that people want to know about, planting fruits. So I'm going to talk about, Fruits and berries. Fruits and berries, and I'll get into it again. You'll have to wave at me, because that's one that I could go a long time on. Then we're also talking, My mind went blank. 

I'm going to do food pres and I want to get a little more in depth than I normally do as far as like pH and things like that. So that's one thing that I've kind of learned depending on the different groups that you're talking with about canning is, you know, the more scientific you can get with the wise, the more people are good with it and understand why this is a limitation or why this is a requirement. So I'm hoping to go a little more in-depth with the pH and different things than I normally do. So I'm going to hit food press and that was on. a few of the evals and I love to talk about that. So we may have to be cutting each other off on both of those. 

And I did hear from one of the person we reached out to that Tanya Ernst, our high tunnel specialist, she's good to go. 

She's going to make it. Oh, good. All right. 

So we'll have introduction to high tunnels. It's my father-in-law is getting into it and it's been kind of a thing, but. 

Yeah, my brother-in-law 's sister have theirs, love theirs, and I love getting things from theirs. 

Yeah, and what is cool about it is like, if you're interested in it, you can actually, through NRCS, they have cost share funding opportunities for you to get a high tunnel. And this is just going to kind of be like a, intro to high tunnels, I think, is what we said. 

And based on evaluations, we could, probably ask for some more detailed information too. 

And then I think our other thing we're hoping to get, this is what could change because we hadn't heard from her, animal nutrition, life, you know, your livestock nutrition, minerals. 

Yes, we had some info about more specific, very specific nutritional information needs. And then it was a little broader on a couple of things. 

And what was I going to talk about? 

Foraging, pasture, nutrition as well. 

Not foraging. Forages. 

Forages, excuse me, big difference. 

Yes, it is. 

Yes, forage nutrition. 

People do ask for foraging classes, but, and we've had, I've heard of counties getting some people to come in, but I don't know much about it. You can eat a dandelion. 

That's one of those things that makes me a little nervous because plants really developed a way to mimic other plants. 

Yeah. 

And that does make me a little nervous. 

Yeah, like... 

As far as... 

It would be cool to have a mushroom class, but jack-o-lanterns and chanterelles look eerily similar. 

Are they jack-o-lanterns? They call it, one's called a jack-o-lantern. 

Yeah, jack-o-lanterns are the poisonous ones. Chanterelles are the nice one. It's something you can look at. Like when I see them, I can tell, but like I've looked in books and been like, oh, that's a chanterelle. Nope. 

Just kidding. 

Just kidding. There's something about like the gills. 

What did Nathan bring you that one time that we ate? Oysters. 

Yeah, we got some oyster mushrooms. 

Those were good. 

Those, did you smell them before? Like when? 

Yeah. 

They smell like. 

Oysters. 

Yeah, fish. Yeah, it's a fishy smell, but they're good. 

Yeah, but that's a little bit of what we got coming up. So my couple of my things today I was going to talk about, I'm on a financial series. 

And trying to get us rich. 

Well, I'm trying to get us sorted out and I'm working on sorting my household out at the same time. And so I originally thought that I'd be ready to do a budget for this episode, but I was like, I don't have a full enough picture of my finances yet. 

She's been sitting over there and she'll just randomly be like, oh my Lord. 

You think and then you review and you find things and you're like, oh, that's, some's good, some's bad. 

Yeah, what was it you said yesterday? You're like, man, we've got a lot to do. And I was just like, my pit in my stomach just dropped because I was like, I've forgotten something. 

And it was us working towards our emergency savings. Oh, that's funny. Well, so we've done our credit report. We've done the spending tracker. So if you've not listened to the last two episodes, do. And then I was like, I'm not ready for a budget yet. I need to know more information. So the U of A, here in Arkansas, obviously it's U of A, but anyway, we have a little My Financial Inventory handout that you can find online. And so it first starts, it'll say on the left, it has financial assets and loans, has an account number, company, and contact info. Excuse me. So it wants you to list your bank account and have your numbers, your checking accounts, your numbers, your savings, your numbers, and other. and then your company and contact info. And if you're, if only one of you in your household knows this information, it's probably nice, not probably, it's a good idea to have something like this because if something happens to you, will the other person in your relationship have a clue about what's going on? Because I've done something similar to this so that Brandon would have a foggy clue what's going on because he would not know where to even start. 

That happens. 

It happens. 

The husband doesn't know what's going on. 

The husband or in some households, it's the, you know, it's the wife or the spouse or partner, however your household's made up. 

That was said sarcastically. 

Oh, I didn't. 

Well, just for the listeners. Oh. 

Tyler, what all do you know about your house? 

Well, I don't. 

Well, used to, Brandon used to do all our finances and we were probably better off then. But anyway, so first off, you're going to do your bank accounts, checking, savings, list that, the amounts, your account numbers. 

What is a bank account? 

We'll have to go on a whole nother tangent with you. And then one that I thought would be, if your spouse doesn't know about it, do you have a credit union? So what's in your credit union account? And so I had 83 cents, if you're wondering in mine, I put LOL. But I mean, if who you're with had no idea. So, and this is for you to have an idea. And then it has investments, mutual fund accounts, and then it gets into your retirement account. So your 401k, your IRA. And so I looked up mine and if I retire right now, I'd have $2,000 a year to live off of. 

Could you do that? 

I really don't think so. That's just not quite enough. I don't want to try. Anyway. 

Does it have a place for crypto? My crypto accounts? 

That's investments. 

Investments, yeah. 

sure, yeah. 

I'm trying to just throw you off today. 

I know you probably just have like 20 bucks in it. We went through this time frame where we did a lot of... I don't know, this isn't good financial advice, but we would spend like a very small amount of money. Like I'm talking like... I had a cap a month of 20 bucks. So that's how little we'd spend. And then we'd see what these little differences. 

I did it for several months. 

Well, I don't think your cap was 20, but mine was. 

Yeah, I'd put in a little bit and then... 

I'd sell mine if it went up, except one time I should have sold. 

Yeah, that's mine. It's like I should have sold. 

I didn't earn anything. Good job, me. 

But now it's just sitting there. I don't even look at it. I just put it in there and it's like, well, if in 10 years it does anything, cool. 

That was our COVID activity. 

Yeah. 

Back to this. So look through your retirement accounts, know where you stand. And we like to look up ours every little bit in the office. I don't know, which is like, what's in our retirement account today? And then if you have pension and then mortgage. So how much do you owe on your mortgage? How much do you owe on your credit cards, your personal loans? So, you know, do you have a side beside? Do you have a card? Do you have a lawnmower? And I had a good surprise on that. I thought my lawnmower payment would continue until the fall, but no, it's done in April. So good surprise. Good surprise. 

And you can buy a new one. 

No, I'm already not the most thrilled about how much a lawnmower costs. 

Do you mow any with it? 

No. So here's a story about parenting. So one of my mom's friend's sons had an accident. And I don't think the blade got him, but I think a part of the lawnmower got his arm or something. I never had to mow because of that. So they were worried that I might not do that. I think my sister had to mow, but I didn't. So I've never mowed a yard. 

Dang. 

And like, I mean, I'm not. just a normal woman, like I've used a dozer. I use a skid steer and stuff, but I've never mowed a yard in my life. I've weeded it a little bit, but I've never mowed, I don't think. I don't remember ever mowing. But my grandpa did fix me up a little lawn mower when I was a kid. He took the blades off, and that was my big. 

I have a story about mowing. We may have to cut it, but I'll tell you, it may be funny. 

Can you hold that until? Okay, hold it, hold it. All right. because I don't have a whole lot on this. But okay, so we did student loan, we did the personal loans. So your lawnmower, we'll circle back to that. If you have anything in your health savings account, so what are you at in there? Because that is money if you've got that. Homeowner's insurance, what are the costs for that? What is your coverage for that? Have you looked at your coverage lately? We'll talk about that in another financial episode as reviewing your insurance coverages. and then car insurance and then life insurance. So how much are you spending or and how much is the value? And so we have several different life insurance policies and that's important to know that someone knows that someone can get that info because what if something catastrophic happened and here they're left with a lot of things to deal with and where do they even start? So if you have this information somewhere for people to access that's safe, then that's a big deal. And then, maybe your Social Security income, depending on where you're at. And then, so that's kind of like part of the inventory. I want to get more into the important documents and paperwork another day. But so So you've done your credit report, you've done your spending tracker. Now do a financial inventory to see where you are as a whole because I don't feel like I can totally decide where I want to budget my money to go if I don't know if maybe I'm lacking in some area. Yeah, you really got to have a good full picture. And then we can talk about the mower and then I can talk a bit about preparing for this winter storm. 

All right, what's your mower story? I am in favor of spending money on a good mower because I used to have to push mow mom and dad's yard. And it's a pretty big yard. But I remember one time I didn't want to do it. And I went on, I think afterwards I went on strike. And what ended up happening is, I think Brandon, and it was like during the summer, like June-ish, so blueberry season was happening. But I think Brandon ended up having to come mow it. And he brought his riding lawnmower over and he mowed it. And I think he had to cover it like two or three times. And mom paid him like 100 bucks. And then he's like, he told me, he's like, if it's ever like that again, he's like, don't call me. But before I went on strike, I'm lucky I'm still alive. Oh gosh. So I I don't know what we were. I just remember what I said and getting caught and then trying to deny it. But mom, I guess, was like trying to make me mow the yard and I wasn't. 

This is another lesson on parenting and lawn mowing. 

And so I didn't want to do it. And she's telling me why I shouldn't, why it's my job. And like I was pushing, didn't think she could hear me. You know, the lawn mower's running and she's yelling at me. And I got down to the corner where I didn't think she could hear me. And I said something about how I didn't want to do this. And she said, what'd you say? And I said, I don't want to do this. 

How old are you? 

Probably like 14. But I remember pushing it and getting down to that corner and I was like, I don't want to do this. And then she's like, what? was that? And then I think that was the summer that I ended up like, it just got busy. But yeah. 

You went on strike. And then your dad, did y'all, did he plant that tree there? Or was it there the, it's like a chestnut or chinkapin. 

That chinkapin, I think he planted the chinkapin. 

Oh man, what a tree to put in a yard. That thing's mean. All those. That little covering that goes over there. 

I got a bunch of splinters in my foot as a kid, but I like the feeling of a splinter getting picked out with like a needle. That feels so good. 

I can't believe you're telling the people this weird fact about you. 

Well, like I remember we'd prune blueberries and like I'd do it without gloves and I'd get like a bunch of little like blueberry splinters in my hand. And I just sat there and let my cousin like take his pocket knife and dig them out. And it just felt so good. 

That sounds sanitary. 

I'm still alive. 

You love to tell the tale. 

I've still got my hands. 

We made it through. Man mowing. 

Well, okay, what are you saving us from for winter storm preparation? 

I don't know how much I'm saving you from, but we're saving the world. 

That's the name of the podcast. Oh, that's true. So one goofy story and educational tip at a time. 

Yep. 

And everyone out there is adopting. 

They are. Everything we say, they're hanging on to every word. 

All right. 

Oh gosh. Okay, so we've got a winter storm coming. Allegedly, it's going to be historic, which is exciting to me because I love snow. I love it. I mean, now if my water goes out again this year. 

You said they updated the pumps, right? 

That's what I heard. 

That's what we heard. 

What we heard. But I live way, I don't live in the city though. So the city updated the pumps, but let's not get into that too much. But anyway, I live out and about. And you know what? That's one of the things about living out is that, you know, stuff happens and I get it. But anyway, so what to do before. So I just highlighted a few things that I liked. And one of the things I never really thought about and made me think about when I got down to 50 degrees in my house one time when the power went out is it's not a bad idea to have an indoor thermometer to know, you know, if you don't have a secondary heat source with a power outage or ability to do generator, there may be a point where you're going to have to leave. And, you know, are you going to be able to leave? So you may already need to be somewhere in case so anyway, think about an indoor thermometer. And then one thing that's really good about our community is checking on our neighbors and maybe people who can't get out and our loved ones. So those people that you know that are at higher risk during these times, like check on your neighbor. You know, give them a call, go see them. Some of us are way more able to travel in these conditions than others based off our vehicles and our abilities if you're not good at driving. stay home. This is not the time to get out this weekend. And so avoid travel if you can. It's best to just stay off the roads. And then if you do plan to go somewhere, and we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier, because we like to go driving around in the snow, have clothes in your vehicle in case you're having to get out of your vehicle. And so be prepared in that way. And I also thought of something, and have a little bit of emergency supplies with you in that vehicle too. 

What type? What type? 

So like a good blanket, like I said, warm clothing, water, that's a big deal. First aid kit, and it said boots, so boots and gloves is what it mentioned. And I thought about something, we had a training in Little Rock and Melinda in Fulton County had said, her dad always said to have a full gas tank and I think that's solid. So that's a good bit of advice. And then another thing is we'll get more into heating sources, but it's a great idea to have your carbon monoxide monitor checked if you're having to do some means that may not be safe. So now's the time to make, now's the time to check your alarms, your smoke alarms and your carbon monoxide alarms. And I didn't really think about that, but that's an important thing when we've got the power being out or maybe an alternate heat source and stuff. And sadly, we just had a fire in Mountain View last night. Thankfully, no one was home, but this is a good time to check the smoke alarms and the carbon monoxide detectors. Make sure that you've got batteries for them. be ready to live without power, gas, and water. have you water that's ready for you? What is going to be your heat source? How are you going to cook your food? Or what are you going to eat if you can't cook? So think about that. And then how can we stay connected? So charge your battery back up if you have one for your phone. have your phone charged before the power might go out when this all starts. You may have to turn your phone off. It's a great time to have a battery-powered radio for power outages. And I kind of thought about when the tornado came in 08 and there was a very long-term outage. And we shouldn't hopefully have anything like that, but you know, it was too late to get it when that happened. So it's a great time to have that battery-powered radio. And then, of course, have drinking water. And it says you need at least one gallon of drinking water per person per day ready. So kind of get estimated what you think you might need water-wise. Excuse me. And then also, we've got several out who have to be careful getting out. So if you're needing anything to help you with your walkways, getting them de-iced, get those supplies now. Don't have to walk out on that icy walkway to go get your supplies to get that taken care of. So whatever you need for that. And then, so I'm going to talk a little about space heaters. I know in a perfect world, we have a safe backup for heat, but I know things happen. So if you're either crowded around your space heater using that or around your fireplace, We want to really try to prevent, or we want to try to prevent fires. So at least have things 3 feet away. Avoid using candles. So battery powered lights, flashlights, and they have some of those flashlights too that you can like crank up and get going. That wouldn't be a bad idea to have those. And then it doubles down on the carbon monoxide poisoning because of people using generators, grills, or camp stoves. You're not supposed to do that indoors. You're not supposed to, you know, heat your home with the cooking oven or stove. And so, like I said, in a perfect world, you won't do any of that. But do have some carbon monoxide. If you think that you're, if you're starting to feel sick, dizzy, or weak, you've got to get to fresh air immediately. Carbon monoxide is a silent killer. It can happen very quickly. So please, have an alternate heating source or go somewhere where you can have safe heat for you during this time. And then a little bit too, be careful that ice, I don't want to fall on the ice. 

I fell out here last year. Yeah. Like bad. 

It's pretty bad on the back side. It was just as 

bad as falling at the September 23rd field day. Like I don't know which one was worse. 

Oh, did it hurt your knees? 

No, it hurt my... tailbone. It hurt my hip like it froze. It rained. It rained. And so we have a little gutter out here, kind of where I parked. 

It's traded almost full time back at our back of our office. 

So water melted and dripped out of there and then refroze. Like I just get out, shut the door and like run, gonna run in and like hit that. My feet is like a cartoon. both of them go up in the air and I just hit the ground and just kind of look around, hope nobody saw. Because I mean, it hurt my body, but it hurt my pride the most. Man. And also, I got a tip for how to stay warm. from experience. So this is experience. So in college, me and my cousin roomed together, me and my cousin Cole roomed together at Harrison. We stayed in some apartments over there while we were going to North Ark and the power went out. And so we got, We put on sweatsuit, like hoodies, and we cuddled in the bed because it's so cold. So me and him got in the same bed, like that's how we had to sleep. So body heat. I don't even know where to go. I think I got hot. 

Well, you're alive. Do you have any idea how cold it was? 

It was cold, like cold enough that I put on a sweatsuit and slept in a bed with a grown man. 

Your cousin. 

Yeah. I mean, we used to have sleepovers when we were kids. And I remember we'd always be like, oh, we're going to stay up. We're going to stay up all night. It's like, hey, are you sleeping? No, I'm just resting my eyes. 

He'd make it till 1230. 

Yeah, we'd wake up in the morning and play a wrestling video game on the Nintendo 64. Those were the good times. 

How old were you about then? 

Oh, shoot, childhood. 

10, 12. 

We did it all throughout. We did it till we were in college. Had sleepovers. 

So another important thing is do not drive over power lines. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be electrocuted. So. 

Yeah, I've heard, I have, I had like an irrational fear of power lines when I was a kid. 

Like falling on you. 

Yeah. Like I remember like kids would throw a football over the power lines and stuff. And I remember being at recess, like terrified. 

That it would fall down. 

Yeah, that it was going to come down. 

You clearly grew up in Oney. Anyway, so just make sure you don't drive over, touch fallen or damaged power lines. You know, call your company and let them know. Don't want to be electrocuted. So, and then be aware of any branches, trees, or ice that could fall too, because that's definitely a hazard. So just kind of pay attention. And then a little bit about food. So if your power does go out, a full, like a chest type freezer is good for two days if you do not open it. So it can go for two days. And then anytime food is above frozen or your irregular food's above 40 degrees for over 2 hours, you're going to have to throw that out. So if it's looking like you're going to have a long-term outage, I would have coolers ready. You don't want to just put your food outside just willy-nilly because of different varmints and things. So take those coolers out. It is going to be very cold. Pack them with ice or snow and have it at least covered and safe and protected for you while it's out there. So that's my... 

Two cents. 

Two cents for what it's worth. 

All right. Anything else we need to talk about, probably. 

There's always something to talk about. 

Always something. I think this was a good episode. 

Yeah, I think we're excited about the snow. 

Yeah. I know I am. All right. 

Have a good week.