Dirt & Drive

8: The Farm That Became Hawkins: Stranger Things, Christmas Trees, and a Family That Never Stops

• Dragon Creek Ranch • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Before "Stranger Things" made it famous, this farm was already a legacy in the making.

In this episode of Dirt & Drive, I sit down with the sisters behind Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm - the real-life corn maze and farmland where Stranger Things was filmed, including Hopper's cabin. But long before the cameras showed up, this was a Christmas tree farm started by their dad back in the 1970s.

We talk about what it was like watching their family land turn into a worldwide filming location, how it brought tourists from around the globe, and - more importantly -  how they've built a business that goes far beyond the fame. From pumpkin patches and escape rooms to birthday parties, farm photography, and animal encounters, this family has figured out how to turn every inch of their property into an experience that keeps people coming back all year long.

This is a story about hard work, family, and how a small homestead can grow into something bigger than anyone imagined -  Stranger Things or not.

In this episode we cover:

  • How Sleepy Hollow Farm became a Stranger Things filming location
  • Building Hopper's cabin and hosting the corn maze scenes
  • Turning a Christmas tree farm into a year-round experience business
  • Pumpkin patches, escape rooms, birthday parties, and more
  • Why experiences - not just products - might be the future of the small family farm

Follow Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm: 

https://www.sleepyhollowtrees.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SleepyHollowTrees

https://www.instagram.com/sleepy_hollow_farm/

https://www.escapewoods.com/

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Follow Dragon Creek Ranch:

Shop Tallow: http://dragoncreek.org

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https://www.youtube.com/@Dragon_Creek_Ranch

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who’s building something from the ground up.

Dirt & Drive Podcast: Real conversations about building a business, working the land, and creating something that lasts.

Before you head out to pasture, remember, this is just people sharing opinions not medical, legal, or business advice. The opinions expressed here don't necessarily reflect the views of the host, Dragon Creek Ranch, or the Dirt & Drive Podcast. Always remember to do your own research. It's ok to get your hands a little dirty, but keep your rap sheet clean. Thanks for listening!

SPEAKER_02

The location scout for the show grew up in this area and he got his Christmas tree here when he was a kid. When they were looking for a pumpkin patch and a corn maze for the upside down to be discovered in, we just made the most sense to scout. That was why they originally chose us, but then they built Hopper Cabin in our woods that our dad purchased in 1971.

SPEAKER_01

This is Dirt and Drive, the podcast all about turning small homesteads into real business. Everybody, welcome to Dirt and Drive. I am here with two amazing women who are operating a farm here in Powder Springs, Georgia. Sleepy Hollow Farm. Thank you for being so on the podcast. So Christy and Susie, which I we already cracked jokes about because I love Stranger Things. And you guys have something really fun here if you want to tell people about it and tell people about it and how you decided to do that. Well, they found us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um we didn't we didn't, you know, scout them out or anything. They scouted us. But so something that's really great is uh the location scout for the show grew up in this area and he got his Christmas tree here when he was a kid, and we just made the most sense due to proximity. When they were looking for a pumpkin patch and a corn mace for the upside down to be discovered in, we just made the most sense to scout. But so that was why they originally chose us, but then they built Hopper's cabin in our woods on the origin. So we, you know, the original, we call it like the original 30, like we grew up on, um, that our dad purchased in in 1971, a new 30 acres that we've had for about 15 years. And that's you know, the new 30 is where the um pumpkin patch and corn maze were for the show, but then the original 30 is where they built Hopper's Cabin. And so that put us in Stranger Things for seasons two, three, four, and five. So they actually filmed here on your property? Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah. That is because we have Hopper's Cabin and we run it now as an escape game. When they originally filmed, we already had a business called Escape Woods, which we uh used to have about six or seven escape games in the woods where we would uh different themes like scary things during Halloween season. And when they were finished filming that first year, we were like, Well, what do we do with the cabin? There's so many options, you know. Do we keep it as our own personal man cave situation? Do we turn it into an Airbnb? But we already had this established business, so we were like, well, let's turn it into an escape game. Um, and they gave us permission to do that uh with it, which was amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And then we do tours tour because some people don't want to do the escape room, they just want to come by and see and take photos. Yeah, so we give them that option too.

SPEAKER_01

So you started as a Christmas tree farm? Yes. Okay, that was the first thing. Your dad started that? Yes, yes. So how old were you when that started? You weren't born here?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so he Susie said 1971 is when he purchased it, and I guess he started clearing it pretty much right away, and he did it mostly on property, but um he he did it by himself, and my brothers helped out, you know, as they got older. But and he's still here, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Mom too, family. Yeah, yeah. We can't. I mean, you know, mom is really the backbone of it all too. I mean, I know she didn't do the physical labor, but she kept everything else running, organized the business side of it.

SPEAKER_03

She helped take care of our kids and she fed us, and yeah, you know, it was she did have a very important role. She might not think it, but she did.

SPEAKER_02

But dad was an engineer for Lockheed. So I guess people assume or think that like Christmas trees was his primary business, but that's not. So he was working full-time as an engineer, and then he would work until dark before he started traveling. When we were older, he's he started doing a lot of consulting for the Navy and things like that. So he would travel a lot, and then he my brothers or our brothers rather were old enough by that point to really pitch in more manually. Uh, I think that's why you can't you don't see them here anymore, you know. Well, I think is we weren't expected to work as much because we were girls.

SPEAKER_03

Our husbands got rooked in, but um, they knew what they were getting into when they married you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's like the true definition of a family compound almost. Because you guys are all are you all living here? Okay. Yeah. Well, that's that's incredible. Okay, so you start he started with the Christmas trees. Uh, what did he do in the beginning to kind of get people out here? Because we didn't really have the internet, you know, and social media back then. Newspaper. Newspaper. He did some interviews.

SPEAKER_03

I think he did, yeah. Just copies of. Yeah, just a local news. Local news. I think maybe they came out a couple times, like actually in person and did an interview. Um, mostly when there was a problem, like if there was a drought or something, they would come out. But um it it was all word of mouth. It really was. It just started spreading, you know, as it continued being here, because a lot of these farms are closing down because they don't have family to take over. Yeah. So it's dwindling. So the Christmas tree farms, there used to be many in this area. It's just us now.

SPEAKER_01

You guys are the last ones?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, in this area, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

In this area. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So and then so there's another couple of them, but they're about 30, 45 minutes away from here. So there's there's not a whole lot of choices. Sad reality over what's happening now with the generations and they don't they don't want to take over. The kids don't want to take over. It's it's a lot of work. And people think it's just putting a tree in the ground and walking away. Yeah. It's not like that.

SPEAKER_01

What is it like to actually grow a tree and have it ready for Christmas?

SPEAKER_03

So, you know, it's the initial planting. So we do that every January after we close for Christmas tree season. We start planting immediately, and this helps get the tree acclimated to this crazy Georgia weather. So um, we get it in the ground and we don't do a whole lot the first year because we want it to get a nice root root system and let it get established, and then we start working on trees. So we um trim them, you know, twice a year with a big trimmer that we use, and then we have to do the tops so we have to hand prune the tops. You don't have to walk through and do that. And there's all the mowing that has to be done in between, otherwise you have grass everywhere. Um, and then we do use uh a fungicide on our trees, and that helps keep um the disease away from the leanland cypress because it does have a problem with disease. Okay. And if it spreads, it will wipe out your whole entire crop. So we have to do we do have to do the fungicide, but we don't use anything else on our we use fertilizer on the ground. Right. But that's it. We don't we don't put a lot of pest we don't do the pesticides and all the other nonsense.

SPEAKER_01

So it's not just a year thing. Is this like you have to be planting two years in advance for the that holiday season, or is it more?

SPEAKER_03

So for a tree to reach about uh six to seven feet, it takes around five to seven years. Wow. And it depends on the rain, depends on the weather. Yeah. So some trees will grow a little quicker than others. How do you manage a business like that? So when a tree sells, we plant one on the left and one on the right. Okay. So we're always putting two more trees in place of the one tree.

SPEAKER_01

So you dig up the stumps like the next year and do more of that?

SPEAKER_03

Usually when they rot away a little bit, but it's more if they're too fresh, they won't come out of the ground. Because the root systems are deep. Deep and we don't do the where you dig up the tree, the ball.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. You know, some farms, I can't know of any actually in the metro Atlanta area, but some farms allow customers to dig up the root system. So they could put that yeah, but uh so they can plant it, but that is a huge mess. I mean, think about looking at this field out here and picturing holes everywhere.

SPEAKER_03

And the root system goes out like two to three feet this way.

SPEAKER_01

And potentially hurt the other trees by dipping it out like to fall into and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That does sound like a liability. It sounds like we don't we don't do that. Other places do it, like pike. Yeah, but we don't do that. Okay. We get calls all the time. That's what we do for that. And we're like, we don't do that. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So we don't do that. Just cut your own.

SPEAKER_01

What else do you guys do? So Christmas trees, obviously during the holiday season, but you're a year-round place. So what are some other things that you guys do around here?

SPEAKER_03

So we get a little time off. So once Christmas tree season ends, we take a little bit of a break and a breather because it's non-stop. But once March hits, we're in getting the garden prepped. It's just planning. We're planning for what we need to do when it does start getting warmer. And then we do spring field trips and birthday parties. Birthday parties out here pretty much all year round, but except when it's really cold. No one no one wants to come out here when it's really cold.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so we just the mild winters in Georgia really help you keep your season longer, um, probably than some states up north or in the Midwest. We have um, you know, warmer winters typically. So our birthday party season can really nine months. We really don't do birthday parties or January and February. Yeah. I mean, we start field trips and birthday parties in March.

SPEAKER_01

So what are the birthday parties like? Is it like in here? Like this this is really cute, by the way. I love this photography prop. We haven't had a birthday party in here.

SPEAKER_02

No, it would be really cute for like tea parties. Yeah, because you have a little tea set thing over there. But uh no, we haven't done that yet. But we talk we chat about it. But our birthday parties, depending on what we have going on on the farm, but we have a pavilion that sits up on the hill. You probably saw it when you came in, and that is the primary birthday party location, but we also have two other locations in the back of the farm too, where we can do birthday parties. And then we do wagon ride around the farm. We have the animals, of course. They get to hold, feed, touch, you know, interact. Yeah, really, it's people always tell us like they're surprised by the interaction that they get with the animals during birthday parties because they expect it to just to be like a passing by, but it's really more up close and personal. Um, and then we have our farm playground, which is back by the country store area. That that's a big hit, especially for the younger kids. Yeah. And then we have another play area up on the hill um called Nature Ninja, which is like more climbing structures.

SPEAKER_03

Up school course.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, better for the older kids, really. More like five to nine. And the playground back here is for all age groups, like two. If you're walking, you know, you can enjoy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Toddlers toddlers love that playground. Yeah. There's a lot to do for them in that area. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it sounds like you guys are creating like an entire experience here. Yes. What changed from just doing the trees to actually creating an experience? Who who started that? How'd that come about?

SPEAKER_03

So it was my idea, and my dad backed me up on it, and I said, We should start doing pumpkins. And he was like, Okay, well, you go get the pumpkins and I'll help you, you know, financially get through the first couple years. And because, you know, you're buying these pumpkins, but they don't sell because you're just new starting out. So you kind of learn along the way that there's a little bit of a you know a loss you have loss, yeah. So, but we did pumpkins over in the field over here, just laid out. Yeah, it was right over here. Yeah, just pumpkins laid out on the ground, and then we had dollar hay rides. I was still working a corporate job at that point. So a few years went by then of just pumpkins, just pumpkins and hay rides. And then we did like, you know, a little act few activities, and there's a little building up there. We now use it as our feed room, but it used to be our first country store, and it was just this tiny little shed. Oh wow, it was it's smaller than this, smaller than this. So, and and so I used to have, you know, just some candles and the jams and jellies and ciders, and that was pretty much it, and that's where it started. And then we're like, we're growing out of this after a couple years, so and we already had the corn maize established established back here, and the playground was getting established, and we're like, we have to build a country store back here, and that's when we added it, and it's much bigger, so and it's much bigger, and we've we've outgrown that now, too.

SPEAKER_02

Um that's a good problem, yeah. It's a great problem to have a great problem to have. Every year we try to add something, so you know, our goal is really for the experience to keep growing. I don't mean I don't mean we need to be like Disney World of Farms or anything, but like we want everyone, all of our customers, especially our loyal customers, the ones I mean, we have people who have been coming here since the very beginning and people who are now bringing their grandkids here. Yeah in order to keep that experience going, we have to add new things. And so every year we take a huge portion of um, you know, what we make to put and we put it back into the farm. So we're really building on that ultimate experience that we want people to have when they come. We want people outside, like that's our passion. Like we had our outdoor escape game business, the Christmas trees, the fall, the birthday parties, the uh, you know, now we we try we're trying to extend our spring season with the flower fields and garden classes and things like that. We want people outside. Experience. Like that's what were our biggest passion.

SPEAKER_03

Unfortunately, everyone's stuck looking at a screen all the time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So we just want people to get away from that, get back in touch with nature. The fall season has really changed a lot, and you know, we're very thankful for it, but Stranger Things is probably a part of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, do you feel like that helped grow you a lot? Or was it like a big influx that happened like immediately afterwards?

SPEAKER_02

Or was it kind of well if Stranger Things was not as big as it was when we when they first started filming here, it kind of, you know, over time blew up. You weren't sure how what it was gonna be. We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into now. We didn't know. I mean, we have people come from all over the world to see the cabin. Yeah, which is huge. It's great and it comes with its negatives too, though, because we have trespassers and we are private property and people treat us like we should be a public partner and we're not, you know. That part's hard people when people come onto your property at all hours of the day trying to uh trespass. So so that part's hard, but the benefit outweighs the negatives for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think a lot of where the farm is today is credited to that production because it has kept people coming back. And there's always new generations, new fans of the show. Um, you know, like even my own children who were not who were too young when the show first aired. I mean, they're nine and fourteen now, so now I mean they're really fans of the show now.

SPEAKER_01

So are you both working full-time here now?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I quit my corporate job probably about ten years ago now. And then my husband quit his corporate job probably about seven years ago. Oh wow. So it's sustaining everybody.

SPEAKER_03

Well, my husband worked um in heavy equipment and he quit his job. Okay. And about seven years ago, too, I guess. Wow. Eight years ago. But we had, I mean, to make it work and to to do what we're doing out here, we we needed more people. Yeah. All hands on deck. All hands on deck, yeah. I was the first one who left my job in a from a warehouse. And you're also pregnant, having a baby. No, Jace was already born. Yeah, that's right. Because he was born in August. Yeah, he was born in August. And then we started it, you know, in October. So you were the baby, and I was carrying him around. So we need the whole the trees are very happy, the flowers are happy, everything's happy. Yeah, we always plant the corn either right before 4th of July or right after, depending on what the weather is doing. Right. So we always make sure it's in the ground in the beginning of July. Do you guys have doing events for 4th of July? Or are you seeing that at the cities? No, we just no, we don't have no, yeah. And and that's it, that is the one that concerns is the fireworks around the Christmas trees. My dad has a a fear of the catching off fire and being gone. And it's just not something that we particularly want to be doing. So I know a lot of people are like, oh, you should do Christmas lights. And it's like, do you realize how much work that is to put lights up all around the farm? Like, we don't have power to run all of it. And then most of these people putting up the lights start in October. Yeah. And it's like we can't do anything else in October.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, we're pumpkins. We already call it the day of October because it's just one really long day. I mean, we the prep, I mean, we start prepping in July. Yeah. If we don't get any time off until after fall season's over. And we have kids, you know, and they have extracurriculars, and it's just not it's just one really long day. Our Christmas tree season really is only about two weeks long now.

SPEAKER_03

Um yeah, we it's we don't have a long Christmas tree season. Um just do like right after Thanksgiving. So it's the weekend before Thanksgiving. So it's about three weeks we have a Christmas tree season.

SPEAKER_02

Two weeks, the two weeks like right after Thanksgiving is when it really explodes.

SPEAKER_03

Um, because people are traveling, so they don't get to come until right a lot of people don't get to come until after Thanksgiving. That makes sense. And then we get pretty busy and we sell, I mean, we sell around 800 trees from the field. So, and that's not the trees we have brought in from North Carolina because we have the Fraser First that do not grow in Georgia. Right. So we get them in. We have to bring them in. But we get them from another farm that's a small family farm in North Carolina, and we bring and we bring them in and set them up in the pavilion where the birthday parties are.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, we don't uh do birthday parties up there during Christmas tree season. But I mean, Christmas tree season is like a supply and demand thing now. It's like we're trying to plant more and more trees every year to keep up with demand, but we also only have so much space for Christmas trees because of everything else we're doing. Yeah. So it's hard to meet that demand right now.

SPEAKER_03

The most important thing is utilize every part of your land. Like if you can do something with it, you know, take advantage of that and use that area. Yeah. If it's just planting flowers, you know, and trying to sell bouquets or, you know, because the flowers don't need a whole lot of room. I want it to be almost like an escape from reality. Like, I want people to come here and be like, not think about the woes and the and the nonsense out there in the real world and come here and experience style horrors and experience the beauty and the nature all around you. Open your eyes and pay attention because there's so much that you miss daily. And I do it from deceit because just working out here, unfortunately, it becomes like you just start seeing the things you gotta do. You're like, Oh, gotta do that. I need to do that. And you kind of start not realizing how much beauty is around you. And sometimes I gotta take a step back and be like, wait a second, it's really beautiful here, and we got some really beautiful things. So, and that's we want people to experience that. We want them to to see it and feel the beauty of the farm. That is true. I mean, I really do feel that way. I mean, I want the farm to feel like home to people. Yeah, I want it to feel special to them.

SPEAKER_02

So, but most recently out of town for like 10 days visiting my in-laws, and when I came back, it's good to be home. Yeah. We all have our strengths, I guess. And when someone's gone, it's a bigger burden to carry than you want you would want with the weather too. I mean, once we get our corn in the ground and we start planting pumpkins, we start stressing about the weather. It's like it's a morning to rain. Usually once we plant something important, it doesn't rain. And so that's another stress is just constantly looking at the weather.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we do that all the time.

SPEAKER_03

And not knowing. And my husband has like four different types of apps. Yeah. And they're all wrong. I'm not even gonna pay attention for it. It's gonna do what it's gonna do and hope, you know, if it doesn't rain, then at least we got irrigation. So we're not left, you know, totally without it, without water.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_03

So we are lucky we have irrigation for our garden and we do have irrigation for our corn mace if we need it. So, but we'd prefer rain.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, irrigation's a pain to have to set up and deal with.

SPEAKER_03

And it just doesn't water as good.

SPEAKER_02

The well it can only do so much.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh and then we have unfortunately we have city water for the animals, so we still have a hefty water bill. Yeah, exactly. We have all those animals to water and they all get fresh.

SPEAKER_03

We thought about adding more wells or expensive drilling a well is yeah, very expensive.

SPEAKER_02

We all talked about and we just redrilled a well.

SPEAKER_03

Uh yeah, it wasn't producing it wasn't pumping the water like it was supposed to, and so we had to get it redrilled.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's working great now. Yeah. Are there other things that are like kind of difficult to manage? Every year you're like, uh, why are we dealing with this stuff?

SPEAKER_03

Well, yeah, the watering, I think, is probably one of our biggest pains if we don't have the rain.

SPEAKER_02

The water is the weather's bad, the soil is a pain. Yeah, because the way that we so you know, we grew up on this original 30 acres, but it all slopes down here. So when we get big rains like this, it just we get a lot of runoff. And so all the good soil kind of just like washes away. Like our garden is all raised beds, so we bring in a lot of soil um for our garden. So that you know, the raised beds help, but we don't we can't put a raised bed around the corn base, you know? Too bad.

SPEAKER_01

That'd be nice. You were talking about experience, like you want to create experiences for people. What's your motivation behind that? Like, what is that just something that's always been in you or I guess it has.

SPEAKER_03

She always says I'm the creative one of the family. So any like, you know, this, the greenhouse, you know, even though I saw it on something else, and I was like, I want to copy that. So but it's just the whimsical, like just creating whimsical places for people to escape and not think about the nonsense that's going on in the world. And because it gets it bogs people down like really bad. And I and I know people who are bogged down by the political nonsense in the world. I want people to come here and they won't have to think about it. Get away from it and then get away from it. Like look at the beauty around you, the nature. There's a lot, there's bugs, there's Butterflies. There's just critters everywhere. So I mean, there's lots to look at. Get away from the nonsense. Look at the beauty. That's what I think is important. And that's what we're trying to create. And that's why we we do the flowers because it brings in thousands of butterflies.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it is just really cool. It's amazing to just stand there and you're like, I never this knew this many butterflies existed. Yeah. Because the zinnias just attract them. Yeah. And they're everywhere, flying everywhere. I would just get caught up staring at them because they're so pretty. Yeah. So we want people to come out and to see them.

SPEAKER_01

Experience that. That's beautiful. And so many butterflies, uh, you know, the monarchs are endangered too. So you guys are actually doing something to help preserve. And it's I started planting zinnias last year.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we had butterflies like crazy too. And on I saw monarchs, too. And I was like, I can't believe and they're so easy to grow too, the zinnias. Like they're like weeds. They just want to grow. And like I was like, this is amazing. I'm doing something, and I just toss the seeds out. Yeah. It's they're very I tell people all the time, you should grow zinnias. Yeah. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03

You can cut them and then they keep growing more. Exactly. Yeah. But so I used to do sunflowers and I don't do sunflowers anymore. Because the deer love to eat the tops of all my sunflowers. Yeah. They hate zinnias. They don't like zinnias because it's deer resistant. So that's why I switched over to them. And I know some people were disappointed that we don't do the sunflowers anymore, but this is better for us.

SPEAKER_02

Sunflower only blooms for like 10 days.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02

The zinia will be, I mean, the the new blooms will come until the first frost, which is, you know, fingers crossed, end of October. And I mean, that's a long time for us to keep the pollinators happening, you know, coming back.

SPEAKER_01

I think that's a good lesson just for life in general. Is like, you know, sometimes you want to do things that you think, you know, oh, that's what people want me to do, or I should do because that's what's expected.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And then the reality is very different.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yes. It applies to everything everything we've done. We always were trying to people please and do everything what everyone else wanted us to do. Yeah. And finally we just started doing what we thought was best for us. We're gonna do what's best for our family. Yeah. And what's easily manageable because some stuff isn't easy to deal with out here.

SPEAKER_02

And like growing pumpkins. Yeah. Okay. So growing pumpkins in Georgia is really hard. There that's it's not ideal conditions. The weather, the soil, all of the above. It's not ideal. Uh UGA has developed some varieties, heat resistant. One of them's called the Bulldog. And that's great. And it grows really well here, but it's not the type of pumpkin people are used to seeing. It's it's not a jack-o'-lantern. It's not, you know, the the color's different, the shapes are different, the texture's different. It's not what you buy at Walmart. So it's not what people are used to seeing. People want us to grow pumpkins. They want what they're expecting, though. They want us, they want to see the pumpkins on the vine, but then they don't buy them because they're not, it's not what they expect to see. So that's hard. I mean, we we spend a lot of time growing pumpkins because people want to see the vines, but then the m the money's not the return's not there. And most of what we sell pumpkin-wise is shipped in. Um, and because we do need to still sell pumpkins, we have to ship them in. Yeah. And that's not ideal. That part's hard, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes you just have to do it that way.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And it's they're in North Georgia, different, the soil's different. So they can grow pumpkins up in North Georgia. Because they have the mountain soil.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you can't. And we we do make sure pretty much everything that we purchase for the farm comes from another. Another small business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we we are huge on that for sure. Uh finding that most homesteaders, farmers are are that way because like you're in the dirt, you're grinding, yeah, and you're working and you see what it takes to actually build something. Yeah. So when you spend your money, what do you want to do? You want to support somebody else that you know is doing the same thing you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. We are big. We're we're big on that. Of course, we still have to purchase things from big box stores. I mean, uh, I mean, we're human. The reality of it. Yeah, well, it's just the reality. Yeah. All of it. But you know, we try, we try to support local.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just like the animal feed we buy from Turner feed, just down the road. Family owned business. And we've been buying the feed from the very beginning when we started getting animals from them. Yeah. And I went and like people are like, oh, you don't go to tractor supply? I'm like, no, I go to Turner because it's it's a family-owned place. Yeah, I'd rather buy from them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But I'd rather spend a little more and buy local than for sure. I mean tractor supply comes in handy for certain things. I'm not like I'm not knocking. Tractor supply. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Their overalls. Have you seen their overalls?

SPEAKER_02

We like Duluth training. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Their overalls are so cute. Seeing the patterns though, and I'm like they're 100% worth it, by the way. If you haven't bought them, I haven't yet, but I've seen I've they're like in my shopping cart.

SPEAKER_03

You know, like when they go on sale, snag them because they are great quality and they hold it really nicely. And yeah, they're they're our favorites. They love some spots. I have some for every season. Do you have some? Yeah. They get because they made fleece ones, like they feel like hoodies.

SPEAKER_01

For winter when it's cold. Yeah. They're awesome. I mean, your story is amazing. Just your dad starting it, and now it's you, and it's absolutely incredible. If you could share like one piece of advice for anybody wanting to start this, you know, you guys were talking about the generation thing, is like a lot of kids are not wanting to take over the land for their parents. But now we're actually seeing like some of the next generation is wanting to, but now it's gone. So, like, so my husband and I, we had to like scrounge and work and everything just to buy some property right two years ago. And it's sad because his grandparents actually had a farm in Michigan and it all got sold off and he didn't get any of it. I hear that. So, like we're we're starting over from scratch and they sold it for like six. It was horrible in that situation. That's heartbreaking. But like we're wanting to bring it back, you know. So we had we had to fight. So if you what would be like a piece of advice for somebody, you know, wanting to get into this? Don't give up. It's gonna be hard at first.

SPEAKER_03

There's so many times. So many times, yeah. Well, it's hard all the time, but it gets easier as you can like when you continue doing it, like you know, this isn't as hard as it originally was because we know understand it better. There's many times we wanted to give up, many times. Yeah, and it's you know, luckily the past four years it's been a little bit easier in some aspects. It in some ways there's still a lot of difficulties, but in some a lot of areas of the farm, it's it's easier to manage.

SPEAKER_02

So and don't let people get to you. Yeah, you know, like don't when you're dealing with the general public, there's always going to be people who try to knock you down. Yeah, a lot of negativities. I'm guilty as the next person. I mean, it it keeps me up at night. You know, the smallest comment on a social media post can keep me awake.

SPEAKER_01

People are brutal.

SPEAKER_02

Um as a small family business who, you know, we're trying to keep our dad's dream alive, essentially. You know, he he's 80 now, he can't do this anymore. And I think it makes him really happy to see what he worked so hard for still going. He has lost a lot of friends in the last few years, a lot of really close friends, but I have overheard him saying, You can't you won't believe what the girls are doing now. He doesn't brag. I mean, I have overheard those conversations and it makes me really proud because we watched him work his tail off, you know. And to keep this going for our kids, or even though right now they say they're not coming, they're not going to do this, you know.

SPEAKER_01

But there's you're potentially facing that kind of feature too. Does that scare you? Oh, it's terrifying. Yeah. And that all this work might just be. Gosh, that was terrifying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

To think about that, to think about how one day it could be gone, that's yeah, it's scary.

SPEAKER_03

I try not to think of that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Honestly, I'm like, I'm not gonna think we each have two kids. Um, so there's hope, I guess.

SPEAKER_03

You know, well, when I was a teenager, I had no I didn't think I was gonna come back and do this. Never.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, if you told like Susie ten years ago that she was going to be doing this full time, or or people that I went to high school with that know now what I'm doing, it's it's they're shocked by that. I mean, I was not the outdoorsy type. And I mean, I played sports, but like this is eye-opening.

SPEAKER_01

What changed it for you? What made you decide?

SPEAKER_02

I think it's that that family desire that you know to keep it going for the just the love of the land. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Just to have something to hold on to that's not I didn't want all my dad's hard work go to waste.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Really. I mean, he he did all that on his own mostly, and then my brothers helped too. They were a huge help, but you know, all that work and then just give it up. Yeah. Like, I just didn't want that to happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we think about it. I mean, don't I mean it's not all rainbows and butterflies. You know, like it's it it can really knock us down, especially in the fall season when we are sleep deprived and have to deal with the general public and you have to put a smile on your face. And, you know, we're out here grinding. It's not, you know, a lot of farms, bigger most of them bigger than us, are they hire everybody, you know. They're they're customer-facing people are not the owners, not the family. Yeah, and we're customer-facing. I mean, we deal directly with customers all day, and we're the ones doing the field trips. We're the ones that have kids who have never seen a farm animal before asking us questions, you know.

SPEAKER_01

That's uh is that by design how you want it to be?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I I want to stay involved. And if one day, I mean it would be great one day that you know we can hire more people and take a little bit of a step back, but we're always gonna be involved. I think we're too controlling. A little bit, but you know, it means a lot when the person who is running it is helping out.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I think it makes a difference, you know? I think so.

SPEAKER_02

So and people I think like chatting with us when people come to see Hopper's Cabin for Stranger Things, we're the ones doing the tours and not our staff. We have so much like passion behind it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I think that goes people realize that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's so rare though nowadays. It's so rare to see a family like legitimately involved in something like this. Right. You guys are like a diamond in the in the middle of Halding County, Georgia. Yeah. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and we, you know, we try to get our kids involved, and hopefully, without too much angst, they'll come out and they well, they do love the fall season. They love customers, they love it when people are here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, especially my kids. They'll be like, are there customers there? This is a year-round business, right? Like it's important, we don't just operate when there are people here. There's work to be done in between that, but they love, you know, help helping kids hold the bunnies or selling animal feed. My my 14-year-old this past fall learned to make balloon animals, but he could only make two things swords and dogs. Yeah. Pretty much. So you would see kids running around the farm with these balloon animals that he would make. You know, they get involved, but we we hope that it's at least something that they can come home to, even if they decide to go off and have I mean, we had jobs. Uh I call them real jobs, even though this is a real this is way more than a real job, I think. This is a real job. This is life. This is more than a job. Yeah. This is a lifestyle and it's it's nonstop, it's sleepless nights, it's stressful, but it's so rewarding. Um, and to I was telling a family that yesterday that that came by for which they were asking a bunch of questions about how the farm got started. And I love talking about it, you know, it's it's so unique. I mean, the fact that this farm has been here since the early 70s and it's still going and it's still productive, and it's you know, and people that live down the road are still discovering it. Yeah, that's like me. That's wild to me, you know. Yeah, I mean, we've been here for so long, we still have first timers. Yeah, which is it's fun, you know. It's fun to share a piece of something that you're so proud of.

SPEAKER_03

I agree. It is. It's nice to tell people about it. Yeah, terrorist touring. Yeah. You know, you don't hear it very often, like you said. It's it's rare.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and and even if somebody has something, it's like I don't know, everybody's so checked out these days, just on their phones, like you were saying. Oh yeah, yeah, it's really sad. Yeah, but the fact that you guys are creating an experience where people can get away from that is a beautiful thing. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

And it's too bad my husband is um running Hopper's Cabin right now because he is another one who is very passionate about getting kids off screens. And um, you know, he used to design our escape games when we had Escape Woods, but we don't really have Escape Woods, the business is not operating, but we're still running games under Sleepy Hollow Farm. This weekend is opening another escape game in the woods. Okay. It's called Beat the Heat. Um, and he like developed an escape game, but it includes misting fans, so you get a little wet. Yeah. Yeah. He he just he's very passionate about getting kids. And our our kids are farm kids and they're very feral, but they still love a screen. And it's frustrating because you're like your own child. Yeah. You you're like, look around you, child. Like you have so much to do and discover.

SPEAKER_01

And um we're noticing that with our own kids once we got another property. Like when I walk around, I'm just like, I'm looking at, I'm just so grateful that we're there, and the kids are just inside on their screens. Yeah. I'm like, what really? I know we did all of it.

SPEAKER_03

I know. I I hope as they get older they realize. I hope so. I hope so for you too. Are grateful for it. Yeah. And yeah, the fear of like it not continuing with our family is it is scary.

SPEAKER_02

So we were growing up, like this was our norm.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Like being on a Christmas tree farm, this is the only thing we have in common with Taylor Swift, by the way. Just having a piece of this land, this is our norm. So I feel like our kids, you know, like this is their norm. They they don't know. I mean, they go to fam friends' houses with neighborhoods and they think it's so great because they got to ride their bike down a paved street, you know, like it's no paving, there's no pavement out here.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So it's just, I think once they're older and they see more of the world that they realize what like a special place this is. And just like we did. Yeah. I mean, we went off to college and came back and believing it and claiming it for you now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, hopefully. And maybe they'll listen to this and feel some kind of maybe ex expectation.

SPEAKER_03

We do have hope in Ariana. She's seven.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So she's maybe share it with them in like 10 years.

SPEAKER_02

We're like, let's leave it to the girl.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe she'll she says she's gonna take over one day. Yeah, but she's seven. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But she also thinks she's she wants also wants to be the first woman on the moon. Oh, so she has big goals. She has big goals.

SPEAKER_01

Might might happen with everything that's going on with uh right now. That's possible. I told her. Do they need a gardener on the moon? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

She could she if anybody can do it, she can. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, so this has been an incredible interview. I'm so grateful that you let me come out here and just like as a stranger, you didn't even really know me. So I appreciate it. So I ask everyone the same question at the end of every episode. What is your dirty little secret for keeping all of this going?

SPEAKER_02

Our dirty little secret. Dirty little secret. I don't know if we have very many secrets. We're pretty open, we're open books, which is good and bad. Well, I think uh to be very forgiving, not just of yourself, but of the r your family. I mean, working with family is so hard. And I think, you know, just be being forgiving. Being forgiving, yeah. When you make a mistake, be forgiving of yourself, but also the people that you love the most and who are out here with you. Yeah. I mean, this is a group effort. We all have our strengths and we're all going to make mistakes.

SPEAKER_01

And that could be hard because sometimes mistakes are pretty disastrous too. You're dealing with animals and land and people and we could have a whole episode of mistakes. Yeah. Well, maybe we will come back. Sleepy hollows. Yes. Well, how can people find you guys and how can people actually get to the property? Like how do they reserve or how does that work? Gosh. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it it's confusing and it depends. But if you want to come see Hopper's Cabin from Stranger Things, it's escapewoods.com still to make reservations because we haven't switched everything over to Sleepy Hollows website.

SPEAKER_01

Will it eventually switch over there?

SPEAKER_02

Eventually. It's been doing a lot of work on the website. Anyway, so that's for Hopper's Cabin. If you want to visit the farm, we are having another open farm day in a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_03

I'm doing another garden and gather. So I'm like kind of teaching them the basics of gardening. And we also have like little mock tails. We serve those and then we go to the garden, we talk about the garden, and then they get to go pick flowers. So what's your Facebook page? Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm. Okay, gotcha. I'll link it in the chat. So we never changed it because that's how we start Christmas and Tree.

SPEAKER_02

Instagram is sleepy or hollow underscore farm. Okay. Um social media. But you know what?

SPEAKER_01

You guys are working here and it's paying the bills, and um sometimes it doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to keep going. We need to be better at TikTok. Oh yeah, we do. We can some film some fun videos if you want. I got ideas.

SPEAKER_00

I just I'm game. You are? Yes.

SPEAKER_02

We always talk about oh, we should do this, and then we have so many photos and videos on our phones and start posting. We have probably some really great footage. Oh, yeah. I always say that we should have some behind the scenes stuff of us, but it would be embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01

So let me share the one thing that I have really learned, and this is me personally just working at this because I started last September posting three times a day. I learned that I had to start seeing content as not as like, oh, I've got to create something, but as like I'm documenting the daily.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So you say you have a lot of footage, start posting it. Like that's like people love this. Like, if I show 15 seconds of my husband doing something ridiculous in the yard, like it goes it does better than when I make a silly TikTok. Yeah. So I mean, people want real and you guys are creating an experience here. Take that experience and just show the reality of it online. Yeah, I think you'll have gold. I'm a little shy when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_02

So, what platform do you think would be best?

SPEAKER_01

I would definitely stick with Facebook for sure. Um top platforms for me are are TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. But I I take Instagram and I post it to Facebook from there. Right. So it's just like one. We have it, yeah, we have it. We do have it linked. And then I do YouTube because YouTube is searchable. I would get on their ASAP because with everything going on with AI and the the bots are are finding their information from YouTube and Google. So when people and people are starting to search with their chat bots, they're not searching with Google anymore. Yeah. So the chat bots are viewing the content on YouTube in order to give people so so if people say, Is there a Christmas tree farm near me? You want to come up in that search. So if you start posting your videos and make like the titles, like make sure they're all kind of related to your farm, then the bots are gonna see, oh, this farm's here. This one's active. Okay. And being featured on podcasts and other people's channels will help you with that. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's just stuff I've learned recently.

SPEAKER_02

We need to be better about that.

SPEAKER_03

Or we need somebody who is younger and tech savvy.

SPEAKER_01

Well, if you ever have any questions, shoot them over me. I mean, I've had to throw myself into this because we, you know, we got into the property and like we had to save it. Like it was immediately we like almost faced with a disaster.

SPEAKER_02

So it's like you can start filming your husband doing farm tours. Like she films her husband doing farm tours. I love seeing the husband.

SPEAKER_01

They love seeing her husband and yours is good looking. Ooh, they will really love that. Yeah, they're calling mine the spicy meatball. And every time he's in a video, all these thirsty women start commenting. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

I love you, by the way, I'm not calling all dirty little secrets. I always say that her husband, his name's Jeremy. We could sh we could do TikToks like Jeremy and Jamie's. Like chopping wood or like try doing sparm chores. Do it all. But the Jamies that have the little flap in the back, you know, like the long john.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the long jawn ones. You can't do that in the summer. Maybe they make a sleepless version.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But yeah, she's always joking about that. Makes my husband uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01

But yes. Tell you another thing is the thing that helped me get better was I had that rule for myself three times a day. When you have a rule for yourself a three times a day and you're following it, you very quickly stop overthinking it. Yeah. Like because you you can't. Like, I mean, I don't have time. So it's like I just pull my phone and I start recording. And then when it's time to post something, I'll go back and see what I have and then I'll put something up.

SPEAKER_02

And you don't have to make it cute into music and all that stuff. No. You just use original audio.

SPEAKER_01

So I do pay for some a licensing with uh that's an I can send it to you. There's where I use the audios because I make money off of Facebook now. Because once you get big enough, like they'll offer you to make money on Facebook. So, but if you're using l music that's not yours, yeah, those people take the money. Right. So I had to start paying for royalty free music to use in my videos. So it's it's like a monthly, it's like ten bucks. But and they give me all this music I can use on my videos. So I wouldn't worry about that until you they start offering you to make money online.

SPEAKER_03

Well, we actually should be. Yeah, well, we have to. Put our tax information in. It like said we had to do that.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you need to start doing that. That would stop. I mean, that's that's another avenue of revenue to support the farm.

SPEAKER_03

We have to put like a U9 in or something, or it's officially Facebook, it's not random email, right?

SPEAKER_01

No, it's not a good thing. No, it's on our actual page. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe your user ID I mean I did create it. Starting to make money. Could be.

SPEAKER_01

So there's another farm that's out in Carrollton, and I we met them at a at a farmer's market recently. They just started posting stuff like they post three times a day. They put it up in the morning, that's all. They put all three videos up. And they don't even do like throughout the day. They are now up to making three grand a month. And they just started like four months ago.

SPEAKER_02

We could really use that money.

SPEAKER_01

Start posting. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Tony, you don't want to tell them not there.

SPEAKER_01

They just post 15 seconds of them going out and feeding the goats. Like that's it. That's all they need. That's all they do. Chrissy, wake up. No, you guys can totally be adding that revenue. And then the same thing with YouTube. Once you get to a certain point in YouTube, YouTube will pay you as well.

SPEAKER_03

We do need to do that.

SPEAKER_01

If it's the same video, I just put it up everywhere. I don't even I don't do different videos on different platforms. I mean, I do be like, okay, I already do it. Do you create it initially on an app on your I use CapCut to edit? Oh, okay. And then I'll go post it everywhere. Okay. Sometimes sometimes I edit in TikTok because I just used to it, I guess. Yeah, that's what I was doing when I was posting. A lot of people just edit in TikTok and then they it saves if it's your phone.

SPEAKER_02

But then when I post to TikTok, it deletes the cap cut. Okay. If you post a TikTok. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's what I think I typically do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I feel really old when I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, just start posting videos of animals. I mean, even if that's all you do. You're working and doing so much. And you're like, oh, one more thing I gotta do. Yeah, it is like that.

SPEAKER_03

It's like it almost feels like a chore to do. And I need to stop thinking of it that way. And I was doing good for a while, I was posting stuff, and then it started feeling like a chore again.

SPEAKER_01

What well I would just start like filming like throughout the day, and you guys say you have all this footage in the morning, like find a time, post thro three videos like those other people do. Just post it all at once, and then you don't have to think about the rest of the day. Yeah, just be done. Yeah. I've tried to do that. I'm just I'm not good at having three things for me in the morning.

SPEAKER_03

I'm not a morning person.

SPEAKER_01

I'm just like on the fly. Sometimes I'll just film something, and I was preserving vegetables from the garden at 7 a.m.

SPEAKER_03

Should be filming that stuff. You should be filming that.

SPEAKER_01

People love seeing you preserving and canning and oh they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_03

We need to get a little uh thing to film ourselves for times like that when you're at home. Or get William to come help you. Hold the phone.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was my idea. You guys have so much gold here. You really do for content. Like, I mean it could blow you up.

SPEAKER_02

I'm scared of people seeing our crazy. We've just been told that we should we could have a reality show.

SPEAKER_01

Then you need to be doing this. So if you post three times a day, you'll get over it. Because that's how I was in the beginning. I was like, I'm afraid people are gonna see my crazy, my wild, my I say stupid things, like I stumble over my words, and I just like people love it when I mess up. They love that I include it because nobody online's doing that. They're all showing the perfect. So the people who are people like the real. They do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I like nobody wants to show it because we all have egos, you know. We're people, we're human. I mean, I do too. And it's like when I just got to the point where I was like, I'm gonna post it, it doesn't look good, but whatever. And that's the video that does well. So I just learned to just throw show it all.

SPEAKER_03

I also get scared of posting stuff like of the animals because I'm afraid someone's like, Oh, you're torturing your animals or you're you shouldn't be doing it, like you know, the hate towards that. But they don't know anything about animals and they're just leaving.

SPEAKER_01

I'll give you a little secret. You get in that Facebook thing, every negative comment you're gonna get paid for. Oh, that's true. So now when I get negative comments, I'm like, thanks for the money. Like, thanks for helping our mortgage. I appreciate it. That's true. That is true. So, like the negativity can also help you. So I've come to see it. I I had a mindset shift, I don't know how it happened, but I started seeing feeling sorry for these people. It's like you took time out of your day to comment something mean or negative on a person on the internet you don't even know. Right. I feel bad for you. Like, what is your life like? Yeah, yeah. To do that like because I would never do something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's scary. So I stopped seeing it as like an attack on me and like making me feel bad. And I started, I just honestly started feeling bad for them. Yeah. I'm like, if your life is that bad, like I feel bad for you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03

It's true. No, you're right. You're 100% right about that, but it's still scary.

SPEAKER_01

Good quality people don't do that, you know? They just don't. Yeah, they don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I've never and that's why I think another reason why I try to comment positive things and posts. Like, I do try to do that because you're a good person. Well, I mean, yes, but I also I try to just make sure they know that there are positive like positive things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's so much negativity. Yeah, I don't want to add to it, you know. That's why I want to do this. Like, this is just like such a positive thing.

SPEAKER_03

Like, I think it's great that you're doing this and going around and I I watched your videos um when you're at the farmer's market and talking to other farmers market people. I think that's amazing. Thank you. Because you know, they people don't they don't think about your neighbor like you're a lot of people are concerned about themselves and making money for themselves, but you're going over there and you're like, hey, what do you do?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you're helping and I think they're just there's so many amazing people, and like I just wanna I just want to know what they do. I love it.

SPEAKER_02

That's the fun thing about farmers markets too. More involved in farmers markets. I used to love just chatting with the other things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we used to always go. They have so much insight about life and just experience.

SPEAKER_02

And they're all hustlers, yeah. If you're working a farmer's market, oh my gosh, like you are especially in the middle of the summer. And I think about because we used to try to sell produce at farmers markets, and we just it is so much work and very little return from in our experience. Yeah. And so we started selling it straight from the farm. I just really enjoyed meeting the people. And that was nice, and talking to people. And it was just eye-opening because so many of these people are just really putting in the work. Yeah, yeah. And they're working hard, not really getting recognized for that work. Yeah, people don't realize unless they do it, they just don't know what it's like. I didn't know. No, yeah, it's it people that's one of my favorite things about or favorite conversations to have is when people say, Oh my gosh, you know, like you're so lucky. This is so amazing. I would love to do this. I want to do this one day, and I'll and I'll give them the real, you know, like I'm like, that's great. You know, I think it's great that you want to grow your own food, especially.

SPEAKER_01

Start in your backyard right now and see how you like it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, grow your own food. I mean, I when we have kids come out, I'm like, grow your own. If you're growing one little pea plant, you know, taking it from home from a field trip, like you're growing your own food. Such a big deal. But be prepared to be disappointed when us when one little beetle comes and destroys the whole thing. It's not, it's not all fun and games. It's not hard work. Um it's hard work. And that's you gotta be prepared for that if you're going to try to do something like this. Yeah, I get those comments about the animals. They're like, oh, I wish I had all these animals on.

SPEAKER_01

It's not a fairy tale, it's not like you're a fairy princess and butt cleaning up the poop.

SPEAKER_02

Snow white. Yeah. Not Snow White. Or Cinderella. She, by the way. No, no, no, saw us say she has to be.

SPEAKER_03

I am the youngest, so yeah, I guess I am the princess.

SPEAKER_01

All the animals flock to you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, kinda. They're they're her doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Like her the reason why we have all of these animals to if I'm having a bad day and I go sit in that goat pen, it changes my whole outlook of the day because just watching them. They don't always come up to me. Because no, goats are we're like that. Personalities. You know, but some of them do come up to me and they want a little scratch, and I give them a scratch, and I forget about the nonsense I was upset about. So I get what the appeal is for people is being surrounded by animals.

SPEAKER_01

It's calming. That's why we have like dogs and cats.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, what you're expecting. The chickens, because you're entertaining. Have you sat there and just watched them?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I have watched chickens.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, they have the best gossip.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, every time I walk by a pen, I'm like, those birds were not here yesterday.

SPEAKER_01

We get more. What? Is that why she likes to go to tractor supply? She very rarely gets birds from tractor supply. She likes gets them from Facebook. Facebook, Marketplace.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, she is. Yeah. Yes. And you know, she'll be tagged. If I see her name tagged in something, I'll be like, no. Cut her off more. I say next funny video.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I'm not worried about my sister leaving the farm. I'm worried about her talking to Carl on Facebook Marketplace who has an animal or something. That could be a funny, silly video. Yeah, we could see Bill is like the size of a mortgage payment.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that is my fault. But your purchasing chickens has impacted me in the following ways.

SPEAKER_03

She she did talk about it.

SPEAKER_02

Are we having an intervention?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we did we were talking about doing a video, what, a couple days ago, of saying that my chicken problem.

SPEAKER_01

You too, your dynamic takeout is so great. You should be you should be doing all the videos. People, this is the start of it.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I people that know us already know we're crazy. So we'll just give it to the rest of the world now. Yeah, we'll just let everybody know that we're crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's how I feel. I'm like, I've now proven online that I'm crazy. So it's a you know you know what?

SPEAKER_03

There's no denying it now. You're having fun with it. Who cares? Exactly. You know, and you're doing good things.

SPEAKER_01

We only get one life, you know?

SPEAKER_02

I know that's that we know of, you know, that we know of, I guess, you know. That is, I think, one of another thing that we think about, you know. Like what we only get one life. So what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do with it? Let's give all these people, these thousands and thousands of people that come here memory, you know. And it's it's not just about being outside, it's about the memories you're creating with your family. I mean, cutting a Christmas tree down.

SPEAKER_01

Kids never forget that.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, they don't, they don't.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, hence the guy from Stranger Things remembered your farm and yeah, from cutting a tree down.

SPEAKER_02

So it circles all the full the full circle moments are pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, they are cool. They are and then hearing about someone who came here as a child and cut their tree down, and then they come back with their family, and they have a toddler or a baby or a grandchild. Oh, yeah, that too.

SPEAKER_02

That's why I mean, when I talk to people who have been coming here since they were kids and now they're coming here with their grandchildren, beautiful. That's priceless, it is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And that is the perfect way to end the episode. Thank you so much for being on my podcast. I really appreciate it. I'm honored and absolutely beautiful. All right, y'all. Before you head back out past you, remember this is just people sharing opinions, not medical, legal, or business advice. The opinions expressed here don't necessarily reflect my opinions or the opinions of Dragon Creek Ranch or the Dirt and Drive podcast. Remember to always do your own research. It's okay to get your hands a little dirty, but keep your wrap sheet clean. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. It'll help us reach more.