Leading on the Homestead Part 2
Joel and Mark continue their conversation about leading their families on the homestead.
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Transcript
Welcome to Cock Talk The Podcast, Episode 5, Part 2. Joel Keith and Mark Paul, myself talking our way through personal responsibility on the farm, on the homestead, whatever you may call it or have and and just with the family in general. And we are going to continue diving into that. Hopefully you didn't miss part one.
::If you did head back over, listen to that, subscribe to the show wherever you are listening. You can also go to YouTube and watch the entire episode and listen to it there as well. Thanks for listening and enjoy Part 2 of episode 5.
::Continue talking about personal.
::Responsibility in our homestead and with our family, you know.
::Where do you see? Have you had this experience where you want to do something on your homestead in particular, where your wife isn't totally there yet?
::Uh, not necessarily. Not totally there.
::But differing opinions for sure of.
::You know what we should do?
::Give us give us an example of where.
::I mean for for this year again like so like we talked about like?
::Romance flower business is really starting to take off. She's getting a ton of subscriptions and people like they're wanting to do events and arrangements and all these things, which is great. And again, it makes money versus, you know, the fruits and vegetables that aren't growing. That isn't making anything. You can argue the offset of cost from grocery stores and stuff, but it's very, very minimal.
::Especially when you consider the time that you put in and you know, unless your time is worth like.
::$0.50 an hour.
::But so like, like this year, she's like.
::Hey I like I need to expand the garden and it's like alright, well, we're in a home which has the property to expand. We definitely have room to expand but I think the where we're kind of stuck is we would like to move. We would like to be you know we'd like to move a little bit farther S within the next couple of years and.
::So it's like.
::Resale value. Think about equity of the home. Like who? Who's gonna want to come in here and maintain a half acre, you know?
::You know, especially if it's all flowers or regardless if it's vegetables and flowers, it doesn't matter. Yeah, people like they're especially, you know, kind of around our area. But so it's like, hey, I need more of the garden for flowers. So we need to expand and then it's like, well, I, you know, I don't know if we really want to expand, so maybe we take over more vegetables.
::Definitely move vegetable stuff somewhere else, and that's when we kind of had that conversation a little.
::Bit of like might mean that you've got.
::A lot more property.
::Cut down the tree. We might. We can do some vegetables.
::Oh oh.
::Over at your house, I'll supply the.
::Oh, yes, yes, Rosie.
::Seeds and you know, rent some land, whatever.
::Have to do.
::But that allows her to kind of expand her business without having to necessarily take over a huge part of our backyard. Yeah. So there's, there's that to it.
::I've always wanted to be a land broker.
::A land broker that's gonna OK.
::And that's what I'm going to I'll open an LLC.
::And broker land. That's the thing though. So like, if you want to start gardening, but you don't necessarily have the space to do so, you can. You can find a community garden if you don't have that, there's actually land out there that you can rent land and exactly.
::Oh yeah.
::Ohh, farmers do it all the time. I mean, that's a lot of farmers.
::Large plots of land because it's a I mean in the end, you know it's you don't have to have the money to to not only buy the land, but then farm it. You just get the money to farm it, which you can get USDA loans. You get all the money without having to spend your own on the seeds. And then you sell it, you pay back your loan and you get the profits.
::Yeah, it is a very smart way to do business on a farmer's end, but then also on the land owners end who maybe if you like one of my friends, his dad has like 100.
::Acres. What does he? He doesn't need 100 acres. He just has it and has had it forever. And so I think half of it. Just a farmer like he does agriculture on it and he gets a little cut every year. You know, it's it's not a ton, but I think it pays for all his property taxes. Hey, that's.
::Not yeah, why not to live once your mortgage is paid off?
::Then at that point, you literally have no expenses for paying your house.
::I mean, that's a huge part of why you and I started home staying in the 1st place is just like we're sitting there looking at this yard like, why, why are we not doing something with this? Like, why is there no use to this? And we talked about it before. It's just like, you know, having this perfect manicured yard is.
::Some people enjoy that. Some people love spending hours rolling lines in their yard, and to me that just seems so silly. But you know, to each their own. But like, why not have something that actually is producing for you, you know?
::I think I honestly, I don't know if you say to each his own, I think that a well manicured lawn.
::Now there's there's a point where a nice backyard where like kids can play and people can gather together. Totally fair. Love it like we all need spaces to be together, right? Like that's totally legitimate. Not every single square inch of your property needs to be without grass or like without.
::And it doesn't need to be a bunch of agricultural stuff. You don't need to walk off your deck and it be corn. It's.
::It's a backyard is a great thing. Grass is a great thing, but when you think that you have a golf course, it's dumb. Yeah, it is just dumb because it is.
::Usually it's, you know.
::You're not using your land the way that it should be. There's so many better uses for it, I mean.
::Not I don't really personally care, but you want to talk about like carbon and all this stuff. I mean, that grass takes grass is like a sucker of of that stuff. It gives off more than it actually takes in. So growing a tree and having a lot of different things on your land instead of a bunch of grass is far more efficient or.
::The the ozone and whatever climate change, if you want to go that route. But I just think.
::I think it's dumb. It's a waste of money. It's a waste of time.
::The people that have a bunch of money, they're doing it because they have a bunch of money and they and it's a status thing. And if you don't have a bunch of money and you still do it, you're trying to look like somebody with a bunch of money, which is super lame, because why not just go?
::Spend time making.
::******* money. Instead of mowing your grass. How dumb.
::Yeah.
::Like you or spend time with your kids.
::And just like have a Clover on.
::Your grass? Yeah, there's so many.
::Have a cover crop, yeah.
::Different things that you could do, but for some reason they need to have really cool looking grass like.
::So what's what's?
::Interesting about this and I've I've been doing a I've been doing a deep dive and I was I was getting. I was at my Barber today and he had made a joke where he's like, he's just like, yeah, my buddy of mine or same age, you know, you know, mid late 30s or whatever he's.
::Come at me.
::But everybody was telling me he's just like, I feel like I'm an old man now because I'm super into World War 2.
::And I feel like being into World War.
::Two, like you're an old man and I was like, ****, I'm an old man because I'm super in the World War.
::Two right now.
::But like what?
::But you're in the World War 2 because you're.
::Looking at all the conspiracies around that.
::Aren't you? You are.
::Yes, yes, but but what was really interesting in in my finds in this, this you know, two or three decades, 2 1/2 decades between World War One and World War 2. So much happened with our.
::US like we came out of a a very, very stringent like time from World War One where everyone had victory gardens. Everyone was doing their patriotic duty to like supply and help offset the cost of the government for war as we needed to get through it. We come out of.
::World War One and have.
::Huge economic boom and have the roaring 20s and then the 30s we start to decline in the 40s with the Great Depression and we'll.
::War Two out of World War 2.
::Though there was.
::Another economic boom for housing, and that's when between the 30s and the late 40s, there was this whole shift of mindset, and then the introduction of large scale classism, if you will.
::We're building neighborhoods now. Everyone is nearby convenience, working in an office was a status symbol, and that's when we saw the kind of.
::Defamation, essentially of blue collar jobs where it was like you have a blue collar job because you don't make a lot of money and because you're dumb and you didn't go to school and all these things and that's why everyone was like, go to college, get a degree, get a good job, have a family, have the white picket fence. And that's where all of that came from. They were being sold in the future.
::But inside of that was also convenience that was being built from chain grocery stores. And it wasn't.
::Before World War One.
::Grocery stores or local markets existed to offset.
::What you are already growing.
::Well, and and it was alright.
::You want your blueberries, but.
::You get to have them in August, you know? Yeah.
::Right. Yeah. It was based on availability. It wasn't like you're getting them year round, but it was all it's all done.
::Which which to be fair is an excellent very.
::Cool thing about living now is that we could have all this stuff all the.
::Time it is until you realize that the blueberries you bought, if they will sit in your fridge for more than six days, they start to go bad because they've they're actually like 40 to 50 days old and that's why they're molding.
::Or yeah, or the the eggs that you buy where?
::If the farmer, the farmer has 30 days to get it to the distributor, who has 30 days, feed it to the supermarket, who then has two weeks to sell it? That means that your eggs are actually.
::About.
::Like 10 weeks old, by the time you buy them. Yeah, maybe. Maybe more than that.
::I had a conversation recently with someone they were like, oh, you do farm fresh eggs. And I said, yeah. So you buy the eggs from us and then you have them in your fridge in the last 60 days, unwashed in your fridge. And then.
::Like, wait, what? They last two months and I said, yeah, when you don't realize it's the eggs you buy from the grocery store, or at least 40 days old before you buy them.
::R.
::Basically 2 two, yeah.
::And they're like, wait, what? And?
::Just people don't know this stuff, which is insane, but.
::That's that's the fact is, like the food you're getting from chain grocery stores because of convenience is not fresh food, regardless of what they put.
::On the label.
::Yeah, the whole I stayed in the outside of the grocery store and you'll get all fresh stuff. No, not true. But I I mean.
::Right.
::We could, we could go into. Hey, is eating an egg better than eating the process thing down the down the aisle? Sure, even. Even something that, you know, maybe the the chicken is eating GMO products. I still think that at some point there is a there is a place for an for a an egg. I still it's better than a lot of things. Eggs are fantastic.
::But there is nothing. It doesn't compare. I mean it's it really is like, hey, could you get a, could you get a decent burger at McDonald's? Like I think we've all had a burger at McDonald's and it's been satiating enough to where we go. Well, that was a decent burger. Yeah. But does it compare to?
::The like super Fat delicious burger that you get it that you spend $25 on at a really nice restaurant or you make it home that like you, you perfectly curate that and season the meat, take the time to make it and you.
::Cook.
::It to that perfect spot. You want it, whether it be medium or medium rare.
::Whatever it is, that's just a better burger, but it's not to say that you can't like a McDonald's burger isn't a burger. It's just not as good. Yeah. And the same goes for yeah, you can get the penny saver eggs at your grocery store.
::I have bought those and you look at the egg and the yolk might as well be like clear in comparison. In comparison, it is crazy because then you today, OK, my daughter, we all went out. We were like working on. I actually bought an electric fence for the chickens that I can move now. I bought one where I.
::You might as well give the egg whites, yeah.
::OK.
::OK.
::Right.
::Transport it and it like just picks right up out of the ground and we can move it around. Very cool from premiere one and it's, you know, kind of like the V sense to buy if you want to have pasture rays, but also keep them in an area and be able to move them throughout your pasture and.
::You know, keep them into a specific area anyways, so we were setting that up. Daughter went, it collected all the eggs and topped something and then did something silly and knocked them over and half the eggs, bro.
::I was ****** because it's just annoying to me because it seems like such a freaking waste, even though all the animals come, they're like.
::Eggs. Yes, our own eggs, they're like.
::Freaking cannibals. But the chickens love their eggs, and the dogs will just lap up eggs.
::Yeah.
::And I actually thought about it for a second. I was like, all these yokes are.
::Actually orange like you know there is no yellow. It is as orange as a basketball. Yep. And it if that were a carton of of eggs from the grocery store. That's the sunshine all day. It's yellow as can be. And it's just like light yellow. Sunny.
::Yeah.
::The color 0.
::Yes, yes. And and did you know that they some egg manufacturers to put certain things?
::Into the diet.
::Of their chickens to turn the colors. Yeah, because you can. You can put like a Marigold extract and it'll actually turn your eggs.
::And it has interchanging the.
::Change.
::Whereas.
::My eggs. Your eggs? When especially when your chickens just have total free range to go and run around and they they're not like in this little area.
::They're so much higher in omega-3, which is that large.
::Color well, take that. For what it's worth, you you want, you want to eat eggs and get the full nutrition. Eat it from a farmer.
::I here's the thing though, that it it it brings up a good point because this is something I've been frustrated with with the fact that they're dying the egg yolk in order to.
::Make it more orange.
::Well, they're not dying.
::Yet in a way that they are.
::It makes it sound like they're like, yeah, somehow I'll get in there. But I mean, it's just that it essentially is a supplement, but it is tricking you into.
::You're injecting it through the shell.
::Though, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's a trick. It's a it's an.
::Old old text switch, if you will.
::But the frustrating part to me is.
::What I think a lot of people aren't saying is like, oh, they're they're doing this because so many people are starting to realize freaking awesome, which is amazing. And so many people are starting to realize how ****** our food sources are, and the mass production of certain food sources are causing so many issues.
::Is.
::Our.
::So they're either.
::Doing it themselves or they are finding somebody who is because I get it, I get it. Not everybody can do what we're doing. Not everybody wants to do what we're doing like one of my neighbors.
::Right.
::She.
::Like as terrified of chickens, she could not have chickens, loves animals. The freaking death. I actually don't know. Truly don't know anyone who loves animals more than this girl. But she is terrified of chickens. She could not have chickens.
::To their tiny dinosaurs.
::But she, like she can appreciate it. You know what? That the eggs do. And so not everybody is going to do what we're doing, but you can certainly seek out people that are support them.
::Yeah.
::Because even even like, what do we charge for? I just started charging $5 a dozen now because $4.00 inflation $4.00 just was not enough. It's expensive. The fee is expensive. If you actually look at the numbers, most of people that are trying to do it for profit, they're charging like 8 bucks.
::Yeah, be the.
::Yeah, doesn't.
::It's insane. 8 bucks a dozen.
::Well, you have to because even get $60.00 or 60 lbs of feed is, which is what I use every month. 60 lbs of feed is $70.
::I have 16 chickens that lay roughly at their peak 11:50 eggs a day. So if I take every single egg that I have and I sell every single egg that I have, I make about $8 a month. Yeah, and that doesn't include any of the like you.
::Gotta put in new bedding for your chickens. Yep. You have to upkeep the building that your chickens in. You also built an additional run for your chickens. Anything extra you do like. I mean, I just the electric fence that I just.
::Put in because I.
::Even though I live on five acres, I still live next to people and I don't want to have my chickens. They they get out and they some of these chickens.
::Yeah.
::The Bantam ones. So Bantam chickens. If you ever see Bantam just means that essentially it's like in dog breeds, you see Minis, it's a mini. Yeah, they're just a little tiny thing. They still lay like crazy, but they're little. Those things can fly. Yeah, you've got a roof, I think on.
::Your on your.
::Can you write me up?
::I have 7 1/2 foot fences and they just fly right to the top of them and then just jump up. So I got the electric fence because they will jump, they'll jump on it and then they'll jump off of it. Don't worry, it doesn't doesn't kill them or anything. It's all subjective to their like how?
::Over the.
::Yep.
::Basically, how much is actually touching it? So like they have very little very.
::Footprint so it doesn't shock them very much, whereas if like a giant bear came and touched it, it would shock them a lot. Or if a human touches it, it will not feel good.
::Put a little chicken.
::It just gives them a ZAP and they come back over. But yeah, those those ones just they can get over any fence.
::So I got. I felt bad. I feel like a bad neighbor when I look over and I see my chickens like.
::Running around their.
::Backyard. So I wanted to do something about it, but I spent a lot of money on that fence like that. That fence was like 600 bucks. But, and that's a loss. You.
::It's the only way that like I could buy other fencing, but it's permanent. Like it's the only way where I can just pull it out, stick it back in and move it around and keep them pasture ways and keep them eating from the, like, from the outside, as opposed to only relying on feet.
::What are your thoughts on on wing clipping?
::Wing clipping? Well, I don't care. Like that's fine. I am too lazy to do it. Hmm. I don't want to do it. I don't. I don't care. Like, that's fine. If they want to. If they can fly. Like, if you can fly 8 feet into the air and get on top of something. Actually, it was funny. I saw one.
::It flew up to the top one and then it flew up into a tree and then it kept hopping way up into a tree is probably 20 feet up in the air in the tree just hanging out and then I just thought just jump out of the tree and fly out because that's my thing is like.
::OK.
::I thought about clipping wings, but then my entire.
::Coupe isn't closed.
::Yeah, you don't need.
::There's no way for them to.
::Get.
::Yeah, you don't need it.
::When?
::We're going to expand the garden this year and we're actually going to incorporate all of our fencing with the chicken coop. So ideally we'd be able to open the run door and they'd be able to go out into the garden once all the flowers are established. So I don't.
::Want them pulling up seeds?
::But in that sense, we have a lot of Hawks around here, so it's like if they need to get away, they need to get away. And if I click their wings, it's really going to impair them. Yeah. But at the same time, I don't want them flying over a 7 foot fence and getting out and then really just, you know, really wreaking havoc on wreaking havoc.
::Oh, they might. Yeah, they might.
::Now, if you if you take your fence and you can kind of like.
::Under neighbors.
::Clean it a little bit that can help.
::OK.
::Can help them to like they look up and they go, oh, I can't get over that.
::Because they all they see is.
::You know from their.
::They see the the fence and they don't know where it actually ends, as opposed to if it's straight up and down, they can jump on it. That might, you know, you have phantoms too, because we we bought some chickens together. Those guys might be able to get over, but also yours are used to jumping over anything, so they may not care.
::OK.
::You're welcome, yeah.
::It just might be like the most glorious day for them to go out I.
::Mean they're going to eat a lot.
::Of your stuff. Yeah, yeah. If you let them into that into your.
::Your garden. They'll eat everything well with the idea of everything being flowers. Hopefully they'll stay away from the flowers like they would eat the flowers, but they if they.
::Maybe. But, but I mean, you can you can also do it supervise like you can let them. You can open that up right now and you know, see what they do.
::Yep, they got a.
::There's probably certain flowers that they won't touch, but chickens are.
::They they love diversity. Chickens love a good diversity, they they will, they will likely.
::G chickens are all about dei.
::Go for everything.
::You can put in there. I mean think about it, they they will eat.
::Their feet covered.
::What I am never, they don't care.
::Well, you know how bad we get Japanese.
::Eagles yes, in Michigan and that's kind of my idea is that they just wreak havoc on The Beatles.
::Oh, and that your hope?
::You know, I wonder if you can, you could probably do this if you brought some ducks over to your garden.
::Ducks are much so chickens, if you know. If you're thinking about getting chickens and you want to have them fertilize a certain area which, like we've done, we did wear like all winter and fall, we've allowed our chickens to go where, like our, our vegetable garden is going to be and we've pushed them out of there so that it.
::Has time to.
::Essentially, I can burn off what's in there, but those do. We need to OK those chickens.
::Nope, you're good.
::Where was like.
::Oh, chickens. Just.
::Blow everywhere and they scratch everything and they pull everything up. Ducks are like they'll tiptoe around some things. They're they're far less bulldozer than a chicken. So that's a lot of times. They just want protein, especially if you can get, like, my Miscavige duck. That thing will just, like, walk in between bushes.
::And plants and it will not step on them if they're very careful about where they step and they will go and they will pick beetles, pick a beetle and they won't touch the leaf. They'll only take the.
::So you know how people, farmers that have goats will come through and do clearing for for vegetation? Yes.
::If Tyler.
::Would do the same thing with his ducks. Just bring the ducks over and just do some.
::You could do that? Yeah. Get his done to have him come over. Eat The Beatles. I I tried it, but my ducks were young, and so they just kind of like it, didn't they they.
::They Add all my blueberries.
::They all flickers. I was like ohh put them into our our fruit forest. It's fruit force.
::Have this.
::We got blueberries, raspberries.
::Strawberries, blackberries, cherries, apples, pears, Peaches and and then a whole bunch of other current and all that stuff. Anyways, I put ducks in there. I had a little a little hutch for them.
::And they all went and ate the blueberries. That's all they ate. And there were so many little like beetles in it. No, didn't touch the beetles. They just ate the blueberries. But it was, I think it was because they were. They were too young. Umm, if I tried it again, and if I just put, I mean the blueberries.
::No, just one or two fairies.
::Might be a little bit different.
::Are in a very specific.
::Place. If I just put the light netting.
::Ducks are very much.
::They're they're like, oh, there's something blocking that. I'll go somewhere else. They're a chicken. Is like, there's something blocking that I will get through that.
::Small hole it'll.
::Like, pack the fence until the fence moves enough to where it can get to what it wants.
::Ducks are kind of a little more passive. That's why I like ducks because they're a little more like, well, we have to walk everywhere, whereas chickens can can fly up, even though ducks can fly a lot of times they don't.
::Inside the line.
::Like they just.
::Want to walk everywhere? My ducks do not fly. They just walk everywhere.
::Flightless birds and the Penguins and ducks.
::Or I mean or?
::Yes, seriously. But you get the big Peking ducks. Those things can't fly.
::Those things just waddle. I keep one peeking duck because it I see Hawks and it starts to go nuts and Hawks leave. Wow. OK. Yeah. I thought I needed a livestock guardian dog, but I just needed a peeking duck duck. So now I'm stuck with the livestock.
::In the dark.
::Terrorizes people.
::Ohh man.
::Uh, yeah, my, yeah, my livestock guardian dog just like vanishes sometimes. I had to get. I had to get an electric fence so that she can't go anywhere because I don't know what else to do, and I don't have the money to put up a massive 1500.
::Foot long right property.
::So.
::So I I have a I have.
::A couple of things that.
::I want to ask one of them is.
::Kind of reverting.
::Back to our original topic for this whole episode is about kind of responsibility and who's the head of what? A big topic in our house that Kate and I've had multiple conversations with.
::To ask you.
::Well, is kind of the.
::Responsibility or head when it comes to emergency situations, when it comes to preparedness for whether that be natural disasters, whether that be, you know, wartime here on US soil, whether that comes to like daily preparation. Hey, we're.
::We're in a bad spot.
::Bad part of town, like how does that work with you guys and and you know, go from there.
::For the bad spots of town.
::I just don't go.
::OK, that is the truth and and not that not that you know any place can't become a bad situation. You know. Good, good, clean fun places that you know have have a history of low crime can bad things can happen there right but.
::Good rule of thumb.
::That would be the first thing I mean as far as on our property. It's funny that I just talked about getting rid of our livestock guardian dog or or having one, but her not having a job. That dog will go.
::Through a wall.
::To protect whatever living creature is on our property, I I had to start putting on my Amazon.
::Uh.
::Notes I just said, just put the packages on to the egg stand because.
::Oh yeah.
::Like, I mean, you know, our dog just roams. So those people come up to our house, she sits there and waits for them to drive down the driveway. She doesn't like, go to the truck or anything. She just sits there and waits. And today the guy I don't like this. I'm. I'm working with her. But she was sitting there.
::Yes.
::Watched him. He handed the package, actually, to Katie, my wife.
::And he turned his back and she like.
::She shot after him and Katie's like. Nope. Stop. And she did. But you know you're.
::Like what is?
::Happening this dog is just very, very protective, but has never, never been anybody doesn't. She'll come close to people, and then we'll just chewed off. So it's kind of more like a hey, just want to let you know.
::Here I've been on the receiving end of your dog security protocols. Yeah, she mostly.
::Yes.
::Park, she's so. So.
::Wait.
::Yeah.
::Like the moment the moment.
::You come out and you're like, hey, shake your hand. You're like, hey, you know, hug or whatever. Then she's like, ohh, we're good here and then she she has the sweetest dog.
::Yeah. If she knows you. Yeah.
::Yeah, people that come over.
::After she knows, OK, this persons like they're good, we're good.
::You you've got the correct security clearance, you may you may enter the home, but it's.
::Beyond that, I mean I I know you.
::Know.
::A dog is not an infallible way to protect your home. You know anybody can actually. Some of my neighbors have told me that somebody tried to pick her, pick her up. Somebody tried to like to get her and and put her into her. Their truck.
::And because she she saw them and was like, oh, hey, that that dog actually belongs to them. So, you know, they're like, OK, we thought it was a stray or something. And then they came back another day with multiple people and tried to tried to wrangle her up or something. And she ran away.
::Wow.
::What is like, what the Frick people trying to freaking steal my dog? I was like that. That would not, I mean.
::You could shoot her with a train or something like that. I.
::Don't know what else you would do.
::You got a big dog. She's she's. She's still growing like those.
::It's £100.
::Dogs grow. Tell.
::Her like 18 months, so she'll probably be like around 110 LB.
::But she's fast big. Her paws. I was looking at her paws next to my one year old's legs and I think her paws are the same size as her legs. They're huge.
::Great Pyrenees is that. Is that what?
::Great.
::She is, yeah, yeah. But just to, you know, goes up, especially my one year old. My my two daughters. If they're out playing in the grass, she just goes and lays next to them and just.
::Totally fine, but if somebody tried to come at them. Oh my God, that's gonna happen. She was. I I'm pretty convinced you would give her life to to do something. Yeah.
::Oh my God, that really easy. You know, that's terrifying.
::Yeah.
::And that that's nuts, but crazy that somebody actually tried to pick my dog.
::Up. That's.
::And you live in a pretty remote part of town too. Like it's not like you're near major intersections, even or like a like a a major town. No, but.
::Yeah, I I.
::I also understand the other side you.
::Know people are probably.
::You could be watching this and going well. Maybe you should keep your dog in a in like a fenced in area or like which which we are. We are trying to work on doing that with her but at the same time.
::I have many of our neighbors come to me saying thanks to your dog, we don't have coyotes.
::More.
::Wow.
::Because these coyotes, a couple of years ago, were just everywhere. I mean, they were taking our chickens. They were taking other people's chickens, and they were howling every night we have, we've seen them walking around and she comes, she goes and barks all over the place and they are gone and they go somewhere else where there's not a perceived threat.
::So hey, I I feel like I'm.
::I'm doing all.
::That I'm doing the neighborhood paper, yeah.
::If there's not coyotes nearby.
::It's so interesting cause even around here in in more of a city in urban environment like there there's a coyote pack that lives behind our house and there have been multiple nights where I've been woken up at 2-3 in the morning because of the Coyote pack, Allen.
::Sure.
::And there's even our neighbor set up a trail Cam in the forest behind us, and they catch coyotes and deer all the time on that trail Cam.
::I believe it well, yeah, cause you have a you have like basically a little tributary. Yeah, right behind your house. So that's that's probably why.
::Yeah.
::And I, we've been here a little over 2 years now and I just saw my first coyote probably a few months ago. I actually walked through our backyard and we we have chickens like they were right there at the back of our property. So they the coyote was not, but 15 feet from our our chicken food.
::Oh yeah.
::They're pretty.
::They like they. They wouldn't really try to probably break into your chicken area. That would be more of a like a raccoon. Yeah, I actually had it. I'm pretty sure it was a raccoon pull. Like, I had everything stapled down and stapled down from the outside. So like if you pushed in, it wouldn't matter. It was only if you could.
::Hmm.
::It actually pulled out every staple.
::Pulled back the then the chicken wire and then reached his hand and then just grabbed, grabbed all these little little chickens.
::That's crazy. So I worry about that with Scott. I worry about that with skunks, too, because sometimes skunks, skunks will try to get in and there's a skunk hole. Not, but.
::He's gone.
::15 feet from her chicken. Yeah, back in the forest.
::Too, but we have a lot of raccoons we see.
::A lot of possums running there too, and.
::And you don't think.
::About skunks going after your chickens, we don't get a lot of skunks. We get a lot of raccoons, possums, possums are just like nasty creatures. They serve their purpose. They kill lots of mice Sims.
::Yeah.
::I actually really love possums, so there's there's a story behind it, though. There is a story. So I was living in this really, really fancy neighborhood. I was growing up and there was a possum that got hit by a car in the middle of the street, and it was a female.
::There's a story.
::Awesome. That had a pouch full of babies and all the babies lived. But the Mama died.
::Run over, which was the craziest thing. So it was like 6 babies. And I remember going to look at this possum right outside my friend's house, and I was like, oh, my God, this is disgusting. Like, there's guts everywhere. And I was like.
::We.
::Gotta get this off the road like this is gross and.
::Before I went to move it with a shovel like I just watched the belly, just like, move it around.
::What the **** is happening? There's some alien ship, right? But no, it was a pouch and it was full of baby passes, right? So I was. I was. I was waiting for. So I was like, ohh. Like we we lived on a golf course and everything. So I I grabbed a few of the babies.
::And then like you know, put it out in the woods.
::Like, hey, good luck and.
::There's a lot of Eagles and Hawks around and they didn't make it, but like 20 seconds before they came and swooped in and like, took them all and they was like little pieces. It was rough, but there was 2 possums that ended up living from that and I took them back to my house and I was like, hey, mom, I got possums.
::You exempt?
::I don't, I don't know.
::What to do? And she's like, well, we're gonna keep him. So we end up raising 2 possums. They're called Pete and Pablo from Petey. Pablo the rapper and.
::Is this your origin story of how you like became a home setter?
::This, this, this and like that explains so much. Why my sister loves animals so much. But yeah, we uh, no, I'm sorry. Not peeing public with the the birds that we raised yet ebone and Skibo was the name of the possums.
::I don't know why we named them that, but we raised their mentality for 23 weeks, which was apparently the the of age in which they leave their family. So then we put them back in the in the wild, but we did, we raised two poster come back and say hey, you see him again after you let him go.
::Ah.
::I saw possums that I was.
::They like. We'll give you a little wing.
::And they gave me a little.
::Wings. I was like alrighty Boo.
::I got you.
::You know, there was this like top ten, like, sexiest things that you can do on another date and the number one thing, it was like some Yahoo article from probably 15 years ago that I I don't know why I remember this.
::Leaking opossums is that it? No.
::But it was.
::Like the top sexiest thing was a good wing.
::A good wing.
::Good wink. He's like, yeah, I gotta alright. Well, here's here's the thing. We got another story coming, so I used to work for a mortgage company and I did loan servicing and it was fully like a call center on the phone.
::And I had this lady, this older southern lady called in and when she called in, my accent came out and I it only happens.
::When I talk with other people, if I go visit my dad in the Carolinas for a week, I come back with and it's just ingrained in me. It happens at least you're from the South. You know what I hate those people, those Michigan people that go down the South and they're like the Yanks.
::Hey all. How you doing, man? You're like, dude, you've lived there for six months. Get outta.
::Here said I had a I had. I was.
::On a call with this lady from from Georgia.
::She had thick southern accent, is an older lady and.
::My buddy who worked a.
::Couple of deaths from me and he.
::Could see me.
::And we would, we'd make eye contact shooting Nerf guns at each other whenever, but I was on the call with this woman, and he heard my accent come out. So he initially like.
::Turned his call log off and turned around and looked at me and.
::Watched me take.
::This call and at some point I got so ingrained in the accent and in the conversation. Again, I'm in a call center just on the phone. I winked.
::At the lady there you did eyes. I'm on the phone. And then as soon as I did it, I said, why the **** did I do that? And I turned and I looked.
::At him and then.
::He just just breaks down in laughter because he saw me do it and I was like, ****, he saw me do.
::It, but it was too, lady on the.
::Phone. So you do it too.
::She probably did. It was. I mean, she was probably in her 60s, but I just. I felt connected to her as, like, I'm just taking care of her.
::I felt the wind.
::How do you know that someone's in their 60s by?
::Their voice, you can tell you can tell you.
::Can tell you're like you sound like a almost grim or like a.
::Especially if they're from the South and you can tell.
::You seem like a new grandma.
::But she no, she wasn't a grandma. She was. She was a memo for sure. Mema. Yeah. She was a MEMA.
::You wish to litigate the man.
::A grand Pappy, a grand grand. Mammy. Grand mammy.
::Rami.
::Let me know, yeah.
::So I guess I'll bring it back around. You asked me what I do for my family to to protect them. I basically said dog.
::I do other things but I want to. I want to throw it over to you. What do you do for it to, you know, to prepare and to to think through potential situations that you know, I I think some of those it's very easy to go that's not going to happen here. It's going to United States.
::Big *** dog.
::America, we're not gonna.
::And and like I'm sure that you know, some people in Palestine thought that's not going to happen here or like some people in Ukraine thought. That's not going to happen.
::Like.
::There's there's been many times throughout history where I'm sure there's a group of people that never thought that anything could happen. I mean, in the United, I'm sure there's plenty of Native Americans that never expected to see some boats coming across the water with some.
::Some whities.
::Who? Who would eventually either. Yeah.
::So, I mean, there's every single.
::Every single it's just not.
::Like America or any every single civilization has been destroyed at some point, and it might be when you're alive. Am I not? And that's that's great. I can hope that it's not when I'm alive. Also remember, you're modeling things for your kids. So like.
::Maybe it's not going to happen when you are alive, but it might happen when your kids are alive and maybe they should know. But so, like, what do you do to prepare yourself for the potential of, you know, the point, even if it is a .1% chance, what do you do to?
::Prepare yourself. I think I'm definitely a lot more.
::Hyper vigilant than most people? Uhm, just because I like, I like to watch a lot. I don't like to say a lot. I like to watch a lot and see what's happening. And this year is already kind of crazy.
::Like for instance today I don't know if you heard about the AT&T outages, but they think it might possibly be from a solar flare that knocked out 70,000 peoples worth of AT&T service. That's a.
::It would be, yeah.
::That's a lot of.
::Lot of people.
::I have experienced my cell tower going out because of our tornado and Katie and I both had food poisoning at the same time.
::Yeah.
::Time.
::And we had a nine month old at the time. We had no way of contacting anyone. Our Internet was out, our power was out and our cell service was gone. And like, that's not a oh, there's a there's a World War that was just like, hey, Mother Nature threw a spiral at us and knocked down some towers.
::Natural disaster.
::And that nothing. And we were sick. Look how sick we would.
::Have been like well.
::Let's just go to our family's house. But like, we couldn't drive because we were shipping like, you know.
::Out.
::And we had a baby like we were like we should probably call someone and, like, get help. Yeah, but we couldn't. We actually like literally had no self-service and no Internet. So yeah, be careful with that bundle.
::Yeah.
::And save package.
::It was scary. It was scary and and I mean, there's nothing saying that that can't happen to anyone. Like there's a cell tower going down and yeah, like, we do live a little bit more in rural.
::Area, but we.
::Don't live that.
::Far in rural area like we're 10 minutes from Walmart and huge grocery store chains and target and like.
::We're not that.
::Far in the middle of nowhere, we're just like on the outskirts of town, where we have some.
::Land, right? Yeah. You know, like I'm saying like.
::I I feel like obviously I've got a a list of all my end of the world, items that I would like to have that that weren't gotten to yet.
::100% I went I'm working on uh.
::Tank.
::Tank is 1 is a good.
::Top of my list #1, but I think for for us the biggest thing is alright, where the biggest thing to do is to assess like hey, where you're at, are you in the country or in the city because that's going to determine a lot of like how much preparation you need to do where in the city like we're in major crossroads.
::Gotta bury it.
::So if there is any type of, you know, domestic war or civil unrest like I need to be prepared that at any moment there could be, you know, a a large group of people marching down my street. I'm on a.
::Major Rd. live one mile away from the highway. That that's actually the.
::The biggest determination because, like the most people could get to you.
::And we're I I think.
::Under 2 miles from a major highways in 696 right?
::I mean, you're also surrounded by a.
::Lot of people so that that takes a part of it. But for me a lot of the preparedness or preparation is alright do do we have enough food to supply us 30 days and if so, can we pack a car and leave? And if we can leave, do we know how to get somewhere?
::That's not reliant on self.
::Phones in Google Maps or Waze or whatever it is. That's a big part because my, you know, I have my, my father and my grandmother. They live out in the middle of nowhere in the Carolinas. But can I get to them to be on the outskirts?
::That's a far that's a far travel point where, like you're gonna have to get, you're gonna have to fill up gas price 3.
::Times to get there.
::Exactly. Yeah. You're talking an 11 hour drive, you know, 600 plus miles. I'm going to fill up at least twice in order to get there. So can I do that with, you know, with something happening, you know, globally or nationwide?
::But on a day-to-day basis, it's it's very simple. It's, you know, making sure you have simple escape plans in case there's a fire in your house having some sort of plan. If someone does break into your house, do you have security system? Do you have an alarm system? Do you have cameras? If someone gets in your house in the middle of the night, what are you going to do to?
::Protect yourself or protect your family. Do you have a plan?
::You're gonna use.
::A baseball bat.
::Yeah, exactly.
::All those shows where you see somebody come up with a baseball bat.
::If someone is taking the time to break in your house, I'm not going to have a ******* gun. Like if somebody's well, actually.
::Well.
::A lot of people that break into houses.
::Don't bring a gun, because if they get caught.
::It is a like you're talking. If you don't have a gun versus having a gun, it's a tremendously different.
::Punishment.
::So at least from I know a few people that have broken this, some houses and they don't bring a gun with them or they didn't they.
::Didn't bring a.
::Gun there. They didn't bring a gun because they they didn't want. If they did get caught, they didn't want to have a gun because you can. You can probably get off with like a year, whereas.
::The Thomas.
::For B&E.
::Yep.
::Without a gun, like if you do an unarmed robbery, way less beanie, but she's going with a gun. They they can, they can say, well, like, see they they were intending to kill people. That's a whole lot of.
::BNA is.
::Yeah, yeah.
::Different which which?
::I have to agree, if you go into some someones House and you're just like trying to make some jewelry or something.
::That's a whole lot different than coming in with the gun.
::Yeah, because you for the most part, I don't think that people that are breaking into.
::Your house want to?
::Will you? No. They just wanna steal your ****. Yeah. They want your stuff.
::Just want to. They want your **** and they want to get out. They want to intimidate you with a gun.
::Right.
::And they they might bring like an airsoft gun or something with.
::Them. So you think they have a gun?
::Uh. Rented out where I live.
::I I think the vast majority of people do have guns, or at least that's the assumption, sort of like Switzerland. I think Switzerland is something.
::Yeah.
::I will Fact Check myself on the fly. OK, but I want to say it's like 90% of people own a gun because owns in Switzerland.
::In Switzerland my my daughter in her home school is learning about.
::This week, like that's the country that she is learning about. UM. And of course that wouldn't have come up in her studies, but now I'd be very curious to see if how many people in Switzerland actually own guns. Yeah, I feel a lot of countries near Europe don't have firearms. It's not legal.
::Person.
::OK, so in 2017?
::The estimated number of civilian held firearms in Switzerland is 2 point.
::3 million, which is a population of 8.4 million and 27.6 guns per 100 residents.
::So like 30%.
::Yeah, or, well, 27.6% percent. More. More. I think it's much higher than a lot of European countries, and they especially tends to have, I think a lot less break INS because.
::20 ohh 27 Christmas but anyways.
::People assume that somebody might have a gun one.
::In four isn't bad, so that's that's.
::That's interesting because my wife and I are going to go to Scotland for our anniversary this year. For our ten year anniversary.
::That was a big point of research for me. Was like can I bring my firearm? Can I carry it and not in Scotland? You cannot have a firearm if you're if you don't live there. That's a big no no. But even still, if you live there, owning A firearm is is a big faux paw, if you will and especially.
::No, definitely not.
::Or owning A handgun inspection. A lot of places, some places will they'll still let you own a rifle like because you could use it for hunting. But owning A handgun is like it's.
::Impossible in some places like Canada, it's freaking impossible to get a.
::Handgun. Yes, I I know that. And that's the the dumbest thing.
::There are also.
::The dumbest there's plenty of places where even police officers don't have handguns.
::That's ******* stupid.
::And you just pull out that big switch.
::I feel like we.
::Might need a whole episode on.
::I'm like my mom used to do that to me. There was a wooden spoon, but still.
::I feel like there is we could do a whole episode on Joel's hot. Take opinions on firearms from different countries, but.
::I I I I totally understand the whole, like, well, if they're illegal.
::They're like, hey, nobody has them. And like, yeah, that's that's great. That's fine. Except for like the UK is the stabbing capital of the world. Like London is the stabbing capital of the world. That's all that happened. You know what happens is it to our, let's say, our probably our our not that not at all females.
::There are definitely females out there.
::That are stronger than.
::But probably most are not.
::Right.
::I am going to win a physical battle with loathed female. So are you. Most men are going to buy by and large be able to overpower most female and no, not to say there's there's not a female out there who couldn't beat the **** out of me. I know there are plenty of them.
::Yes. Yeah.
::But a gun is the ultimate equal now.
::It.
::You have a gun. I have a gun and we're both like it doesn't matter how strong you are. Yeah, we're.
::It's a matter of chance.
::If, like.
::You have a knife and I have a knife.
::Unless you're very skilled with your life now, if I see you coming at me with your knife like this, well, I know I'm absolutely going to win because I'm coming out like this. That's this one.
::Knife 101, difference 01.
::Life 101. That was my my military friend. I had to hold a knife and.
::Tell me how to.
::Fight with one because I was going.
::To a country where I couldn't have a.
::A gun, so.
::Yeah.
::I got taught how to have go with a knife but.
::He actually he was a big guy. He's like, if we get mugged on the streets and this was in Columbia, I think guys like if we see somebody and they come at come at you like this, just punch him in the face. He's like if they come at me and they have the knife here and it's down like this.
::I'll give them all my money because I know what they're doing. As we said, that's where my a a high-ranking military officer. Take that for what it's take that proposal, but.
::Leave it at that, yeah.
::A gun is an ultimate equalizer, whereas and I know there's lots of stats about oil, you know a burglar can turn the gun on you and and you know you could be shot by your own gun and all that. That certainly is a that could happen. And that's also what happens when people are like all I need to do is own a gun. And I'll be safe. That's dumb too.
::Well, one thing that I truly respect from.
::A lot of people may know they're listening to this. An individual called Mike Glover. He was a special forces in military and he runs a company called Fieldcraft Survival. And I'm super. I'm a huge fan of his. But one thing he does in his firearm training courses is he has people do 5 minutes.
::Of some sort of hit or physical activity.
::Where they're doing push-ups, they're doing jumping jacks. They're doing, you know, burpees or whatever. And then at the end of that 5 minutes, immediately they pull out their gun and they're trying to shoot a target. And he said most of the people can't even breathe. After 2 minutes of hit. And it's like, you want to defend your family and defend yourself, and you aren't physically fit to even do 2 minutes.
::The physical exercise.
::What do you have to run?
::What if you have to run and carry someone for a mile and a half and then turn around and pull your firearm? And what are you going to do?
::Next.
::I saw something that was like, you know, there's a lot of preppers out there. Yeah. And there was, like, a prepper show. I can't remember the name of it. And like, I guess a several of the people that were preppers were very overweight and kind of the thing was like, yeah, it's great. You got a whole bunch of stuff.
::But.
::If somebody chases you, you are going to.
::Die. You're so fat.
::And and that's.
::You can you can.
::You have the body you want, but.
::If you want to survive when it all hits the fan, you should probably be in shape like. If that's the kind of. If that's the kind of mentality you want, you guys start making some moves to become more physically fit. This leads into the perfect.
::I think the misleading.
::The final topic that I.
::Want to talk about with you, OK.
::The concept of.
::Today's definition of toxic masculinity.
::And what that means and look at this like you, and if anyone who's listening to this this podcast for more than two minutes is like, no, these these ******* are, yeah, 100%.
::You're looking at.
::It.
::There, you know.
::Wrapped up that we'll take a break and we'll.
::We will, we will jump.
::Come back to it.
::Sounds good alright.
