SISU Farms

A city background does not prepare you for a morning that starts with milking a cow, scanning for rattlesnakes, and measuring your day in half-day chunks because there are no shortcuts. We sit down with the co-owner of SISU Farms, to talk about how she went from urban convenience to a full-on homesteading experiment on remote land, and why she believes you can change your entire life faster than you think.

The story begins with a family health crisis and a growing distrust of “business as usual” solutions. That pressure turns into a deep dive into self-sufficient living: sourcing ingredients directly, learning food preservation and fermentation, and building a farm-to-table routine where milk can go from cow to table in hours. Along the way, we get honest about the unfiltered realities of rural life: wildfire risk, fire breaks, livestock management, predators, and the kind of small mistakes that can lead to big consequences.

We also talk about the parts people rarely post, including the heartbreak of animal loss, the grind of long workdays, and the decision to delete negativity on social media instead of feeding the outrage machine. She shares what helps her stay steady, from running quiet rural roads to sauna culture and learning to sit with her own thoughts. If you’re curious about homesteading for beginners, off-grid mindset, and what it really takes to build a self-reliant family life, this conversation will give you both the inspiration and the reality check.

If this gave you a new way to think about your own life, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s craving a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of homesteading would you try first?

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Shoutout to:

SISU 

The SISU Farms Family 

Ag-Gear Store 

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Raising Awareness:

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Mental Health 

Transcript

Meeting The Founder Of Sisu Farms

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Todd, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I am excited for this.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

You're excited?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I am.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I was excited, and then the the the fire came, and then I was just like anxiety, and then but I was I'm excited. I'm more excited than anything just because I've been wanting to do this. I'm a huge fan of yours and to to be out here to see for myself how it looks and everything else. It's it's kind of a treat to be out here to see how you live and do things. Is is that okay for me to say?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, that's 100% fine. I'm glad you're here. I think what we're doing out here is really different, and the only reason why I did start posting it on social media of any kind is I wanted to show people there is a different way to do things. And if you're brave enough or crazy enough, you can change your entire life in a really short span of time.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah. Before we go any further, you we're talking about this lifestyle right now. No one knows, Taj. You you are the owner, co-owner, or the the main lady of Sisu Farms.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

That is correct.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Right? That's how you pronounce it. Yes. Sisu Farms.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

That is, it's a Finnish word. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Okay, finish. Okay. So before we go any further, how did the thought of Sisu Farms come about? Or, like I mean, to be self-sufficient, you gotta know some things. I mean, YouTube could only go so far, correct?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

That is correct. So I started

Health Crisis Sparks Self-Sufficient Living

SPEAKER_00 2:05

my research on this probably a good 15 years ago, I think is really when it began, 15 or 16 years ago. There wasn't really anything online. So I read a lot of books and almanacs and whatnot. It kind of all began when there was a health crisis in our family, and we had kind of felt failed by the people that were overseeing it. And I was wondering if there was a way that I could be a support person in this health journey, that it was my husband, the one that was affected at that time. And so I started researching and figured that if I could source as much stuff myself as raw ingredients and start just with food and nutrition, I wondered if it would alleviate some of his symptoms, and it did. So I became a believer in, you know, getting things from the source, but it's also really expensive to buy it. So that means DIY. A lot of DIY.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

What was it? Gluten?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

What was what so for him, it was just he had had an overgrowth of strep in his gut. He was really sick. He is now antibiotic resistant because he had taken so many antibiotics that at that point they were doing experimental medication on him and it wasn't working. And I was facing the fact that he could very well die if he got another infection because the medical industry, like the hospital, was just like we can't help anymore.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

And so I was wondering if there was a way. I grew up pretty medically minded. My dad is in the medical industry, a lot of family is. But I was curious about holistic and so just like fully supporting the body, and that's kind of where it all began. And I started growing my first plants, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Okay. But did you grow up in this kind of lifestyle? Oh my goodness, because no, no, you did it.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Straight up Portland girl. I had my own personal shopper at Nordstrom's that would leave my stuff in a special fitting room for me every Saturday morning. She knew I was gonna get it. From Portland? So I lived in Vancouver, but like I was Vancouver Portland girl for sure. Very city, very like I didn't get dirty.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

It's quite the change.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

I dusted my car if I went like five miles.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

It's quite the change. So so I'm kind of you know, I'm I'm excited to be here. I'm also excited to learn more things, but it's just like, okay, well, if you watch your your reels and and everything else that you vlog about and whatnot on Instagram, you think you've been in this, you grew up in it, you left for a minute, and then now you're back because you like the old way of life.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

No, that couldn't be further from the truth.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Sorry. Well, the thing is I'm just laughing.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

No, but that's that's that's how it that's how it looks. It looks like, I mean, yeah, yeah, you have your ups and downs, you know, that you don't put on social media, for sure, right? But you you're in it, you own it, and then it's just like all right, now I'm here and you're pretty much owning it and living it, and uh it's quite the lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

It it is an entirely new lifestyle, but but it doesn't look new. No, but it is. I just I don't know, maybe it's the voice of my ancestors.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Voice of ancestors speaking through me.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Honestly, I will just go off of instinct, ideas, nudges, feelings, and it works out.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Now, is this an idea then? And it worked out.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

This was completely my brainchild that I submitted to my husband, and he went in on it, and it's working. So, yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

It is working, it is with a few rattlesnakes and a dog that kills chickens. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Don't forget the scorpions, those ones are very new to me.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Really? Do they go in the dark over here?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I was told by somebody that they do. I need to get the special light.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Oh, the black light?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yes, so I need to go scorpion hunting.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, what would you do with it? Just I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Probably just yeah, just pin them, probably, so we can like study them as homeschool projects and stuff, dissect them.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Alright, so Portland. Yeah, no background. I mean, you're milking cows. Yes, you're making your own cheese. I saw that.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Did you ever think or have a wild dream back when you were younger that you were gonna milk cows and make your own cheese? I mean like a professional.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I don't know. Like I read, you know, little girl books, like Little House on the Prairie. I'd read that.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I was gonna call you Laura short for Laura Angels, but I was like, you know, I don't think, I don't think uh she would like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

But it's all good. No, so I did like I had read those and my grandma,

Trading City Comfort For Remote Land

SPEAKER_00 6:45

she was a little bit stranger than I guess people that I'd grown up with, but in a really good way, she would ferment things. She would grind her own wheat to make her bread. She would, you know, have the strange cultures that I cultivate on my countertop are strains that are from her. You know what I mean? So she's she was a little bit, I guess, hippie earthy minded in that way. And so she was one of those inspirations for me to try things. But all of what I'm doing, all the knowledge I did just gain on my own with trial and error or research and reading. A lot of reading.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Did you do your research and everything else before you got this land?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

No, you were just like, here's land.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Let's just go.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

No trees.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Let's just go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Just rolling hills. Beautiful rolling hills, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Very beautiful. So my husband had come. We had known that this land in this area was coming out for sale. And so we went on a drive with his dad and brothers. And when I don't know if he had texted me or asked me, he's like, We're not interested in that land, right? And I just remember saying, Why wouldn't we be? And that's kind of just where it began. And he's like, Well, we this and that. And I'm like, okay, but okay, but yeah, but also. Yeah, yeah. And so that's kind of how it went. And he was like, All right, okay, okay, let's give it a go. I was like, I couldn't see us getting on land any other way. And we were in a position where we were living that it started to feel unsafe as more unsavory characters were moving in closer. And it was kind of like our home ended up being a target where they would take things from my vehicle if I had left it unlocked, or they were rifling through our garbage can and taking papers though that I maybe hadn't shredded. So I was starting to get nervous. And the officer that I had talked to at that time, he had said, along the lines of these guys aren't super mu much to worry about, but who they associate with.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

You don't want your name on those people's, you know, radar. So we chose to not press any charges because I didn't want any. I didn't want them knowing I existed. Yeah, yeah. And then and then we just left. And here we are. And where was this? This was in Benton City. Bent City. Yeah, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, Bent City is Benton City.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yeah, I didn't know that when we moved there. I thought we were moving from one small town because we had come from Weston, Oregon. Yep. And absolute magic out there. And I was like, one tiny town to another, I'll be good. And I was like, oh no, Benton City is not a tiny little idyllic.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

It's not. And the crowd there, a lot of the the rejects from Tri-Cities go to Bent City, even though it's like we tried.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

We were really down the road, but it's not, you know. But yeah, so we made we made the best of it for as long as we could. And then we just I just knew we needed to get out because I wasn't even feeling safe being at home there during the day. And I feel safe out here. Yeah. I've been able to breathe. No problem.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Tell you what. There's I mean, your nearest, what your nearest neighbor is what, two miles away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

It's very nice, honestly. It is, it is. From subdivision style to this.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

I'm man, but I I didn't think this this kind of land existed out here.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I didn't either. I actually didn't even know this place existed.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Serious.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I mean, I knew you know down the way, but not out here.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah, but when you said that one landmark, I was like, oh, okay, but I've never been, so I'm not gonna check it out. But yeah, I didn't know you were out this far.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

It is very far. And that's been an adjustment for me because, like I said, I mean, I grew up having Starbucks right around the corner. You know what I mean? Grocery stores two seconds away. You miss an ingredient, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Or even you have a neighbor that you can borrow from. And out here it's like No.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Have you borrowed?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Um, I mean, technically we borrowed tractors when they came to help do a fire break when this big fire was lit out here. Yeah. So we borrowed their skills.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Now, do you think the the these fires, right? They're already saying they're man-made, obviously. But do you do you feel like majority of the fires that are here that are going on are man-made, or do you think it's just nature?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

I only know of one that was nature, and that was a lightning strike, and that was last year. So otherwise, it does seem to be negligence, and that is a real fear that we had moving out here because there is a huge fire risk and there is a lot of rush. So we have been incredibly cautious.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

And we haven't started anything, so that's been good. But yeah, it is there is negligence that does go on.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah, or are you yeah, I was also gonna ask because of the fires inland, you know, that's a kind of slow highway, but there were more people sightseeing the the fire or what was left of the fire. There was a house that was burned down, I think it was a junkyard or something. Yeah, but it more sightseeing, but like have you considered a bigger fire break?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah, so no, we we do now. I had I made a joke that I would just like nothing but fire break. The entire place is fire breaking, yeah, ideally. But no, I think after especially the fires that kind of happened just yesterday, we're gonna have the farmers come out and do they have a pretty big tractor and they did one swath last week when we literally could have burned down if it wasn't for them because

Fire Season And Daily Rural Chaos

SPEAKER_00 12:10

of somebody out here. But we're gonna have them come and do more, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah, well, good thing you don't have semis coming out here, you know. I mean, I saw one semi, I'm like, where the heck? What is this guy doing out here?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

I'm like probably delivering feed to a farmer.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

It's crazy. Well, it was it was uh regular trailer, not yeah, it was just like why are you doing there? But even that you know sparks fires and stuff like that. Okay, so City Girl, then moving here. Okay, you're kind of ran out, been city, yes, and you've lived here for how long?

SPEAKER_00 12:44

This I want to say it's like 410 days, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Really? You got it down to the days, not the the months.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Everything is by day out here, sometimes by half day.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Well, why is that?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

It is the busiest life I have personally ever lived in my life, because there's there's not many conveniences out here. And I know I chose that, yeah. But the amount of time it takes to get done what you would get done with maybe all the standard conveniences, it's completely mind-blowing. And then in it, there's always some form of drama. Like when you first pulled in. Oh, my son had left the back gate of the chicken trailer open, and I had seen on my video camera that the cow was trying to get into the chicken feed, which would mean another bloat situation and have to call the vet to pump her stomach. And so, you know, that's just as you were pulling in.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

And that was the cow didn't get to know.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

So he came to find out when he told me this morning that he did fill it up to the very top. He meant it was a few days ago that he filled it up to the very top. So she should be fine. I don't think there was any fee left for her to even get. So, you know, it's just everything. There's all these micro things where a little tiny mistake does result in potentially or realized large tragedy. Yeah. And it tends to be something like the chicken thing was left open, so Ash jumped in and killed 20 of them in the span of 30 seconds. That's crazy. Well, the top isn't supposed to be left open. So we can design things and make things, but if after seeing what that dog did. Yeah. If latches aren't closed, if things aren't, you know, they're gonna need a latch.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

It went through the fence. Okay, it went through the fence. This dog went through the fence, guys. I'm I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

He was he was a little bit crazy. A little bit well, it's nice to know that everything out here is very well protected. That dog is Cujo. We never have to worry about anything getting taken from this land. Our dogs protect us quite well. But as you see, you showed up and not a single one of them cared. Right. So they know good vibes. Yeah, but they will come after bad vibes.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Gotcha. I also feel like dogs can scent cancer too.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Yeah. Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, yeah, it is a thing. Yeah, it's a thing. I I really yeah, it it is known. They can smell it because there's a uh there's a smell. I know. There's a there's a smell.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

There's a smell she was so obsessed with you. Yeah, but she was being really tender. I was like, wow, she really loves you.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

It smells, the cancer smells, and chemo makes it even worse. Okay, yeah, yeah. See, so she's just sensing German Shepherd. How old is she?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

She is going on four years old.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Four, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Just getting out of the place.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

But the other one, Cujo.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Okay. So social media, how's social media treating you?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Um I tend to delete all the negative comments that will come in if there

Handling Social Media Hate Gracefully

SPEAKER_00 15:40

are some, because I don't want to create an avenue for people to argue on my page. I don't believe in that, even if it I know that theoretically it's a poor choice because if I did let discussions like that happen, it would put my analytics greater and my reach further. But I refuse to be a place where people will tear each other apart or even tear me down for what we do. And it does happen, you know, even simple things like we came out here onto the land. This isn't our land. We're not adding any benefit to this land. How dare we even be out here homesteading? You know, that's an avenue people come, or you know, it's abusive to have the chickens and it's abusive to have the cow.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

And are you talking about like the PETA Portlanders?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, like they'll come and find my page, right? But then you'll have the more homestead crowd come at them and then but the name calling will get really aggressive and the vulgarity will get really aggressive. So some posts I'll just let them go because I don't even have time to clean them up. Some things I'll just take them down. But I'm trying to find that balance.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

I need to start looking at comments. I'm too too in in intertwined with the voice and what you have to tell.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

That's the thing. That's what I don't want to be, is like this giant distraction that people will hang out on my page and like consume all of a sudden. No, go out there and milk a cow.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Right? Okay, is that that's that's your saying? Yeah, yeah. Just that's what I thought. Milk a cow.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah, go milk a cow because you can't, or take a sauna. I'm curious, milk a cow or take a sauna. Those are the two places you can't be mad.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

There's a lot of people that are just have no life whatsoever. Yes, and that and like, yeah, I I follow you, and you know, everything else, and then I I follow you, then then the voice comes. You got this voice. I people are gonna listen to this, be like, what is he talking about? But then uh, you know, I always I'm a stickler and and I I I notice things, and this voice of yours, it's very like you you can be narrate a book or or on audible. If you can read a book, I think you can make a lot of money just because that voice is so soothing, it's like ASMR.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

You know, I have no comment, but no, it is but I can I can thank you. Those are those sound like positive things, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

But man, I didn't even go in for the common comments because I'm like, why is somebody like hating on we did now define them as Sally Suburban because one person did come up with that?

SPEAKER_00 18:05

They coined that term, you know, like don't listen to a Sally Suburban. And I did giggle, and I'm not much for like negative, no, like the person that's commenting, yeah. The people commenting, so like a Karen, yeah, and I was like, oh, you know, suburban Sally or something. I was like, as much as I don't really like slangs or even talking down on any people, maybe they're jealous because you know, a lot of people leave reviews for podcasts, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:28

I've done this for a while, I've done it, done it, done it. A lot of people are like, is it still around? Yeah, it's still around. And when you're, you know, doing two seasons out of the year, you know, coaching, it's it's kind of hard, and then dealing with some health things back to back. And you you got those haters, and I I think a lot of the haters, I I think they're just jealous of your lifestyle or what you that person is doing.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

I actually would agree with you there. I think that people can be jealous of the lifestyle, but it just stems from the fact that they may want my results, but they don't want to put the work in to get it. You know what I mean? And so since but they have the ability. Like I said, I don't come from great traits that know all this kind of stuff. Like I this isn't learned knowledge at all. You can, if you don't know anything at all, learn something.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

You make it look easy. Yeah, you know, you have this and that's it. I don't try to. I try and share. But you're making your own cheese. How was that cheese?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

It's incredible. It's the best because you made it. It's the best cheese we've ever had.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

And you know the ingredients.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

I know, but that's what I'm saying. I know the ingredients. Most food will travel like even up to a thousand miles before it hits your table.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And so I'm like, mine travels, you know, 20 yards.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

That's kind of cool, and I can take it same day. Like it'll go from cow to the table in a couple hours. I know what my kids are eating. I know the ingredients. They love the quality too.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I mean, they're enjoying the taste. I've kind of ruined restaurants and stuff for them.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Fresh chicken eggs.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Right. No, it's it really is the best.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Guinea hens, you got guinea hens?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Guinea hens and guinea eggs.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

The eggs there, those are even better. I I heard. They're more nutritious for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I'm gonna send you home with some. We have some in the people not with that. There you go. They might be weirded out, but no, no, we're gonna try.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

We get some on a farm. My wife, she every now and then when I'm not buying them, she'll she'll

From Cow To Table Fast

SPEAKER_01 20:20

get it from a friend who has tons of chickens. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Smart woman.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

The yolks, the yolks are even darker.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Yep. Although the store eggs are getting darker yolks because they're finding that if you feed the chickens, carrot, and capsaicin, it'll artificially make the yolks darker. So don't fall for it. Capsaicin? Really? Yeah, because they can't sense the heat. It's actually really good for their gut. Like I'll give it to mine too, but a lot of the yolks in the stores now are artificially.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So now chickens are like, okay, if you if you can do it, I can do it. Okay.

unknown 20:52

The heat.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I think they just mark. I feel like the people selling it all, they mark them up higher. If they have if they're, you know, the shells are colored more, you can you pay more. If the yolks are colored more, you pay more. But the nutrition is the exact same as your base level eggs perfectly.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

How many eggs do you go through a day here?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

That really depends because it's not so much per day, but I can just use up all the eggs that come because it's essentially we'll go and collect maybe every three days. And if I have like, you know, 30 eggs or something, then I'm like, I'm making muffins, I'm making bakery, I'm you know, getting everything the freezer stocked. Yeah. So, and then that wipes out, you know, that collection of eggs, and then takes the kids only a few days to eat everything, and then I'm back to doing it again.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

So well, they're growing kids.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

They are, and I mean two already grown.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

I know it's crazy. They're all getting so big.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

You don't even yeah, you don't look, you don't act. Yeah, you who would have thought. So who would have thought? It's crazy, it's crazy. The more you know. So, all right. The worst part of being a homesteader the death.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

The death there is inevitable death that happens. And it's really sobering to realize that sometimes because of even my own negligence, a heartbeat stopped and it kills me. And so I've had to really learn that like I need to be gracious to myself because I am learning. And it's never intentional and it's never necessarily even negligence, but like knowing that it was negligence. There were some times, you know, where we had a batch of rabbits that had gotten left out, and I thought the cover was on their top and then it rained that night.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah, you can't get wet.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

No, it's like that is devastating for me. And so, and then even like with the chickens, like I didn't check to make sure that you know my son had closed the top. I should have checked. That was my job as the adult. It's not his job as the kid. I mean, he has his own responsibilities, he needs to learn, but yeah. So knowing there are things I've done. I don't know, that's a rough one. But that I would say that that that peaks.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah, I think there's nothing worse than that.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Did you have that on your radar when you wanted to be a homesteader?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Like people had told me that homesteading is gonna break your heart and there's gonna be losses and stuff like that. And I had thought, you know, maybe I could create enough safety areas, you know, ahead of time if I think it really, really threw. But the a lot of the clinchers that I didn't allot for is that my kids aren't always gonna listen and they're not always gonna kind of do their part. And even if it's impressed on them how important it is, because they're learning too. And honestly, they're great kids, but with how sick I've been the majority of my life with my pregnancies and the after results, in a lot of ways in their younger years, they had to raise themselves. And because I wasn't able to. And so I will never fault them for any of the accidents that happened because truly, like when a mom is usually training her three-year-old, you know what I mean, let's do our chores and five and seven and eight. I was in bed or vomiting 20 times a day or in the hospital getting IV. So they were like making their own lunches. Yeah, you know, and and so they're great.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

They look like homesteader family. I mean, they they look well put together and everything else.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

They're good kids, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

But what movie are you gonna watch?

unknown 24:18

Hunger Games.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Hunger Games? Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

They're huge fans. Hunger Games. She's introducing it to younger brother now. He's old enough.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Okay. Never was a fan of Hunger Games. It's different.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

They love the dystopian.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Oh, okay. So watch the road then.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

You guys want to say hi? You guys need something?

SPEAKER_00 24:43

What do you need? My phone. Where's your phone? I don't know. Okay. Well, you don't here. He can use my phone. This is the joys of children. It's great. They're homeschooled, they're home all the time. They're always a part of my life. They're they're we're a very integrated family. So he wants to say something, but he doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

That's okay. It's alright. Homesteading though. Like, when did how old were you? You don't have to say age, but how old were you when you knew for a fact homesteading was a thing?

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Like a thing that I wanted to do. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Well, not everybody thinks and like, okay, they wake up one day and be like, you know what? I'm gonna go homestead. I'm gonna go get some land. Normally, for me, I want to get land just so I can have a cabin and just have it, you know, during season. That sounds great too. You you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Um I milked a goat when I was a really little girl at my aunt's house. And then I always remember saying, I think this would be so cool if I could milk a goat. That was just a random thing. And then my husband had been raised, not necessarily a farm, but his dad would like, you know, have some animals here and there and stuff like that. So he was experienced with like having a meat cow and like Craig, he milked cows. I think he was like maybe 13 to 15-ish or whatever. And over and over he told me, you would hate it. There is no way because I mean he realized he dated me. Yeah, I was taking him to Portland, he'd never been. You know what I mean? We're going to fancy restaurants where I'm telling him, No, you actually can't wear those clothes. We need to go and get you proper clothes for you to be going to these places. Like he had no clue.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

So, but then also I didn't really know anything about that other side of life. So I showed him the finer things, and it was great. He loved him. He's not then complaining. So, but I would always keep on saying, Someday I want to farm, someday I want to farm. He says, No, you don't, no, you don't, no, you don't. And it did, it took until literally last year. And I finally like convinced him because I had volunteered at a farm in Benton City that gave me the opportunity to milk their cow and feed their pigs and their children.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

That's where he got the milking of the cow.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

And so it was actually that farmer he trained me in. And it was great because then they ended up having a health crisis with his wife, and I was able to take over their farm.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

While they were in the hospital and out of town and doing all these kinds of things.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

So then I was like, I was doing it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

And I was like, okay, I'm doing this every day, but I'm driving out to the farm. And I'm like, that was that got tedious and annoying. I was like, can you imagine if I could just open up my front door and just in my pajamas in my own space, go out and milk.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

And your space is quite unique.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

It is very unique.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

It is I like that word. Yeah, unique.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

That would that would be the perfect word to describe it.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

I love I love the location. I love it. It's on a hill.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Because anything below our body. We made sure of it.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

I wanted the highest point. I said if we were buying any of the land out here, then I wanted highest point because the views they're unbeatable.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

No, it yeah, I could only imagine what it looks like when you see Adams and Rainier, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

You can see I can see both of them.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

On a good day when it's not smoky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Okay. All right. But when you're not milking cows and everything else, you're quite the runner. I see.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

I'm I'm I'm a learning runner.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

You're a learning runner.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

I am a learning runner.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

But uh, as I was as I was traveling here, I noticed there's a lot of roads that are not used. And I'm like, man, I know it's hot, but man, this is like this is prime real estate just to have your get your own miles on a road. It's hot.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

It is phenomenal, but it's good for heat training.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Training grounds, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

For heat training, absolutely incredible. And I mean, being a fin, I've we have the joke that we're born and we die in a sauna. So heat has been a part of my life every single day. Like we will intentionally every morning wake up and bake ourselves to start the day and then to end the day, we bake ourselves. Literally. Yeah, and so I think that's why I mean I can tolerate the heat pretty well. I can deal with it, and so can my kids. We're all we grew up sowning.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

You took pictures of the road that you're running on. Was it the one it's down this way?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Oh, okay. Yeah. The farmer, I had asked one of the farmers over there if I could run on the room. You have to ask? Well, I do like to be polite, and I am new up here, and they were not very friendly when we first came up here. Yeah, they were they tried to run us off. Own the road? There it's I mean, I think they at least like help pay for the gravel and stuff like that. Maybe it's like a few owners on it. But so they they did try to run us off at first, and they do love us now enough to save our farm. I did thank them last week. I was like, you had the opportunity to let us burn to the ground when you did choose to save us, thank you. But I think we've kind of proven ourselves to them.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

They see you living in, you know, military graded tents. They should have some grace.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

They didn't think we were gonna make it. No, and we did. I don't think many people thought we were going to make it. But they've clearly never met me.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah. Or my dad. I mean, it is dry out here. It is dry. You're I mean, being a homesteader, that's gambling. Living out here with a bunch of match sticks as brass. I mean, it's yeah, but the one thing you do have is a lot of road, a lot of real estate to run on.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

I mean, I do love that.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

If you if if you don't like the monotony of you know just being on a road, I mean I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

It's good for my brain. It really is, because there's that left-right cadence that even if something stressful happens, because like I said, you know, things are kind of split by a half day. So if the morning went really stressful and I couldn't run, then I was able, you know, I'll be able to do it in the second half of the day and decompress all of whatever happened, you know, in the first half, or either or, but it's really great for my brain because I don't want to have to think.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

When I'm out there and I don't need to see any of them.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

When it's out and

The Hardest Part Is Animal Loss

SPEAKER_01 30:45

back, that's all you have is thinking.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

And it's good.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Music, maybe, but I want to go music.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

I actually have never been really the type of person that was comfortable sitting with my thoughts and sitting in my head. And so one thing about homesteading and being out here is there's a lot of opportunity to be in my head and thoughts. And it's really been healing and a really good growth factor for me.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So back back to running, and then I'm gonna go to hell homesteading. How many miles do you get when you do run? When you have the time? And how often do you have time?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

So any between five and ten miles is where I'm at right now. Okay, nice. So I can I can push to twelve, but I'm that's like if I do my distance run, I'll do twelve. But my comfortable one is I love my six miles. So there's just a route that I do, and if I can do that every other day, I'm super happy because I get to see all the views I like. And there's usually I'll get a kayak or a deer or you know, some elk bedding down or whatnot. And that's always so great for my brain just to see the wild animals. And but yeah, if I can get my six miles, I'm happy.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Are the kids into running?

SPEAKER_00 31:53

The girls are. The girls are and my eldest, yeah. My eldest is a he's he's the one that really encouraged me to start running up here because I was more of a hiker before we moved out here. Um McBee was my playground, loved it. Um I love McBee. And then obviously, you know rattlesnake. That was always a really good place because I was pretty close to it. Have you gone up through rattlesnake? All the way up, not to the all the way.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

So I know some I know some people who've done it multiple times. Don't don't know who.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

I need to know I need to know the route. So the route's quite simple.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

I know some people I can talk about. It's there's a road. I would love to explore the very you'd think that there's not a road up there, but there's a road and I have not made it to the road yet. If you are out like at this time of day, you're frying. You're in a frying pan. But yeah, it's an old old road back in like 30s or 40s, you know, when everything was booming.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Yeah, it's I heard there was like a missile launcher thing up there.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

I think yeah, it's I think it's further down. Okay. Further down.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I'm just like this place. I can't even imagine place how it was back in the day. I do like the history.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, it's quite interesting. That's the I think the the weirdest mountain I've been on around here. Be uh, just because if you go on to vanish, you know, when you're going to vanish the gorge and everything else, it looks like you know, you can just walk up it, but it's a cliff.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

It's a cliff.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

And then the cattle, it's just a you know, you just a walk up. It's crazy how that mountain's made. And yeah, that's I do love the hills.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

And that was my main thing was hills, but out here there's not really any. So then I I had ran back probably like 15 years ago, and then my fourth pregnancy kind of did me in mentally and physically. And then it took a really, really long time to rebuild from that one. And so it feels really good to be back into it. I never thought I'd ever run again because I found hiking.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

But it's just too even just McBee is like, take me like half an hour to get there and pack. And it's not worth the gas, the drive, the time away from the farm.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

I don't just have to make a day of it.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah. So that's kind of what I try and do. Like when I'm in town, like, if I can go grab a quick, then I'm like learning how to keep my year in the car so I can go grab a quick hill.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Okay, kids, you gotta go try-cities, but we're gonna do a hike and it's gonna be 12 more.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

They're happy because they I mean, that's all the life that they've been used to, is always being outdoors and trails and hills and McBee's face.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I don't like McBee's face.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

They love it. I hate it. They own me on it. Yeah, they win me every single time. I am very slow, but I am consistent.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

I I love everything around McBee but the face.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Oh, it's my favorite part.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

I'll do the 12 miles any day.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

That's my favorite part.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

So kids, yes, they love the lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

They do. They were there was a couple of them were hesitant when we presented the idea, but it was more an inability to envision what I kind of you know had had planned. And then once everything was set up, everyone was like, Okay, this is cool. Okay, we can do this. Oh, this is great. And now some prefer it to solid walls, like they'll go to cousins' houses and then they're like, Oh, we are so glad to be back to the tent. And then like okay, so you're not being traumatized. No, they they actually are leaning all the way in to the whole experiment.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

What was it was it tough for you? Like, how are we gonna sell this to the kids? Was it no?

SPEAKER_00 35:43

That didn't even be used to me.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

They're used to you and your I your ideas.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

My other one was I wanted to go, I wanted to hand-weave fabric, and so my husband bought me a loom and it was, I think it was like $300, and he was like grumbling, and he's like, You better like make this thing worth it. And I was like, I will pay this thing off. And he had kind of laughed, like, sure. And then I was like, My claim to fame is that we ran the business for about four years, and I convinced people to give me over a quarter of a million dollars for my fabric. So, in the course of time, that was cool. Yeah, you know, that I was like, I paid it off, and then some we my husband he quit his job, he did that full time, I did it full time with him. We brought in his cousin who did it full time, that's what we were doing in Weston, and we were literally just a hand weaving factory and sending all over the world from this tiny little town.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Yeah, the post office didn't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I'd come in with my packages to ship out, and they they they'd never seen anything like it. But it was beautiful and it was incredible. So that was another crazy idea. But to do that, and for him to quit his job, we had to sell everything we had, and we bought a house cash that was like built in the 1800s and kind of falling down and remodeled it and yeah, I mean, so like we do very adventurous things, yeah, yeah, you do. But that meant that I was hiking the blues all the time. Yeah, the blues and working my own hours underrated. Oh, the blues are the blues.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Dangerous, yes, dangerously underrated.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

I a hundred percent agree. I was like, I found myself in the blues. I found myself in those hills. Yeah, and then when I went out to the eagle caps, I was done. Like I will never forget that feeling of being in the eagle caps and being like, this is real, and I'm actually hiking out of the eagle. So yeah, they're so they're used to my ideas and my crazy because Weston was one of the highlights of all of their lives.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

The blues are very steep. The blues are beautiful though. Yeah, then then you got then you got the the canyon, Hells Canyon, even steeper. It's just it's amazing how eastern Oregon is the like the last frontier.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

I never thought I would love a place as much as I loved it there until I came here.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

And I was like, there's some of the vibe that during certain seasons, like the rolling hills will remind me of out there, and the way the sun will hit, and like the way I can see for miles and miles, and then the wheat fields. And I don't know, there are bits of this place that remind

Running And Sauna For Mental Reset

SPEAKER_00 38:10

me of there. And I was so sad to move from there to Tri-Cities, it literally broke my heart. But with some circumstances that came up, that's what had to happen. And I never thought I was gonna be happy again, and that might seem dramatic, but I genuinely found myself.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

You seem happy in the blues. I am with all the heart, the heartache of you know, loss.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

I am genuinely happy.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Uh trials and error.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yeah, lots of error, but I'm still happy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

So when when everything comes around, when you finish the house and whatnot, you said you were thinking about farming. What would you farm? Hey.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

So we'll see, because there's been a little bit of a change where just with some people kind of seeing what we're doing out here, there are actually restaurants in the towns and cafes in the towns that would source ingredients from us. So things that, you know, if they have a dairy-free person, then I can, you know, make product that and then give it to them and things on the farm and grow greens and microgreens and all that. So I actually feel like my pivot is gonna be more towards, I guess, because I was thinking we could do farmers markets and stuff, but I was like, I don't know. Maybe I'll go more into selling direct to smaller cafes and stuff and then give really good quality ingredients. But so if we ended up doing that, it would just be continuing the homestead vibe, really.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Yeah. Okay. And expanding. Expanding.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

I would want to expand the animals in the gardens for sure.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Would that mean more manpower? Because eventually these kids are gonna grow up and mom's gonna be by herself.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

I know it's gonna be me with all my animals. Yeah. And if it's the Finway, then my kids will be here all the time, and all my grandkids all the time. Yeah. And that's how we're kind of setting up. And there are some kids that have expressed interest in this is something that they would want to do with the rest of their life. So with us setting it up, it could very well be their heritage, yeah, that they can take on. Okay. So that would be the end goal. And they're with the between all five of the kids, you know, there's at least a couple or a few that would be interested in taking over mom and dad's place.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

So like five years from now.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Five years now.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

You only have the the two young ones, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

You're you're expanding. Yes. All right, they're gonna be hitting high school. How's that gonna look?

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Well, I do homeschool, so that's good. I do enjoy that, but I don't know. Whatever my kids want to do with their lives, they'll do, and I support them 100%. They'll they're always gonna come first. But then where I would love to go is I think it'd be really great to teach. There are a lot of skills that I've learned out here that people could implement even into just their standard daily lives that would improve at small things here and there. Like you don't have to be like what what defines a homesteader, you know what I mean? But even just that movement of being more intentional, you know, with what you're purchasing or maybe how you're spending your time and things like that, I think it'd be really cool to educate. And there's an entire generation of even just women that they don't know how to bake bread. You know what I mean? Much less grind the flour, much less grow the wheat and thresh it and grind the flour and make the bread. Okay, come out here and learn.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

I'll teach you.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

You want to make butter or cheese homeschool groups. There's people that have expressed interest, you know, once we're up and running, that they would want to bring kids out here to see the animals, learn how to make ice cream.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Self-sufficient, though.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

That's tough. That is the goal. Yeah, but that is all my favorite parts of the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

So that's what I'm trying to get at. So, like when you get old and gray, whenever that is, whenever that is, you know, it's just like you you ever think on like how life would be? Because, you know, like I I travel a lot, travel on like no man's land to get to the mountains, the trails, mostly the mountains, and and I see these homesteaders or these people like in the middle of nowhere living. And I'm like, how do they survive? Like, how do they do this? Like, what happens if they you know, these are all the questions I have. Like, what happens when they get ill? What happens if you know there's a tragedy somewhere, you know, something something happens and like what if scenarios? There's so many what-ifs. So, like, you ever think of that, or no?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

No, because I have lived through so many worst-case scenarios in life.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

And thinking about the what-ifs have never stopped them from happening. And I've gotten through every one of them, and I would accredit God to that strength. But thinking about what could come, not a chance. Because I actually I do trust that whether the capability needs to be within me or reaching out to somebody else, I will find a way. Either I will figure it out and get it done, or I'll find the person. It is, but I love that. Yeah, that's my that's my never dull moment. No, but I spent so much of my life in bed, laying in bed, staring at ceilings, like if I could only be outside, if I could only handle fresh air. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I got you. I'm I'm a busybody. And this last time the stint in the the hospital was like, oh gosh, I can't do this. I can't do this.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

So it's like being bedridden for that many years. I was like, This is this is what I want to do now forever. Please let me be able to be this active. I want to go into the grave like really ragged and used up.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Ragged and used up. Well, the sun will do that to you. The sun will do that to you. The sun hits the biggest.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

I live in the sun all the time. And it's it's doing great. I'm earning my wrinkles.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Gotcha, gotcha. So uh wi with the labor, with the hours, uh break it down to uh for us on like your day, your average day. I know every day is not average, but just like wake up to bedtime.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

So it's like I like to get up at around 445 or 5 a.m. Some mornings I'll sleep in, you know what I mean? Cause I'm normal, I'll get up at six. But it's get up, prep to milk the cow, milk the cow, come in, strain the milk, sanitize everything, collect the eggs, get breakfast going, feed the animals. Once breakfast is done, you know, wake up the kids, run morning chores. Okay, now we start school. School takes up a lot of time because we're very, very intentional with how we learn here. There's no fluff. They are I'm a very tasked master when it comes to what they learn. Like they can choose what they're learning. If they have extra interest, that's fine. But they had better be learning.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

If that makes sense. Gotcha. So homeschool will take up time, but I mean, it what takes up the most of my time is hand washing dishes.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Hand washing.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Yes, because I homemake everything when it comes to breakfast, lunch, dinner, their snacks. On occasion, I'll go grocery outlet and grab a few things, but everything for the most part that is ingested, I hand prepare. So that means lots of dishes.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

So it's like get something done, try and get some dishes done. Get some, try and get dishes done, and then that and laundry. So my old vintage machine. I saw that. That's great. Yeah, my old ringer machine. I think they should make them time.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

I I think they should uh bring them back.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Oh, I hear that they like ringed off a lot of arms.

unknown 45:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

There are so many people that have told me, like, for real, do not lose your arm to that machine. You have enough drama going on. Yeah. So I'm like, I will do my best not to.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Well, like, why would you even put your arm near that though?

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Well, when you run the if you if you're running, yeah, if you have like a shirt sleeve. Okay, so I was wearing a long sleeve last week when I was doing the ringer and it grabbed You had a final destination moment. And I had to like rip the shirt off so that it did not drag my arm through the ringer. So I guess they have basis for their comments. But I would have figured that out on my own, you know, because I did figure it out on my own.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Now I just don't wear long sleeves when I use the ringer.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

The whole pro the concept though, the It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

My clothes are cleaner than any standard machine. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

They should bring them back.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

But it is more time consuming, and then after laundry, I'll do garden stuff and weeding, and we're always, you know, battling the tumbleweeds and stuff like that. So that's a huge.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

What's in your garden right now?

SPEAKER_00 46:39

Well, there was a lot more things until last week one of the goats got out and mowed down like seven bins. So I'm now trying to see what's gonna regrow.

Homeschooling Long Days And Partnership

SPEAKER_00 46:50

I think the bok choy, the bok choy is coming back. Whatever she didn't get of roots, a lot of it is growing back. But my main thing I'm excited about would probably be like all of the squash, the pumpkins, watermelon, stuff like that, because I can preserve them and turn them into a lot of different foods and my herbs. Tons and tons of herbs. What's up for ladies and herbs? It just flavors. Ladies love, I mean, like don't, but don't men love really great tasting food?

SPEAKER_01 47:14

I'm a plain Joe.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

Are you? Yeah, I'm gonna be able to do it. Oh my goodness. I I like flavor.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

Certain things, I'm just a plain Joe. Like people are like, hey, you you want this? I'm like, no, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

That's fine. You can be that way. So why do girls like herbs? Well, I use them in my facial infusions. I use them in my hair. I'll use them in my lip balms or in my lotion.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

You make your own shampoo too. Is there something you can do?

SPEAKER_00 47:39

This is what we do. This is what I do. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

So for sure. What you work, what, maybe 16 to 20 hours a day.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

I think I I'm usually done. 17 is like my max.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

17? No. Yeah, I'm pretty brained. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

I'm pretty, I'm like, I'll sit there, like, okay, that was, yep. Plus 17-hour day, okay, I'm done. And then at that point, my kids are like, Can we get an ear massage? Can we get a sinus massage? I'm like, sure. So you know, say love there. But so then I'll usually just sit the evenings with I don't know, the kids, or sometimes I'll read a book and journal a line or something.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

But because your living situation here in your arrangement, is there anything that you're going to keep in your new house? Like let's say an outdoor shower.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Yes, so the outdoor shower is mandatory. You are gonna have an outdoor shower. And I love having the outdoor tubs so much that we are gonna set up like um a dome-style mini gym out in like the sagebrush area in the back of the land. And under it, I want to have like a little cold pod. That way I can still get that vibe. So having an outdoor tub and an outdoor shower, I will never be able to live without those again.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Normally, when somebody has a shower outside, they normally keep it because it it is not unique, but it is it is a mainstay. Like, I mean, who doesn't want an outdoor shower?

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Right. And that and like the kids will get so dirty up here that before they even come in. I'm like, sweet, go spray off out there. I don't care, it's an outdoor shower. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 49:17

How's the well water? I know that was a big thing for you. That was a huge win.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

That was a huge win because that was the main thing that everyone told us there is no way you're getting any water, and if you do, it's gonna be disgusting. Okay, and we just chose to ignore it and go in on the gamble and just pray and hope against hope that it was gonna be fine. And we got it tested um locally, and it's literally perfectly pH balanced. Yeah, 100%. There are no contaminants. No, it is the most runoff. No, really, because it's like 700 feet down and it's filtered through, I think it was sandstone, like lots of sandstone. And so by the time it gets up to us, there is there's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

So I don't even get like water spots on like my fixtures and stuff. It's not hard water, it's not soft water.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Oh, nice, it's ideal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Oh my word, that's like the best part of this whole place.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

That the water.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Yeah, I want to get like a microscope and like actually look at it.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

How many gallons of water were you going through or were you going back and back and forth to town before you got the well? So we'll just put that in perspective.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

Yeah, so we had four IBC totes, and I think that they're 275 gallons apiece. Um, and we would go through maybe two of those per week. I feel like it usually lasted a month, but there were some times where we would just fill it up once a week because we wanted more water or whatever. So it was really flexible. Sometimes, if like my husband didn't have a trailer set up, it'd be like, okay, we're rationing water, you know what I mean? Don't use as much type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

But what when you're not let let's say you're traveling, let's go to Tri-Cities or wherever for a race and whatnot. What water do you enjoy the most when you have to purchase water? What what water?

SPEAKER_00 51:05

What brand do you I won't even purchase really water itself, but I will do soda is my kryptonite. Yeah, but like I like the healthy ones, like the prebiotic fighting. Is Olipop? Yeah, Olipop is one of them. Olipop Poppy. Like there's so many, but that's my thing.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Didn't they have a lawsuit because they they weren't as healthy as they said? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

I mean if anyone's if anyone's genuinely thinking their soda is making them healthier, they're crazy. Right, okay. No, I I I ferment all my own stuff here if I want my gut feeding material. I take care of that. That's just but let's let's say you If I had to buy a water, yeah, I'm probably gonna go for grocery outlets, Italian sparkling or still water in the glass bottle because it's like $1.99 and it's I went to grocery outlet a couple times during college and that was it.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

They haven't been.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

I don't blame you. The new grocery outlets though, so I've been to some that are absolutely horrific.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:03

But the two main ones that I go to here are actually really great. And I don't know just how many.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Didn't they change ownership too? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

So there, but they're so great. I mean, the deals that they have, and since I am celiac, maybe that is why I do like grocery outlet as much as I do because they will get a huge selection of gluten-free for a third of the cost of any other place in Tri-Cities. Yeah. So it saves me personally a ton of money because I might make everything for the kids, but it is more difficult for me to always make gluten-free things to me with cross-contamination in the kitchen and whatnot. So, you know, I do my best. Yeah. But I will buy like gluten-free bread. I will buy gluten-free things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

It's different. My my my wife and kids, they I I buy the the Kodiak pancake mix and stuff like that. And it's been on a kick for that because we always, you know, we love our pancakes on a Saturday or Sunday, and then bought some, they're like gluten-free. I'm like, my bad. You can't tell the difference. They're like, Yeah, you can. You can't. I'm like, still, it's pancakes, just put some peanut butter and some syrup on it. You're good. My kids suffer through it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

No, but I think a lot of them, they're they're adjusted to the fact that we're gluten-free and stuff like that, taste-wise.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

They're adjusted to this. They're doing just fine.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

They're great, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

Quite the lifestyle. Yeah, yeah. Like, I I'm kind of happy that I'm very uh happy that I came out here to experience the your way of life. Seriously. I mean, we could we can talk for more. I got a couple questions here and there, everything else when you need to be entertained. I you know, your kids came out here for movie and everything else. Do you make date nights? Do you uh does hubby tell take you out? Do you guys go and do anything?

SPEAKER_00 53:56

No. No, not really.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

Does it come with the the lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00 54:03

We're with the build, it's so if it's not farm stuff, it's build stuff. So we have just gotten into the habit of if we run into town to Home Depot to grab something for the build, we'll grab some sort of takeout. I don't know, it could be jersey mics or whatever. I literally don't even care. And then we're like, sweet, that was the date.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

And that's just how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

So before the building, my wife was like this.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

So yeah, I mean, that's just kind of where it's at. And we're fine with it because I mean, I know what I married into in that sense. I mean, he is a very just country boy kind of a thing. It's not grand vacation. Stuff like that. You know what I mean? Stuff that he builds.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Yeah, the stuff that he builds. I mean, the shed out there. Is it even a shed? No, it's a it's a barn. It is. It's a barn, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

So I think that's probably that would be more where I guess our love language would hang out at is doing these kinds of projects and being together and doing things together like that.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

You know, pre-build, we loved mountain biking. You know what I mean? He has some injuries, so he can't hike very well. But I had presented the idea to him of trying to mountain bike, and he said he would only do it if I did it with him. And I was like, well, that doesn't seem fair, but fine. You got roads, glore here. Yeah. So then I learned it and quite

Water Wins And Future Farm Plans

SPEAKER_00 55:20

a few wipeouts out at rattlesnake for sure. And so now I can mountain bike. And so, but there's not really much time. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

We're just building and music.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

I mean, we're highly we're musical, so I'm a violinist. Um, couple pianists for kids. The other kids play guitar. So my husband listens.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Do you listen to music while you're farming? Sometimes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

I listen, I like every genre. There's you know what I mean? I'm not like I don't particularly enjoy like explicit lyrics, yeah, counting in my head 24-7. I guess. If I'm gonna default to something like I grew up classically trained in violin, so that's always gonna be a really good spot for me.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

Um, in my brain.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

So that piano play once in a while together, or is it just have not played for a while, but yeah, the kids they're they'll do duets and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

They're learning.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

You guys are like old school.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Yeah, it is. But it's like the thing is, is like I feel like there are some deeply fundamentalist religious families that also have a lot of these same elements. Um and we're just kind of doing it without the weirdness.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Yeah, weird. That's a good way to put it, yeah. So and I I didn't want anybody to think that I thought that you guys were this way too. But you you man, all right, yeah. It's I wouldn't say it's weird. It's it's a it's a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 56:43

I would say it's weird for our current era. What we are doing is incredibly strange, in my opinion, from from the feedback of what I get.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

Intriguing to have to be on this this episode, have you on the episode and uh have it because like not every day does someone just say, Okay, well, you know what? You know, from a city life, yeah, let's be a homesteader, you know. I know I couldn't do it because I love you know I love my way of life. Um it, you know, it's in stone. I love entertainment, I love everything at my hands. There you go the grass of the hands. But you, you're doing this.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

This is my entertainment. It's crazy. This is my set in stone, my solid, my everything. It's this this is it.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

So that that's why it's it's like I would wouldn't mind a cabin because I can go for a season, come back and be like, okay, live my life, go to go to back to work since I have summers off, you know.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

So yeah, if we went primitive camping once a few years ago, and I remember telling my husband, I was like, we were up at Rim Rock and I was like, I could live this forever. I could live in a tent for literal ever. I was like, give me a real mattress and some form of climate control. It doesn't have to be the greatest, but it has to be somewhat. I was like, if I have those two things and running water, just keep yeah, then I could live camp life forever. And I really felt it in my soul because there is something so beautiful about hearing every bit of nature right there. You know, you're you're experiencing it, you're a part of it, you're in this is camping. Yeah, it is what you're doing, but with some glamp because there's obviously a piano and a leather sofa. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

So the rugs here. I like the rugs.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

It's concrete floor. This will eventually be my greenhouse.

unknown 58:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:28

So this will end up.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Yeah, that would be the goal because I would love to be able to do tropical trees down the center. I want to try and grow my own coffee, and I think that I can really do it in here really well. So just with how this will hold humid and whatnot. So it we did need the height for that. And but yeah, I didn't want to walk on the concrete. So I was like, I just grabbed a bunch of rugs off a marketplace. I was like, oh, it's like Boho. I mean, my heritage is Finnish gypsy, nomadic reindeer herders up in the north, and on my mom's side anyway. And so I'm like, this is my vibe. This is what my people did forever and ever. They lived in tents, they were nomadic, they you know what I mean, really simple. And the beauty was what the land offered. They say it's simple, but it's not it's not simple. It is not simple, but I get what you're saying. Far less complicated than anything else that's out there. This makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 59:18

Yeah. So so you say ferment. Do you ferment your own alcohol too?

SPEAKER_00 59:24

I'm going to. I need to get a still because well, what I would love to do is since I do so many extracts of herbs and roots and whatnot, to get a really good grain alcohol that I was able to distill myself would be an ultimate dream. Yeah. So I would love to get into kind of more distillery vibe, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. But also, I mean, with you know, everything. I mean, I will I I want to play with all of things.

SPEAKER_01 59:51

You make your own hooch. I'm coming.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

I don't know if I would trust my hooch.

SPEAKER_01 59:57

Hey, hooch is hooch.

SPEAKER_00 59:59

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

You put some cinnamon sticks in it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

That's that's I can make you some really great tinctures out there. We'll I'll do mixers, but it's like holistic mixers. Gotcha, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Okay. Well, yeah, you know, I I really do appreciate your time. I mean, if is there anything that I you want to say? Did I leave out? I really want to be back here to see the finished the house. You have to come back.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

And then we need to figure out the F-18's flight pattern so you can be here when they rip the skies because there is my brother who was here yesterday for it, and he had never just seen anything like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

I'm so honored that you invited me here, knowing like just how far out it is. Like, I like for me, I thought it was just by McBee. Yeah, no, whoa, nope, it's not by McBee.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:45

No, I guess the honor could go the same way too, because I was sitting there just like, boy, he's gonna drive all the way out here. Okay, well, I mean, if he wants to, he is more than welcome to. But it is a journey, it is a journey. It's a pretty drive, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Yeah, yeah. You know, it does have that going for it for the most part, besides the the people sightseeing on the fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:04

Uh the fire kind of ruins the vibe a bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

Well, it's it's not that, it's just the driving. They're like, okay, it's 50, but they want to go 35. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

It's okay. Everyone goes like 80 on that road anyway. Right? Well most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

And then up here, it's what 35 all the way from Beers Road? From Beers Road. Yeah, it's 35.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

I've never in my life driven the speed limit out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

No, it's 35. Oh goodness. Okay, so it's a it's okay to go 50.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

There's no one out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

There's no one watching. So so the weirdest thing, guys, uh like the weirdest thing. Yeah, I was just you're driving, you know, I like to sightsee, but not 35 miles an hour and 50 zone, right? And I see this sign, it's faded. It's rattlesnake hunting out here. It's rattlesnake hunting. I'm like, is this for real? And it is for real. And so, like, when I came to the house or the living situation, arrangement, whatever, rattlesnakes are huge. I guess they don't make noise out here. No, they don't mourn. So she was telling me about rattlesnakes. So tell tell us about the rattlesnake uh issue here.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

I mean, there's not much to tell except for I did not know that I was going to move into rattlesnake territory to this extent, and they are genuinely everywhere. And there was one that had been in the house a couple weeks ago and it struck at my son. And because of the concrete floors, it didn't actually get my son. So I was really, really grateful.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:37

Yeah. And that was a really huge wake-up call for us that okay, you're going outside in pants and boots. I don't care if it's 90 degrees, because there are snakes out here. And it is not legal to, as you know, in polite terms, dispatch them or rearrange their energy. Yeah. So that is something that we're just gonna

Rattlesnakes And Guinea Hens Take Over

SPEAKER_00 1:02:55

have to be really cautious about is the rattlesnakes. But guinea hens will actually eat rattlesnakes. And we have seven right now. And I do plan on incubating another. Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:07

At this point, I'm like, I'm just gonna, I just got the incubator out, and since we're collecting the guinea eggs, I'm just gonna start hatching perpetually. And if we have a hundred guineas out here, I'm like, oh, I don't care. Sweet. No ticks, no rattlesnakes.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

No ticks, no rattlesnakes. I'm down. Is there a lot of ticks out here? Tons. Last year it was absolutely obnoxious. Like we couldn't even walk out at all without some on our pants. But this year, with we have seven, I think it's seven, six or seven guinea hens. I have seen maybe three.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:37

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:38

Significant difference.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

Even in that one spot, they're they're in in a cage, they pick up ticks.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

Well, so they'll the guineas will actually free range. They'll fly over the fence and they take over all 23 acres. They're like little dinosaur birds out there. It's hilarious. That's what I'm saying. That's my entertainment. Yeah. I'll just go like it. I'll pause for a moment because there's not much pausing anyway. Yeah. And just stand and like watch the guineas. Watch it. And I'm like, look at you guys eating all the ticks and scaring away the snakes.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:03

So conspiracy theorists are not, they're they're they're like uh planting ticks everywhere. Did you see that?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:11

Oh, I really try and stay out of the conspiracy theory world because here's my problem. I know. But my problem is I am a conspiracy realist. That's the problem. So if I start rabbit holes, yeah, let's go. I do there, yes, I will go down every single one of them. Fascinating, obsessed with them because what I think is that there are elements of truth. Maybe not all of it, but I do believe there are elements of truth to a lot of what people say. So I love to figure out what is hyperbolic and what is truth. Yeah, they're and I love several. I love that decade or so later I will be proven right on things that I said 10 years ago. And I was like, I knew it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:52

Sometimes it's months to a year now.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

You know, I know. It's coming in a lot faster.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:57

It's great. There's a lot less hazing. Yeah, I can get proved right a lot quicker nowadays. Right. Just ask Gronk.

unknown 1:05:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

Just ask Gronk.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:04

Gronk.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Thank goodness for Gronk. But do you think we uh talked about everything? I mean, we could talk about everything for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:14

You would just have to live the life. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah. Because there is so many elements to it. But I think the only thing that if I were to say something to anybody listening would be you can change your life whenever you want, and you really can do so much more than maybe you think you're capable of. And I think that fear holds people back from doing really great things. And fear is a liar. In so many ways, fear is a liar. So don't let fears hold you back from doing something because yes, there's going to be hiccups along the way. Yes, you're gonna fail along the way, but fail forward. And in that failure, you learn. And and so I don't really count anything bad that's happened out here as a failure on my part. It's a really hard learn learning and growth experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

But had I not taken that step to do something like this, I wouldn't be the person I am right now. And I really like who I am right now. And I couldn't have said that maybe a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:12

Well, you know, it's changed me in so many ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:16

I've gone through.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

You wouldn't have known though, unless you said something. So right now you're just the homesteader that's with the voice, blogging, vlogging. Now I didn't know about the comments, but I'm gonna go see your comments now.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:29

I delete them too quickly.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

Okay, but you so like every now and then I'm I'm that guy. I'm gonna be like, here for the comments. Just there you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:38

If things get dramatic, you can go tone people down.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

Crazy tone. So don't don't listen to the haters, they're just jealous, like I said. But no, it's it's it's been a pleasure coming out here. Very honored that you trust me to be out here and interview you and the whole homestead lifestyle. And I I can't wait to see it grow to your finished idea. Your world you absolutely have to come back.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:03

Okay, we'll then you'll see really how it is gonna be self-sustaining and how it kind of all will work together. But yeah, we're just this is one year in. Okay, it's a long project, but I want to do this for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:15

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:16

I want this to be my life. Okay, and there's come visit.

unknown 1:07:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

Your wife take the kids, they can come out on the farm, make some butter.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

Nice, yeah. Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

They can even your wife can put herbs. She can pick herbs. Because girls like herbs.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

Girls do.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:29

She can put them on her little butter pat. It would be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:32

Okay. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And thank you for uh helping me bring back the podcast. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:40

I'm really glad that you came, and I'm glad you did it. I'm glad you were brave and drove out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

Yeah, I loved outdoors. Till next time. Thank you guys.