Groovy Grazers - Ch-ch-ch Changes!

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Morgan at Groovy Grazers.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Have you thought about being a cottage food producer? Or if you're a cottage food producer, have you thought about expanding it into a small business? Cottage Foodie Con is probably for you. You can find more information at cottagefoodiecon.com and if you use the code HOME15, you'll get 15 % off your registration costs.

00:29
and that price is valid through the end of November. So again, check out cottagefoodiecon.com. A tiny homestead is sponsored by cottagefoodiecon.com. Today I'm talking with Morgan at Groovy Grazers in Montana. Good morning, my friend. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. It's a wonderful morning after getting to see the Northern Lights. Did you get to see them? It was so weird. I got up at like...

00:57
1130 when my husband came to bed last night because I had to go potty and uh I went outside on my porch for some reason. I don't usually usually just come back to bed and I was looking out the window. I could see this red orangey color off in the distance. I did not have my glasses on and I was like, oh no, what's on fire over there? Yeah. And I was going to put my glasses on when I came upstairs and look out the bedroom window and I was like, if it's on fire, it's too far away to impact us. And I went to bed. I went to sleep.

01:27
Got up this morning and looked at the local Facebook page for our town and somebody had posted, what's the red glow on the west side of town? And people were posting so many pictures in the comments and I was like, I missed it. Well, I mean, you kind of saw it. I saw the red, my husband got pictures and he got the blues and greens. Wow. So up here it was red and green. Yeah.

01:55
And it was bright. And you know, I always wanted to see the Northern Lights. I was on my bucket list. I thought I was going to have to go to Alaska. I mean, I really wouldn't have had to move up to Montana to even see them at this point. But they were red and green last night and dancing. They'll dance too. It looks like almost like glitter in the sky to the naked eye. But the fact that you're able to see the actual red and green without the camera lens is pretty crazy because that's like

02:24
Alaska, you know, style Northern Lights where you can see them dance in the sky. So we, guess you're supposed to again see them tonight. So we're really excited. We'll go out again. Last night we had cloud cover and that ruins all of it. course. And you'll be surprised people in Minneapolis and St. Paul here in Minnesota actually could see them even with all the light pollution. Yeah, that is wild to me. I had friends that were in, you know, Billings because we're kind of on the outskirts.

02:54
And they were posting pictures of a two full blown light pollution. And normally it has to be pretty pitch, you know, pitch outside to be able to capture it in a long exposure. was capturing it without a long exposure. I mean, cool, but also scary tinfoil hat, you know, style thing where I'm like, my husband jokes around. He's like, should we be putting tinfoil hats on now when we go outside to look at these? And we couldn't help but really laugh at that because it is.

03:23
It is from the sun having solar flares that we're able to see these. Yeah, exactly. And it's really cool and it's really pretty. But yes, it's concerning. So I'm assuming the weather is pretty good there. If you were met, you managed to see it last night. Yeah, it's you know, it's a weird year this year. There's we haven't knock on wood, like really just everyone should knock on wood for me right now. We haven't had any serious snowfall. We have like a real light dusting one day.

03:52
and it stayed for like a few hours. But to see like other parts of the country that normally don't get snow before us are getting snow is a little strange. We always joke that Montana is going to be the banana belt, but weather's been really good here, which has been nice because we've been really productive since we last talked. Like a lot of building has gone on. We've done miles of electric fence. mean, so I, I'm enjoying the nice weather and that it's not harsh yet because

04:21
It's going to be, guess, according to the farmer's almanac, um a pretty cold but not snowy year. And I'll take that because last year was the opposite. It was extremely snowy and not as cold, if that makes sense. yeah. Yeah. It's so weird here in Minnesota because uh supposedly the weather people will tell you that if it's super cold, it won't snow. But if it's super warm, it will snow. And it was really cold here.

04:50
last year and last winter and we did get snow when it was like minus 20 out and I was like mother nature what are you doing? Yeah the negative 20 and then snowfall is what like that's when I'm like okay why did I move here that that's the one moment everyone told me when I moved here from Arizona that I was going to absolutely hate it the snow was going to send me back and I'm like

05:15
I'm fine with the snow. I'm cool with everything. But when you, I was telling my husband, once you hit like negative 10 and below and it snows, that should be illegal. It should be a crime. Yes, absolutely. And just for the update for Minnesota, it's very sunny. It's breezy. And I think it's about 40 degrees outside this morning. Well, then we're about the same temperature. Yesterday was 70 degrees. I got to wash my horse yesterday. I cannot believe that in the middle of November. I was like, okay, I'll take it. guess.

05:43
Very nice. And for anyone keeping score who's listening in last month, I'm almost over this freaking respiratory, upper respiratory crap. Finally.

05:54
It's been crazy. mean, I have a little bit of it too, but that's partially probably because I got kicked in the ribs by an auction horse that I bought first time at 31 never been kicked. So she cracked some ribs and you know, when you crack ribs or break ribs, you're really susceptible to like getting a lung infection. So I can understand that it's horrible. The upper respiratory is I've seen going around to.

06:19
Yeah, I don't know what it is and I didn't test for COVID because it doesn't matter. I'm sick. You know, I don't see anybody so it's fine. It's the same, same treatment. Just high vitamin C. Look up a vitamin C cleanse. Vitamin C is a radical free remover. So it like removes radicals to include metal and heavy toxins and parasites and stuff like that. uh It's supposedly what it's supposed to do, you know, of course, because nothing's backed by anything that's natural. And it really did help.

06:49
Um, cut down on the amount of stuff that I've had. So I, I've been really big about pushing vitamin C this year to everyone telling them to take a ton of it. Yeah. I've been saying on the podcast, if you're comfortable wearing a mask, wear a mask when you go out in public, if you're sick or if you don't want to get sick and wash your hands because that helps. Yeah. Don't touch your nose. I've had to teach my kids that. Yeah. I think hygiene is something that we could all use a little bit of scrubbing up on because that, you know,

07:19
good practices for not getting sick, the same as biosecurity with your own animals. So we gotta take care of ourselves as good as we take care of our animals, and I know that's pretty hard for some farmers, including myself. For sure. Okay, so I've had Morgan as a guest on the show three times over the last two years. Last time you were on was in September, and I wasn't gonna ask you back on until spring, but you've got some exciting things happening, and don't jump in yet.

07:48
because I know you're ready. I know you're ready to like woohoo about things. um Also Morgan was in the service, what branch? I was in the United States Air Force. Yeah, so thank you for your service and happy belated Veterans Day. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. We had a good day yesterday. We got to see the Northern Lights. We carved pumpkins. We ate T-bone steak. You you just try and reflect on Veterans Day.

08:13
to remember like what you did with your family because your family stands behind you while you serve. So I appreciate that. And I know all the service men and women, past and present, are very thankful that uh the American people thank us. Well, you guys put your lives on the line for us. I, you know, I don't say that lightly. My father-in-law was in Vietnam and he was one of the people, as far as I know, that would go into the tunnels. Oh, wow.

08:43
Yeah, and he doesn't talk about it and he says that he basically worked on radios and that's probably true but I've heard some other things through family that there was a little more to it and that was a really dangerous thing. So, so I don't take it lightly but my my dad was in the Air Force Air Force then and he did not go overseas because my mom was pregnant with me. So I kept my dad from

09:13
from going, even though I was not even born yet. But he also was in the electronics and radio stuff and he helped over here with the Vietnam effort. And so he didn't really have to put his life on the line, but with what he did, he saved lives. you know, it's, it's, it's six, one and a half dozen of another. You're, doing your job. You are helping our country. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, looking back, it was a huge decision to make. I

09:42
I mean, sometimes we all have regrets, right? Like the VA doesn't take as great of care of us or sometimes we get frustrated because some of the freedoms we may be served for maybe aren't still in place, you know, there's various things. And so I think the biggest thing is just remembering that like each generation sacrificed and, just reflecting on it. My dad was a radio guy in the Marine. So that's really interesting that your family was a part of that. My dad was back in.

10:08
way before I was born, 1994 was when I was born to kind of age myself. So it was quite a few years before then, but yeah, that generation, I was in Okinawa, Japan. So I learned a lot about that era because we were in one of the areas that it was highly affected by. so that's one of the things. It's also why I'm so sick, I believe too, because where I was stationed and the chemicals that I was exposed to. ah

10:36
you know, they've affected my health. But one of the benefits to it is I get to farm with my family. And this life is a blessing. I know a lot of people say that, but to not have to have two adults that are working continuously and then coming home and farming on top of it, like our whole job is farming. And yeah, I've been on the show quite a few times. It's been really cool because I can listen back to some of the episodes and see kind of how we pivoted because that was a huge talk pivoting.

11:05
Yes, yeah. Oh my goodness. Have we pivoted so much? So we'll kind of jump into what's changed because I think what we found in Montana may not work for other states, but I think it might work definitely in other states. know, so Andy and I live on 20 acres. We're in Montana for some of the people that haven't maybe caught some of these details. Last time we talked about the hay issues that we might be looking to move. Well, pivot.

11:35
Of course, we're staying. So we're just going to end up refinancing. We're going to try for a while. That's one of the things is we haul every drop of water out to the house and that causes a lot of burden when you're trying to be self-sustainable. You're trying to live eventually off grid and honestly just trying to farm because then you're stuck with dry land and dry land doesn't produce. You maybe get one cutting out here of dry land hay.

12:04
um And that's really it. And that's with like, you know, fertilizing, weed control, all of that stuff. So since last time, we've kind of had to get back into the thought process of how can we make this more sustainable for us where we're at? So we live on 10 acres of flat farmland and the other 10 acres are between a gulch and kind of like mountainous because we're on the top of a flat rim.

12:33
Um, just to kind of paint the picture, you know? So our grass out here is terrible. So Andy and I, that was one of the things last year or yeah, September that we were talking about actually. not even that long ago, we were talking about how can we resolve this? Cause I had to order 51 round bales. It's like 21 tons of hay. If I'm paying 150 a ton, which is way less than most people do in America. yeah.

13:01
I mean, you're still talking about four or $5,000 by the time I haul it, I pay for it, I get it home, I get it loaded up, like all that stuff, right? So that's been one of the biggest challenges that we've kind of had to think about long-term resolution. And also now that we know that we're going to stay here, the market's just not great. You know, we did look. The last...

13:27
two, three months we've been looking on the market, but either we're going to get into something Montana's prices are extremely high. ah You know, a million dollars plus for what we need. And we just don't have that kind of money. It's not sustainable anyways for a working farm to have that kind of overhead. So we had kind of talked about previously, I think em Andy was working with the Hay Guy. I don't know if we covered that actually. did. Yeah. Yeah, we did actually. So Andy, because we talked about potentially a land share.

13:58
So we were hoping that was gonna drop into our lap. So here's the big update. So yes, we are here. There is a land share potential that we could work on with a farmer and take home 50, 50 of the profit that comes from it. And I just wanna talk about what is a land share because that was all kind of new to me a few months ago and trying to understand it and grasp it and learn about it. I think this land share might solve a lot of people's problems.

14:27
um, that need hay like we do. So if you're needing hay, you're needing, um, barter work, maybe there's a farmer that has grain that you could, you know, barter with them, but they need work. So I'm talking about the older generation of farmers. As we all know, it's an epidemic, right? The old generation of farmers are retiring. They're in their seventies, if not older. Yep. And they're done farming, but here's the crux. Nobody in their family wants to farm.

14:55
They all went off to the big city and they became doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, whatever, right? It's a tale old tale. And now it's coming to like a head, you could say, like the farm industry is feeling this now. We're feeling that nobody knew Cayman, right? So you have these older farmers and they're not able to do the labor, but they can't afford payment to laborers.

15:22
That's why people don't, you know, they're like, well, we don't want to work for $15 an hour for the farmer. Yeah, I get that. That's not a sustainable income for you or the farmer because the farmer can't really afford that. If they're selling hay and they're selling them for $8 a bale, it's $6 their cost to put that bale up from the time they grow it, weed it, you know, get it into a bale and then get it onto your truck. That's not sustainable for farmers.

15:51
So we have to find a way to make it sustainable for everyone and scratching everyone's back. So Andy met Dave. Dave's been haying for a long time. He used to do grain. He's in his seventies. He started out with nothing. So he had no land. He had no equipment, but he wanted to get into farming. And that literally is Andy and I's story. We don't have a lot of money. We have a little land, but it's not good for hay.

16:19
But we got a lot of tenacity, right? Yes. We're wild, wild children. So I met, hey, know, hey, Dave is what I call him. I met Dave, I went bought hay from him and we got to talking like farmers do for three hours and Andy didn't know where I was. Well, Andy's been going out there quite often. He was out there last week. They were burning weeds because that's a better alternate to round up, but that takes a lot of hours. So Dave's been walking Andy through all these struggles that he has as a farmer.

16:47
So then we also understand what we're getting ourselves into. So Dave said, hey, I've got some land down here and he took us to it and it's 160 acres. But what he pointed out, which I did not know that if a hundred and it's technically a hundred acres. So on the map, it says a hundred acres. But when you actually map it out because of all the, you know, gulches and the mountains and dips and hills.

17:15
It's like 160 acres of actual land. Yeah. Which I thought that was interesting. I didn't know that. So some of these people that are only thinking, I have a hundred acres, you may have more if it's not just flat. That's hard to measure. So that was, that was something that was very interesting to me because we might be sitting on more than 20 acres with how our land is set up. So that, that led me to think, okay, I want to learn more of that. So that was something he brought up. Then he brought up.

17:44
the cost. So he used to actually pair up with the government and he talks about the wheat bushels. So he said that before if you just did grain on your own, you made nothing. You would break negative at the end of the day. But if you got with the USDA, you would make a guaranteed amount because they were paying per bushel versus just by tonnage.

18:11
So I didn't know that either. That was something that was really interesting to me because I've trying to figure out what is the cause of farms breaking down? What towards the end, know, I'm not looking 20 years down the road. I'm looking 30, 40, 50 years. Why are they hitting a point and it all seems to be about 30, 50 years and then they can't sustain anymore. So he brought up, you know, market changing, the USDA changing their pricing.

18:42
He also brought up equipment. John Deere's didn't use to cost a million dollars plus, you know, for a whole setup. No, they did not. I didn't know that. I did not know that tractors cost and I would love to find the percentage and post it someday. But the cost from what they used to be to what they are now is so insanely gross. It makes me really upset that these

19:09
big name corporations that make our tractors are nickel and diamond the farmer. Even these cattle farmers, they're not coming out. It's not the cattle farmers that are making the money right now. It is the processing and packaging plants. But people don't realize that. Same thing with farming grain. So, you know, a lot of people may have that knowledge, apply the knowledge that you have to the meat industry to the corn, wheat, grain industry. And it's the same thing.

19:40
And they're going through their machines breaking down. John Deere is no longer making parts. Kubota is not making parts for certain things. They don't have technicians anymore. You used to have mechanics, right? That could actually find a problem, fix it, diagnose. Now you just have technicians that just pull and replace. Everything's a plug and play now. And all of this has literally pushed farming to this corner where it's dead end.

20:09
because they can't make their tractor bills after paying for their chemicals, their seeds, workers, that's something else, but you can barter. So why I kind of brought this up was because we listened to this farmer. Just tell us, he's not like complaining to us to make us feel sorry for him. I asked him, why is farming dying? And this is what he gave me. And I was like, wow, this is a lot, it's a big plate.

20:39
But there are outs. said barter. We need to go back to bartering. So we were like, you know what? We need goat hay. He's got a lot of bales that don't meet horse quality, but they are horse quality compared to what I've seen. When I lived in Arizona, this hay would have been horse quality. But today he's very, very um picky and very, everything is uh a science to him with hay, which is great. You need those kinds of people. And so

21:08
We traded him, we bartered hours. He was like, I'm gonna give you 20 an hour and I'll barter you these bales for eight a bail, right? So you do the math, that's two bales an hour. Okay, we're talking now. A little bit of time to learn stuff, to barter. So then that kind of progressed. You gotta start a relationship with a farm before you can do business with them.

21:36
So we did the little bit of a friendship buying hay from him. And then we asked him, can we barter with you? Is there something we can help you with? Because it's a one man operation. It's just Dave out there. And he goes, yeah, I need help. But I, he looked at my husband and he said, real honestly, I can't afford to give you 20 an hour though cash. He goes, I can't give you the cash, but I got hay. And Andy looked at me and he goes, well, I don't have cash, but I got time. So you can fill the void in what.

22:05
you need in your farm by looking at how you can help other farmers. And I think that's something we've moved away from. And I wanted to talk about that today because it led us to a really great spot where we pivoted again. And now it's sustainable for us to stay on this farm. Okay. So let me jump in here for a minute because that's a lot. It is. Congratulations on being able to stay.

22:35
Being able to get a well dug because I know that was a big thing for you. We talked about that in September. And you're right. If you can barter services with anybody, I mean, in your case with a farmer, that's freaking awesome. But you can barter services with anybody who needs what you're doing. need what they're doing. Correct. And people forget that. Yeah. I mean, we are

23:05
really lucky we have friends that have goats and goats poop a lot. um And we have a farm stand and our friends also have ducks and they have duck eggs in the summer. So my friend messaged me back in the spring and said, can I sell my duck eggs in your farm stand because we don't really have a good place for a farm stand. And I was like, of course you can. And then my husband texted her husband a month or so ago and said, hey, do you have any goat manure? Cause I want to put it in my gardens.

23:34
And so basically we let them sell duck eggs in our farm stand and we get goat manure at the end of the season. And it's great because we're trying to grow produce and they're trying to get their duck eggs moved. Yeah. Cause you got all those trees. I remember we talked about your awesome trees um and, and, that's the thing seeing them, then it's more sustainable for you and her. She gets her duck eggs out. She gets their, their feed paid for, um, or is trying to work towards breaking even.

24:03
and then you guys get manure and that's going to save you guys, I guarantee if you added up hundreds of dollars by the end of next year. Oh, absolutely. On fertilizer. Yeah, definitely. And I don't want to go buy bagged manure at Home Depot or Menards or Fleet Farm or whatever store has it because it's not just bagged manure. It's other stuff in it. I want, I want straight from the goats butt manure. How's that for saying something crazy?

24:33
Right here. Like I wanted to fall hot and fresh right on the plant. Yeah, I mean, I don't because it would burn the plant, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, no, for sure. Actually, go poop just so you're aware it's not a hot manure. Oh, OK. Well, then sure, we can do that, too. Yeah, yeah. That was why we got goats. Ducks also. didn't know that we have call ducks now and that they also don't have hot poop. Neither do sheep, but horses and cows.

25:02
I don't know about pigs. We have pigs now. We've gotten quite a few animals because we solved our great dilemma of hay, right? Yes. Once you solve one of the things that you work for, which is hay, then it's like, okay, well now we can expand. And that's one of the things now that you've got fertilizer, which I encourage you to add up or look at previous years and see how much you paid for fertilizer versus whatever.

25:30
Um, anytime you do something like that, because it does help like this year alone, we have saved over a thousand 500 on hay, just in partnering. That's a lot. mean, if you think about it, that is a lot and the knowledge that my husband has, because now Dave's like, Hey, go get a tractor. Cause his tractor, like I said, all the tractor companies have made it unaffordable to fix these older tractors is like my track. Once my tractor goes out, we're out of business. I can't pull hay.

26:00
And you need hay and I'm like, yeah, I really need hay. But if we go that route, we can split it 50 50. Now it's not always a 50 50 share. So that's something you have to take into account too. So like he's just saying we have a really smoking good deal. He's got the land. If we get the tractor, then we can go ahead and do business together and then split a 50 50. So like always look into deals. Some deals aren't worth it. Not all the farmers are nice, but Dave is willing to help us because of that.

26:30
little bit of extra money that we're saving, I went and bought two horses and three pigs. And what else did I get? Oh, and I got my ram for my sheep. You know, so we expanded because I was like, well, if I'm going to save all this money on hay every year, I can actually put that in towards animals. And we did a bunch of fencing, right? Like I got electricity up. I was kind of anti-electricity with animals before.

27:00
with having like, you know, a jeweled system. And I absolutely love it. My goats no longer tear at my fence. I'm not having to constantly repair them. But because we traded hay, I was able to do that. And I wouldn't have if we didn't trade the hay. And that's something that like, I would have never thought to barter time for hay or even barter time um with a mechanic that we had working on our truck, right?

27:26
or bartering goat milk. I've bartered goat milk before, but time is a little different. I think people forget that time is valuable. I mean, we know that it's valuable for us, but we forget that time from other people is really valuable. So if someone's willing to give you a few hours and trade for something, it's probably gonna make your life a lot easier. Yeah, and honestly, that's how I see the podcast sometimes because I know that you and a lot of the people I talk to are very busy with your homesteads and your

27:56
businesses and what you're doing. And I absolutely love the fact that you guys take the time to come talk with me and put information out there that other people can learn from. Yeah, and not dead internet stuff. We're not talking AI generated stuff. No, we're talking actual accounts of people. And I and I love that. And I love your podcast because there have been things that I've even learned. Right. And I'm sure people have art. I've connected with people from your podcast.

28:25
Um, and I think that's the greatest thing is you give a platform where we can all share time, but it's mutually benefiting. And that's what I think people forget is that bartering is also mutual benefiting. So it has to scratch both people's backs. can't just scratch yours. Right. You know, it can't be so such a smoke and great deal for you that it, puts them out and getting back to that thought process brings you more back to the old school way that all of the farmers act.

28:53
You know, I remember in Texas, they all would be at McDonald's drinking coffee. It's like 11 o'clock in the morning, but they're all drinking coffee like they just woke up. But I have to remember they've already done all their morning chores. This is like their free time, but that's how they all learned was from each other vocally. And I think just talking about the reality of what's going on with farming, you know, I didn't know that tractors were so unattainable. I don't want a brand new tractor anymore.

29:21
I'm going to go on the auction site and go buy a used tractor. Yeah. Because it makes more sense if we're able to fix it compared to these new John Deere's or Kubota's or whatever, where the technician has to come out. That's something else I also learned. If your tractor stops, your combine stops in the middle of working, they have these like systems that shut it down. So it may not be like broken to where you can't turn the engine on, but the system is shut it down because the computer says it's not safe to run. Yeah.

29:49
Only way you can do that is having a technician come out that has their specific brand little iPad plugin. And then they plug it in and then they tell you what it is. And then they tell you it's going to be thousands of dollars to fix that part. Plus now you have a technician call. I don't agree with that. That's nickel and diming the farmer. Yeah. And I'm going to, I'm going to jump in with something else. Computers are amazing, but not when it comes to vehicles or tractors.

30:18
or snowblowers or anything that has a motor because it doesn't work well. mean, we had our internet go out a couple weeks ago for a day. I don't know what happened. It was our internet provider and I couldn't do anything that I needed to do regarding the podcast. And I was like, huh, I'm going to get a lot done today because the dishes are going to be done in five minutes and the laundry is going to be moved through all day because I can't work.

30:46
It scares me to death, Morgan. If the internet actually went out for more than a day, we would all be screwed. No, we would. And that's what we were joking about last night. Because when you have these solar flares that cause everyone and their mother to see with the naked eye the Northern Lights, it's like, huh, hmm, wonder when the grid's going to go out. We joked about calling our farm the tin foil ranch. Yeah. foil.

31:15
It's a thing, you know, and so we do and that's what drives our lifestyle. That's why I was so against electricity on my fence. Yeah. Because what happens when I don't have this, right? I don't have this luxury. And that's something that we build our whole farm off of is not having luxuries. Because if something were to happen now again, do I think that you and I will see?

31:40
The end of the grid may be. Do I think my son will? Yes, absolutely. I do. And when people say that I'm like, he's 11, he will. Um, you know, and, and that's scary to think about. That's part of our drive is like, how can we, so we got horses like that's so funny because that literally leads us into the next day and what we got. So we went and got two little baby horses, which I have a horse and we've talked about it I have a pony and we bred her and she is 99.9 % sure that she's bred. So we'll have a mini Shetland next year.

32:10
a baby, which is super cute, but we have two babies. old are the baby horses? They're young. Liberty, which is Betty. We call her Betty. uh Liberty is from South or North Dakota. can't remember, but she was born July 4th of this year. Okay. So you're talking like Weenling age, right? And then we have another one. So we bought Liberty last auction at the BLS, which is Billings. uh

32:40
And they have one of the country's largest auctions in October. I highly, you can buy online, not the loose guys, but you can buy the, the horses that go through on the online auction. It's super easy. I've done it. So I encourage people Montana's horses are cheap. Come look like really cheap. So I took home a hundred dollar in October, a hundred dollar Philly. She's this little, little.

33:04
Bay Dapple, maybe a buckskin, I don't know, because she's a baby, right? She's young. She's just now getting in her six month incisor. So that tells me she's probably about the same age as Betty. And Bambi, Bambi is her name, the new baby. And she has a hawk injury, right? So she's got the typical barbed wire cut. But we got these young babies because I was like, well, if the grid goes out, then we've got, we've got, you know,

33:33
a vehicle essentially, a horse is a vehicle at that point. um And we have a lot of Amish around here and they ride their horses and stuff and they have beautiful horses that go through the auction. And I was like, you know, maybe the Amish are onto something because they live off grid essentially, not fully, right? Like some of them have cell phones now and get to talk to the outside world. They're changing with times. But for the most part, they live in a very, if the grid went down type way.

34:01
So we ended up picking up the two young babies and they are amazing. They're also good therapy animals, because a lot of people know we're going through a bunch of legal stuff. That's why we're refinancing. um And they're a good escape. They also eat a lot of hay though. So that was why we expanded. We had some of our hay issues um fixed and therefore we were able to move forward with that.

34:28
having the horses because it's less of a worry, less money going in, you know, to feeding them hay as often. it's transportation. So it's actually beneficial. You can have horses that plow your field, that take a disc through the field. I mean, the Amish do everything with horses still. and there's a lot of equipment floating around here. So instead of paying a big name commercial company, I'm gonna feed my horse hay.

34:56
I'm not paying for the technician to come out. I'll pay for the chiropractor to come out for the horse instead. Yeah. The vet bills instead of the technician bills. Right. I think they're a little bit cheaper when it ends up being a vet bill compared to a technician bill. I'm a knock on wood, but I think I have a theory that running a horse is a lot cheaper than running a tractor. Yeah. And I'm gonna, I'm going to play devil's advocate for just a second on that. I think that it all comes out in the wash regarding these two different things.

35:26
Because God forbid your horse colics, you're gonna have a big vet bill Yeah, oh for sure because we're getting insurance on the horses Something I already looked into it's 250 a year Yeah for my little babies, but they're babies and it covers up to $5,000 in colic surgery, but that's something you have to worry about right also another devil's advocate Horses are not fun to deal with in the snow sometimes

35:56
So if you're walking, you're not in a heated cab, you're on the ground walking behind them. There's a lot of give and take. So when we do anything on the farm, we do devil's advocate because that's our biggest thing. Also, my husband got to see how some of these horses that were ridden were selling and he was like, doesn't make any sense to me if we have the knowledge. And I'm not a horse trainer, I tell people that. I'm not a horse trainer, I've ridden horses since I was nine years old though.

36:25
On and off, I've done exercise riding. I've worked with really green, young, unexperienced horses, but I'm not a horse trainer. But if I can get a horse that I can ride into a sale barn, they'll go for 4,000, 5,000 plus. So it's an item that I guess you could say in a hurry is a lot easier than to sell with a tractor. Like a tractor can take longer. It's a bigger bill. So yeah, there is a lot of give and take. And I think that's what

36:55
I've learned in the last few months is pivoting and being excited to pivot because sometimes if you get in that mode of like, I don't want to pivot anymore. And I've been there. I've been there. I've been in tears saying like, I don't want to do the damn thing anymore. Cause those that have listened know that that's my saying, just do the damn thing. Um, and it's okay sometimes to be really excited about pivoting and to find the positivity is in it, you know?

37:23
and then to move forward with it. And we may have to pivot again. That's just the reality of life. But knowing some of the things that I've learned, that the death of farming happens because equipment starts to break down and the companies no longer service that, or you can't find anyone that will service it, or the parts, or whatever, be it, right? That's a huge crux. The other crux is nobody to replace the old farmers, okay? So that's two cruxes. The third crux is...

37:50
is that there's just not enough money flow through the system if you're doing it outside of the USDA. Because they have grants, they have subsidies. People forget that farming is built on subsidies because the government keeps them that way. The private buyers won't buy directly from the farmers because after so many acres you become a commercial farm. There's so many rules and regulations.

38:15
Yep. And right now, I think we're still kind of screwed on the grants from the government because I think a lot of them have been put on hold. I would have to look into that. No, they are. So if you're looking for grants, you want to look regionally or locally right now. Yep. In your state for grants. there's grants everywhere, guys. Like, seriously, please go look. There are grants to help offset new equipment. There are special loans.

38:45
um that are offset by grants to help with interest on equipment. know, like there are so much and maybe Montana is a little more gracious than other states. But I encourage you to look and see even though the government is in shambles, look for those grants now because they may not be there in 10 years. Yeah. I thought we were done with the world being a dumpster fire when COVID eased eased up, but no surprise it's a dumpster fire again.

39:15
Um, it's just, mean, we're a, we're a landfill on fire. Now is what I joke. Uh huh. I just, no longer dumpster. I am so thankful that my husband and I moved when we did back in 2020, because it's a lot easier to feel okay when you live on three acres and you live like a homesteader lives because you're prepared for a lot of things that most people aren't so incredibly thankful that we did this. Yeah.

39:45
Oh yeah, can't. I'm, I could, if I could go back and pat, uh, my husband's back in 2019, way before I met him when he bought this, I would, because got 20 acres for under a hundred thousand. I can't, yeah, we don't have water. Yeah, we have, we have no trash. Our internet is barely working, but you know what? I got land and we got land more than anything. He did nothing with this before I moved in with him. It just sat vacant, which was fine. It was a clean slate.

40:15
You know, and that and it has been a blessing to us. It's it has kept us afloat wonderfully. And I won't say afloat even in the sense that we're in the green and profiting. It has kept us from losing gobs of money with no return. Or no nothing back, I should say, like pigs send them off to slaughter. You get bacon back. That's a return. Yeah.

40:42
And the peace and the happiness that it has brought you and the sanity that it has brought you, that is worth everything. That is definitely a double-edged sword. Sometimes this property has not brought me sanity, but that is because of family issues that we have going on. It's a headache sometimes, but it has brought me so much peace in the sense that I'm able to walk outside with my husband and my son and say, okay, we're okay. We have items to barter.

41:10
We're going to be okay if something happens. We've got horses to ride in the future. You know, we got babies on the way. got goats, we have sheep, have pigs, we have ducks, we have a turkey, we have a rabbit. we have, we're there. We're at that point, we're starting to build and we're about three years then. I think this is my third. Yeah. Our third fall going into this building. Um, we started in the fall building, which was rough, but you know, I, I look back and.

41:40
And it is truly amazing. I tell people, even if you can't do this on a large scale, you have people on your podcast all the time uh that have different varieties of acres, but you can do it on less than an acre. There's a girl in my town that you've interviewed, with Roseland uh Urban Farm, believe is the name, but she does it on very little land. And so I think when people listen, don't, this shouldn't just be a dream in the, in the far future, like, oh, one day.

42:10
Maybe I'll get to own three acres of land like Mary, right? And be able to farm. If I lived in the city, right? And was listening to this. No, you can start now. There's a way to start now. And the sooner you adapt now, the better it is long-term. Even if it's just you growing your own tomatoes on your apartment patio. Like that's going to offset your bill by a little bit each year. And that little bit can go to something else that will help offset.

42:38
And so if we just all got in this mindset of we need to start building to sustainability, then it does naturally ease your anxiety about what's going on in America because you know that you have yourself covered. You're not relying on somebody else. So the sustainability, the soothing, right, that it brings to know that we're OK and we would be OK in that situation helps you enjoy what you do more. And that's that's the biggest thing. Enjoy what you do.

43:09
Don't make your hobbies into money making things. It'll make it where it's less fun. And find a way that you don't rely on a single person from the government to provide for your family. That doesn't mean not relying on anyone. That just means not relying on the government entity. You gotta rely on each other. And so like that's been a lot in the last two months learning and digging this apart to get to this point.

43:35
But I'm glad that I got to come back on your show and we got to talk about from September to now the changes. mean, that's a lot of change in just a few months, but it's okay to pivot and it's okay to step back and say, how can I make this more sustainable? And then figure out how you can barter that. Yep, absolutely. And you were saying that you can start now. The thing that I keep saying is learn to cook.

44:02
Cooking is a homesteading skill. It has been a homesteading skill since people showed up on the planet and learned to cook. You know, when we stopped being nomads. And uh honestly, if you learn to cook, even basic cooking skills, you will save yourself a lot of money. You won't save yourself time because cooking takes time, but you will save yourself money.

44:29
Correct. Yeah, we cook a lot. I mean, it's fun when we get to go out to eat. But if you eat out even once a week, that's 400, if it's a family of three, with, you know, we have gluten allergies. So you're talking four or $500 for us to eat comfortably, like good food, not just junk food, right? Because if I'm going eat out, it better be better than my cooking. But it's not really. Everything is just, we make jokes that this will probably turn a lot of people off from food.

44:57
Even your mom and pop restaurants sometimes, if they're not cooking stuff in house, it's Cisco. Cisco Foods, we joke about who can reheat Cisco Foods the best. So I would rather go cook and buy whole ingredients. We're 2026, I wanna encourage a lot of people to do this, because this is something I'm gonna try and do. We're gonna try and buy nothing brand new, other than the absolute necessities. A coffee pot does not mean brand new. That means used.

45:26
There's no tariffs on that, which is going to save us gobs of money. So I'm encouraging everyone, just non-consumer. Look up, even if you can't, if you're cooking and you're like, I can't grow anything, look up just non-consumerism. That's what started me down this whole homesteading, off-grid journey, was just trying to learn how to be a non-consumer because we live in such a consumerism world. Yeah, absolutely.

45:54
Again, double-edged sword, devil's advocate. um If everybody starts buying stuff used and it still works, that's great. But we also have to consider that we don't want the economy to tank. Correct. Yeah. So it's a slippery slope and there's a real balance there. But I get what you're saying. We have a percolator. Okay. You know what a percolator is for coffee, right? Oh Yeah, yeah.

46:21
The kind that you actually put on an open flame. It doesn't plug into the wall. And I love that thing. Now, I'm not going to lie. I love the fact that we have a drip coffee maker that is programmable and the coffee is made when I get up. I love that. But I also love that if the power is out and our generator doesn't kick in, which hasn't happened yet, thank God, I know how to use that percolator. So even if we have no power, there will be coffee. And without coffee,

46:51
People will die with coffee. People stay alive. That's how this works in my house. That's what my son says. He goes, I don't tell you bad news before you have coffee. Yeah, we're all addicts to coffee in this house and it's the only thing we're really addicted to. So I guess it's okay. But it be worse. Could be way worse in the grand scheme of things. Yes. But knowing how to use a percolator, I didn't know how to set one up until maybe 15 years ago because I'd never used one. Yeah.

47:21
Yeah, and it is. You got to find balance in it, right? Like, I'm probably not going to go buy horse panels brand new when I can find some bent ones, right? Because those are being shipped from China. But there is such a given a take on our economy because it's based on the consumerism. And I highly believe that is what makes people believe that they'll never own a house.

47:47
Well, I got to go buy this thing. Well, this thing broke. like, yeah, the new stuff is not built the same way. But in that the same thing tractors, right? We talked about that on the all morning was tractors not being built the same. But I think there's items that you can be non-consumerism that that are smart. And there is it's always a fine line. I want to remind everyone that in life, everything is delicate. There's a balance, a yin and yang, right? Homeostasis is the word.

48:15
for when your body tries to do it. When you go from really low lows to really high highs, emotionally is homeostasis and that's with everything. Everything tries to find a neutralness world. And so if you can just do some of on one side and some on the other, then it's helpful. And that's with your farm too, right? Like I'm buying some of my hay, but some of them I'm bartering for. So it makes it worth it. Cause when my husband goes out there, he gets a load of hay.

48:44
He does some of his barter hours and then comes home. And so that yin and yang with getting the hay, buying it, making sure that we're set up is important, but it applies. If I look anywhere in my life, that is a major thing. And so just yin and yang as we say sometimes and do the damn thing with the homesteading and five years from now, you're going to look back and be like, oh yeah, I do remember. Yeah, there was nothing there. That's crazy. Now look, there's something everywhere.

49:13
that's built the way I need it. And that's how we're getting to year three, finally, we're seeing it. So don't let the first two years get you down, because it'll come back up. Yeah. And honestly, this lifestyle requires a lot of patience and a lot of planning. And we're five years in, Morgan. Yeah. And I looked outside this fall and went, wow, cannot believe what this place looks like now.

49:41
Yeah, oh yeah, with the trees that you're off, man. Yeah, year five, if you're still struggling at year five, then you might need to look at your business plan again. But if you're finally starting to lift, then that's when it's good. I worked for into, I sold accounting software and I've talked to hundreds, if not thousands of business on the phone and I was having to pick apart their business in five years is the golden year. And that's when you should be able to reap the benefits, you know, and so it's.

50:08
It's a lot of tenacity and people don't realize that there's a lot of heartbreak. There's a lot of ups and downs. There is good and bad and there is frustration and exciting things that happen on the farm. But just keep pushing through. Like I think people are so used to, what do they call it? uh Quick instant gratification, instant gratification. Thank you. Exactly that my generation, especially we love instant gratification. ah

50:38
And farming and this lifestyle that we're living of being sustainable, it's not instant gratification. There's nothing instant about it actually, to be really truthful, but there's gratification, it's just not instant. And I think that that also is a big crux in farming too. We all just want instant gratification, but like Dave said, he puts up for the next year. You have to be one year in crop ahead.

51:05
People don't realize that. They think, oh, you should just make all the money and be a big, bad, hey, bajillionaire the first year doing it. That's not true. You got to put up a full year before you can really feel that way. And it's so interesting because nobody online wants to talk about these dark things. Not dark, but just hard things. But if we can be comfortable talking about it and it's not just on the dead internet where everything is positive and everything's dandy and everyone's making millions of dollars when they're really not,

51:34
then we actually get to learn and we actually get to move forward in what we're doing. Yep. The last major, what felt like instant gratification, it was not, but it felt like it was when we learned that the offer for our place had been accepted by the seller. And it wasn't instant gratification. took like 20 years from wanting to do this to getting here. But that moment of

52:02
they accepted your offer was amazing. And then the second one, which again, wasn't really instant gratification, but it felt like it was when I found out that we got the grant for our greenhouse that we talked about last time. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're looking at grants for greenhouses too, by the way, because of your idea. Yeah. And it wasn't instant because I had to actually apply for the grant and I didn't find out until six months after I'd applied for it. So that's definitely not instant gratification.

52:30
But the highs, those have been the two biggest highs in the last five and a half years. There have been smaller highs, you know, and there have been really great things. There have also been some lows. And there have been moments where I'm like, why are we doing this, really? And then there have been moments of, I know exactly why we do this. Yeah. Oh, for sure. It's a roller coaster ride doing this sometimes, but it's not a ride that I would want to get off of.

53:00
No, I, every time we drive back through the town that we lived in before, the houses are really, really close together. It's a little tiny town. Yeah. And I get tense. I'm like, Oh my God, I can't believe we lived in this way for 20 years before we live the way that we live now. get anxious. Oh, I couldn't live in the city. would, I lived in the city a lot. I can't.

53:28
I can't handle it. I don't even like driving now. I can't tell you the last time I've had a drive at night. Like I just, don't, I have no desire to go back. And there are moments where something really bad happens and I'm like, I want to go back. I could live an easier life. I could go play sports on the weekends and go to the bar and do all this stuff, but it's not worth it. I mean, I would, I would have so much anxiety from this world that we live in that I wouldn't be able to enjoy my life.

53:56
Yeah, and don't get me wrong. I still do like to socialize now and then, very rarely, but now and then I do like to see my friends. And I do love it when my kids come to visit because that socializing with an extra. Yeah. To it. It's great. But I really do enjoy just being in my own home, not having to put on the show. And when people come to visit, it's wonderful, but that happens rarely.

54:26
Yeah, we're like, I mean, we have more visitors just because of the goats, but it's still pretty rare. Not going to lie, like one or two visitors a month, maybe. Yeah, we go mostly to people, but yeah, no, my, home is my sanctuary. It's my peace. Um, it's where we feel most secure. It's where we have the most happiness. Um, we have all the animals that we love and that love us and that need us. And so.

54:53
It's one of those things where when people are even like, do you want to come play trivia on Wednesday? And I'm like, no, I'd rather go pet the babies under the stars and look at the stars. Like I don't, I don't find any use in that, you know, because it's more stressful. got to drive into town. It takes up gas then, you know, the entry fees and stuff. I, and I think that when you find that kind of piece, does change your life.

55:20
But like we've said, there's a lot of ups and downs. And I think sometimes just talking about that and normalizing that helps other people that are maybe in that low spot that are wanting to give up. Like just keep pushing, keep going. Yeah. If you're still alive, there's still hope and potential. Correct. Yeah. Oh yeah. Every day you wake up, you know, six feet above, there is potential. I would have never thought my life would have landed me here as a single broke mom in Tucson, Arizona in the ghetto. I lived in the hood.

55:49
You know, and never did I think I'd be in Montana living this life. But I did it because of my tenacity. I kept pushing forward. Even in the lows, I was like, this is my goal. This is my goal. And being single, I was able to find someone that shared the same goal as me. Now, if you're married, hopefully you and your partner have the same goal or you can get on the same page and compromise. A lot of farming is compromising with your partner, compromising with your bank account and compromising with where you live.

56:19
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Morgan, I'm going to sound like your mom. I'm really proud of you. Thanks. I'm super proud of you. Just in two short months, we've all accomplished a lot. Like hearing somebody else is in your farm stand, you're getting fertilizer and trade and bartering and using the system that's going to help farming. I am so glad that we got to talk about this because you were already putting this in place also. Oh, yeah.

56:43
We are always trying to figure out the smartest, most economical way to get things done here, doing the damn thing. Yeah. Oh, always. You got to do the damn thing. I can't even talk. Do the damn thing. Get up, get out of bed. If you're listening to this podcast, go do the damn thing. Do the thing that lights your heart on fire and never stop, no matter what gets in your way. can't. I mean, it brings tears to my eyes.

57:12
to say that because we have gone through the ups and downs, but do the damn thing. No matter how upset other people are at maybe what you're doing, if you're doing the right thing and you're leading with a good heart and from a kind place, you're gonna succeed, even when you feel like you're failing. And sometimes you don't succeed at the thing that you were trying to succeed at. Sometimes life throws you a little curve ball in there and you become successful at the thing past that. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. And like,

57:42
Just go with the ride. You're here to experience. That's what humans are here to do. We're here to experience the world. Experience it to its fullest. Yep. Absolutely. Morgan, where can people find you online? Groovy Grazers. There's one with an MT and one without. The one with the MT is more professional. That's going to be about the goats. Groovy Grazers for right now until we figure out a farm name is going to be where you can see everything going on at the farm.

58:12
We own www.grooviegrazors.com. You can message me on there. The phone number that uh is on there is textable. Please feel free to reach out to me or give me a call. We like to talk to other people that are farming or have questions or bouncing ideas. um And you can find me on Instagram. I'm not as active on Instagram, but those are the two main places. Okay, awesome. As always, people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com. And if you've gotten any kind of

58:41
I don't know joy out of listening to my podcast or learn something or had a good laugh or had a good cry. You can support my podcast by going into the show notes and there's a link that says buy me a coffee and that will allow you to kick a couple bucks at the podcast so I can keep it going. Yeah. And you have a Patreon too. You've got to talk about that. I do have Patreon. It's patreon.com slash atinyhomestead. I am so proud of you. Good job.

59:10
Thank you, proud of you too. All right, Morgan, thanks for coming back. Me too, thanks for having us and we'll talk to you guys again. All right, thanks, bye.