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Hard Work, Homesteading and More with Jeff Putnam
183 Plays5 days ago
Jeff Putnam is a Writer, Dad, Catholic and small time Homesteader. Mathew and Jeff discussed the importance of hard work and much more. Jeff is an author with a sizable online following. He discusses the importance of hard work, his experience with the Catholic Faith, notes considering using goats for vegetation management and much more.
Learn more about Jeff, check out his books and more:
X Profile: https://x.com/TheJeffPutnam
Website: https://jputnambooks.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Cottagers podcast, a production by Cottage Pastures. On this podcast, we discuss rural living, homesteading, and small-scale farming. You'll hear conversations and interviews about the realities of modern life and returning to the land.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm Matthew. And I'm Carissa. We're the founders of Cottage Pastures and your hosts on the Cottagers podcast.
Guest Introduction: Jeff Putnam
00:00:23
Speaker
Jeff, I'm excited for you to be here with us today. Yeah, thanks, man. I'm kind of flattered you even bothered to have me on. Well, the reality the truth is that you know we come across quite a few folks, my wife and i whether it's in person, online, over the phone, folks who reach out to us.
00:00:39
Speaker
And there's certain people that are either in certain positions that just inspire us or you know ask us to you know just make us think, like, how did they get there? Or what are they doing? Or something's interesting there.
00:00:50
Speaker
And frankly, you were one
Jeff's Background and Writing Career
00:00:51
Speaker
of those people for me. I came across your online profile next. probably about a year or two years ago. And it was clear and evident from the very beginning that you're very passionate about the faith. And there's a lot of things that seemingly be are going on in your life that are really interesting. You're working at a sawmill, ah you're you know, nine children, you've got homestead stuff going on, just a lot of neat things. So no, I'm i'm glad and honored that you're here but with me, man. This will be fun.
00:01:15
Speaker
I just, I mean, I don't mean to put you down, but if I'm inspiring, you've got very bad judgment or the bar is pretty low.
00:01:24
Speaker
well we'll Well, we'll see. let's ah We'll get into this. Let's see what happens. So let's um let's start with this. Maybe just a a bit of background. Just who are you, if you don't mind introducing yourself and kind of talking about who you are and what you do?
00:01:36
Speaker
Well, like you said, I'm Jeff Putnam. I'm officially and professionally a writer. I write fiction. I ghostwrite fiction and nonfiction.
00:01:50
Speaker
I've got probably 12 books that I've written about 80% through under my own name and just can't figure out the ending. So I'm pulling a Hemingway there because I think it was with ah For Whom the Bell Tolls, I believe it was, that he wrote 43 different endings. And I'm kind of at that point on all of these.
00:02:10
Speaker
ah Altogether, I've written, umm working on my 73rd book now for a client. So more writing for other people than I have myself. Married, nine kids.
00:02:23
Speaker
The oldest is 25. The youngest is 10. I no longer work at the sawmill. Last week was my last week there.
Faith and Family Life
00:02:32
Speaker
That job was temporary and we can kind of get into that a little bit later.
00:02:36
Speaker
um Catholic convert. I came to my first mass in May of 2023 and my wife and were and my wife and i were fully welcomed into the church.
00:02:50
Speaker
I'm talking it was a four sacrament grand slam day on June 22nd of last year. Wow. That's wonderful. but an It's always neat to see where everyone kind of comes from on these different angles.
00:03:05
Speaker
And, you know, whether it's, you know, a journey into the faith, whether it's being raised in the faith, but then how that interacts with, you know what ultimately life throws at you. It's always interesting to see. So I guess the first thing starting out, you know writing is something that, you know, is is always been appealing to me as from an authorship standpoint.
00:03:23
Speaker
My youngest or my eldest daughter right now is absolutely committed that she's writing a book this year. She's seven years old and she's ah very focused, almost have to take books away from her to get her to focus on other things.
00:03:35
Speaker
But writing is interesting because it's one of those things where, you know, as more people become interested in moving out to land or homesteading, it's something relatively accessible to them, whether they want to do it as a career or if they just want to do it to kind of leave a legacy and and written testimony for what they're experiencing for their children or their grandchildren to come.
00:03:54
Speaker
How did you get into writing and how did that become your career? Well, I was this kid who very much like your daughter. I refused to go outside and play when I was younger.
00:04:08
Speaker
I'd be in my room reading and it was always, i'm going to date myself here, but I was reading the Hardy Boys and i was reading the original R.L. Stine Goosebumps series.
00:04:20
Speaker
And I was going through two books a day and my mom would kick me out of the house, go play. So I would do the thing. that you've probably seen your daughter do. If you haven't, she's definitely doing this.
From Grooming Business to Writing Success
00:04:33
Speaker
Take the book, stuff it under your shirt, tuck it into the waistband of your pants, and then I'd go outside and I'd just be hanging out in my garage ah sitting on the lawnmower reading or under a tree in the backyard reading.
00:04:47
Speaker
um And I was always just kind of fascinated with how someone could tell these very intricate stories that made me want to read as much as I did So I think it was around 10th or 11th grade in high school, I had to do a report on Ernest Hemingway.
00:05:10
Speaker
And I went to the public library, you know, where you had to pay 10 cents to print a page and all this other back then. And I found a picture of Hemingway online where he was on a sailboat.
00:05:26
Speaker
There's a typewriter. He has got, he's got like a bottle of whiskey or bourbon, you know, sitting there on the boat and he's holding a machine gun. And the caption on it was that he was shark hunting.
00:05:38
Speaker
And I'm like, if this is what a writer does, being a writer sounds lit. I've got to do this to this day. I've never gone shark hunting with a machine gun yet.
00:05:49
Speaker
ah There's still time. I'm a young man still, but that's what, I mean, i've ah I've always wanted to be a writer just because I was always a reader. But I got into writing because in 2018, I started my own company.
00:06:04
Speaker
It was called Rugged Legacy Grooming Supply. And it started in my kitchen. ah was making my own beard balms, hair gel product, or hair pomade products, and beard oils, things like that.
00:06:18
Speaker
And I had no money left over after... spending all of our savings, which my wife wasn't happy about, on starting the company, that I had to figure out how to market it.
00:06:31
Speaker
So I'm Googling this, Googling that. Oh, what drives traffic to a website? Blogs, social media posts. So I joined Twitter and I started a blog on that site.
00:06:44
Speaker
And it was just completely out of necessity that I was writing to the kind of man that would be interested in the products I had. which is pretty much any guy that didn't want to smell like a 15 year old going to homecoming dance, you know, when it came to any kind of grooming products and stuff that actually worked.
00:07:06
Speaker
And so I was kind of like a Duke cannon light. If you think of, if I think about it now, but while I was doing that, I got more into the long form writing thing and I got more into copywriting too. And I was a professional copywriter for,
00:07:23
Speaker
about five years, ah kind of simultaneously along with, you know, writing books and long form writing, things like that. But
Homesteading Journey and Farm Life
00:07:34
Speaker
I think it was 2020, maybe 2021. I can't remember.
00:07:39
Speaker
I said, I'm going to write a book and have it in paperback, something you can hold before the end of next year. And this was probably around sometime before Christmas, one of those two years.
00:07:55
Speaker
And January 1st, I got up and I sat down and I started writing with a goal of, I'm going to write 1,000 words per day as soon as I wake up, go to the gym, come back.
00:08:07
Speaker
And I'm not going to stop writing until I've got at least 1,000 words. I'm not going to cap myself at 1,000 words, but no less. And some days it would take me three hours to get 999 words. And I'm scrolling through the manuscript going, where can I add the word and, you know, just to get that thousand.
00:08:27
Speaker
And some days I'd sit down and I'd, you know, shoot out two, 3000 words like it was nothing. But overall it took me 35 days to write the entire book.
00:08:38
Speaker
And then another two weeks to find somebody to format it. Cause I'm terrible at stuff like that. ah I got a buddy of mine to do the cover.
00:08:51
Speaker
And then I went through the step-by-step Googling and whatever Amazon told me to do publishing process. That did really well. I had a pretty good sized audience by that time on, on Twitter.
00:09:03
Speaker
And I got the number one new release within 24 hours wow on Amazon. And it was pretty cool. And so like, well, I got to do this again.
00:09:14
Speaker
So it took me a, About two months to write the second one. And then that did the same thing. And then i had other people saying, how much would you charge if you helped me write a book?
00:09:29
Speaker
So it was kind of some co-writing jobs here and there that it was. What if you just write the whole thing for me? And so that's how it kind of evolved over time. Very neat. That is fast. I didn't know any of that.
00:09:40
Speaker
um You know, and admittedly, I always knew that you, you know, I've seen the ghostwriting, but I always wondered, how did he get into ghostwriting? That's such a unique, almost a niche thing. You know, it's out there. It's all over the place.
00:09:52
Speaker
But how did someone get into it? It's fascinating to hear the story behind it, partly because I bet it resonates with a lot of folks who are ultimately at that first step where they're trying to think, you know, how do I create something to support my family?
00:10:05
Speaker
and not leave the home or leave the farm or the homestead or, you know, whatever it is. And I guess, you know, during this time, you know, where, where was the the homesteading activity during this time? Like, did you guys, were you already living on land? Did you have animals? Like, what did that look like behind the scenes?
00:10:21
Speaker
I mean, it was pretty much not existent until 2020, that spring. Let's just get some chickens. And you know how it starts. It starts with get some chickens.
00:10:33
Speaker
had Went from six chickens to 28 chickens in a matter of five months. And, all right, I've got way too many chickens. You know what? Let's get some ducks.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then it was ducks. You know, because why not? We're already giving away, you know, seven, eight cartons a day to the neighbors because we can't go through this many eggs.
00:10:57
Speaker
you know, I'm not cool hand Luke and I don't know anybody else who is. But I dated myself again with that one. Most people are going to know what what I'm talking about. Cool Hand Luke. I knew the Hardy Boys one and the Goosebumps one. You didn't lose me on that by any means.
Lessons from Farming and Goatscaping
00:11:13
Speaker
Okay. but What about the Cool Hand Luke one? Did you get that one? No, I have no idea who that one is. Oh, okay. um Paul Newman, great movie. He sat down and ate like 52 boiled eggs in the movie.
00:11:27
Speaker
Okay. ah Yeah. It was like a challenge thing when he was in the jail. But anyway...
00:11:33
Speaker
He's like, who's Paul Newman, that the salad dressing guy? I would have got the ah Rocky one and raw eggs. That would have been fine. Yeah, no, that didn't work either. Crap. That's funny on the salad. this so i would ah that That's where I do know that. I'm
00:11:49
Speaker
ah batting a thousand today. But no, then there's a there's a farm very close to us. I would say probably a 10 minute drive.
00:12:01
Speaker
And they still operate on this honor system. They raise all their calves and they milk, you know, they've got dairy cows. But they also raise their calves for beef.
00:12:15
Speaker
And then they process them, everything right there. So they sell raw milk and they sell fresh, like that week processed beef. But it's on an honor system where you walk in there, there's no one there. There's a freezer full of meat.
00:12:30
Speaker
There's a fridge loaded down with probably 20 gallons of raw milk at any given time. And there's a price list and a little basket.
00:12:41
Speaker
And you could just throw some money in there. You don't even have to interact with the people. But around springtime when they're calving, you know okay, give us a couple, you know, about a month until this thing's weaned and you could buy a calf.
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, guess who decided they wanted a cow?
00:12:58
Speaker
don't know if it's you, your wife, or the children. Someone, though. Oh, that was me. And then haven't gotten, like, I'm not a rancher, right? Got horses because I like them.
00:13:11
Speaker
right Not because they're affordable. Because I like them. Do you guys ride around? yeah you Yeah. yeah i you know Cows will get as calves raise, process, eat, buy another calf. I'm not trying to do a breeding program over here because I don't have the space.
00:13:33
Speaker
But that again, it was like chicken math with every animal.
00:13:39
Speaker
It's kind of the way it happened. Well, and I, you know, one of the things i like the way that we're talking about it here, because I think for many people, this has become such a nearly insurmountable feat. They see someone with animals and they just think like the obstacles or the burdens or the hurdles for me to get from here to there are huge.
00:13:58
Speaker
And it's just the way you describe it is just so um so it's and not necessarily simple. You can just do things. You can just do it. Yeah, exactly.
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah. ah You know, ah and like we were talking about before the show started, the next is probably goats. Simply because I can make money with goats. And no, I'm not making goat cheese or soap or I don't even want to drink goat milk.
00:14:25
Speaker
um But goatscaping is totally a thing. I can rent 15 of them out for a week for about 400 bucks. And they could just destroy all the kudzu that the Japanese graciously left us here in the South for anybody that's trying to clear some land, but doesn't have a whole lot of money to do it.
00:14:43
Speaker
Yeah, this one is really interesting. It's um just did go a little deeper. Talk about what what you're talking about. So goatscaping, I'm familiar with it. Some people might not. I know there's folks around us who do it.
00:14:53
Speaker
um but So goats are goats are not like sheep. They eat down to the root. Yeah. If you want to let a sheep graze on some grass, you're not going to have grass there if you leave them there too long.
00:15:07
Speaker
right With goats, they're kind of forager, scavenger grazers. right they They'll eat everything but stop once they go, there's something more interesting over here.
Family Involvement in Homesteading
00:15:19
Speaker
And goatscaping is simply, you've got your hot wire, you know your electric fence. You can go and string it up around someone's property. They rent your goats. You drop them off. And they just get rid of all the brush and the brambles and the kudzu and the briars and everything else because maybe they can't afford to hire a crew to come out there with some bobcats or, you know, graders or anything like that.
00:15:46
Speaker
So it's kind of lucrative, but more so kudzu is terrible here. It's everywhere. One of the nicknames they give it down here is mile a minute because that's about how quick it grows.
00:16:00
Speaker
Um, but it is great for the soil in that it, it's like a nitrogen fixer. Problem is if you get too much nitrogen in your soil, it can burn your grass or any of your plants, vegetables.
00:16:12
Speaker
And I cannot remember exactly what it is, but there's something in goat feces that it kind of balances out the nitrogen, and the nitrogen in the soil.
00:16:26
Speaker
so that you've got some healthy soil you can grow in, or even if you just want to, you know, healthy Kentucky bluegrass, you know, and not have it burn, you know, pretty much like it does. If a dog pees in the same spot on the grass, it burns. Sure. And that's usually from the ammonia content, but nitrogen will very much do the same thing. If you're not, you know, careful about balancing it out. That's why,
00:16:52
Speaker
we failed multiple times in our raised garden beds because it was too rich in nitrogen.
00:16:59
Speaker
Is this so like making finding things that are kind of related to agriculture or, you know, behind operating in the homestead? I mean, is that a ah focus for you all? Is it just something you do kind of on the side because there's excess?
00:17:11
Speaker
Is it something you intentionally I mean, bringing in 15 goats is no big is no ah joke. I've got goats and keeping just a few of them is a is a tour in itself. but But they're also hilarious.
00:17:22
Speaker
So they are plus side. Arguably of all, you know, everybody comes out and everyone likes seeing cattle and everybody talks about chickens because they're easy and accessible. But I will tell you the funniest animals I think are goats and pigs.
00:17:36
Speaker
The pigs are hilarious just the way they act and run around. The goats are just, I don't know, they just get it. They just do things that are just silly all the time. it's Yeah, i mean, there's ah i think there's a whole calendar devoted to goats in trees.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yep. They'll go anywhere. but Anywhere.
00:17:59
Speaker
But is that a focus? I mean, do you do you guys look at the homestead and think like, how can we use this to build an enterprise? Or is it mostly just because it's just things you're doing and there's just opportunities that may come up here or there. And if they don't, then so be it.
00:18:11
Speaker
I don't know, man. I don't really plan stuff out like that. It's more of a, you it'd be fun. Let's do that. Oh, that was a terrible idea. We won't do that again. Oh, this worked out. Let's keep doing
Values of Blue-collar Work and Homeschooling
00:18:21
Speaker
it. That's the way I do everything.
00:18:23
Speaker
Got That's kind of how I started my own company. You know, hmm. I should probably try this. I'll give myself 10 years to make it work because I know nothing about business. Sure.
00:18:35
Speaker
Hey, it worked in three. Awesome. Now I'm going to sell this company and do what I want to do is write. Very interesting. Very neat. I'll be curious to see how this works if you do actually move forward with the goats and to hear kind of how it goes. I have no doubt it'd be successful, especially you're in the south. So kudzu is literally everywhere. And my presumption is once I eat it back, it's probably unfortunately going to keep growing forward.
00:18:58
Speaker
So you almost can put a customer on a retainer for the next year. too mean It will if the land goes undeveloped. mean You can get rid of it if you don't leave it. You know, if you just leave it alone, it's going to grow back like anything.
00:19:11
Speaker
But if you've got got a guy mowing the grass and, you know, he put a fence up and he's out there spraying the, the, the, you know, weed spray and, you know, insecticides and it's not going to just creep up and overtake your lawn or that would be every lawn here.
00:19:29
Speaker
But if it's something you want to, Hey, I want to clear this out, put a shed in here, maybe build a, you know, a, a dirt bike track through the woods, you know, but this gully right here is loaded with kudzu and it would be great to do something or just clear it out because it's nasty looking and they pay for it.
00:19:48
Speaker
I'll provide the goat. Fair enough. Very good. Well, hey, I want to um want to ask you about something that I think is ah really on top of a lot of people's minds right now. And I did i had a dig for this. it's It's something you wrote. I hope you wrote. or some so I think you wrote it. It was online.
00:20:04
Speaker
um But I think this is a convert this is a point that people are really interested in, which is how they're raising their children around productive labor, whether it's trades, whether it's like service work, whether it's it's something they're doing, homestead farming, something that they're producing and that they can do with with their children and how that's impacting their children raising up, both you know in seeing their parents pray together and seeing their father work and seeing their mother work, all these different things.
00:20:32
Speaker
But G wrote, today is my 15-year-old's first day at his first job. the kid This kid is the one that helps me the most around the homestead with crawling through chicken coops, building new pens and structures for the animals, and when we do home remodels. and then you mentioned Arby's is going to be a piece of cake. So I'm thinking he was probably getting a picking up a part time job or something at the time.
00:20:48
Speaker
But I was just, you know, was curious your perspective. You've got nine kids. And, um you know, what's your perspective on that? How does that how does this impact them? I mean, the way I grew up, I grew up here in the south.
00:21:02
Speaker
And if you want something, you go and work for it. I used to go and harvest corn and you know, help run cows around for my neighbors.
00:21:15
Speaker
You know, and if I wanted anything, you know, oh man, I would really love to have that Nintendo. Well, guess what? I need to go walk the lawnmower up and down the county roads until I find someone that would let me cut their grass for 15 bucks.
00:21:31
Speaker
I'm going to die one day. My wife's going to die one day and my kids are going to be screwed if we had raised them to always depend on us.
00:21:42
Speaker
So if you want a phone, well, then you're gonna work for it, you're gonna pay for it, you're gonna pay the bill. You want a car, you save up 50% of how much that car costs, I'll provide the other 50%, you still make all of your payments and you still make all of your insurance payments.
00:22:01
Speaker
That means you have to have a job. you know And that's the way we've raised them. And yeah i was thinking about this earlier I've worked blue collar jobs most of my life, you know, when I wasn't in the military.
00:22:16
Speaker
um All different kinds of construction, landscaping, carpentry, welding, concrete. You know, I worked at a sawmill for a while. That was temporary because Hurricane Helene came in and destroyed everything. And I needed to, oh, well, we lost a lot. Time to recoup some funds on top of what I make writing.
00:22:39
Speaker
But I think every single person and more so boys should know what it's like to work hard.
00:22:52
Speaker
And I'll put it this way.
00:22:57
Speaker
The first thing you're going to learn is if you have to work hard to get something, you have to show up no matter how you feel. you It doesn't matter if you're sore, if you're tired, or the weather sucks.
00:23:10
Speaker
The job needs doing, right? And the other lesson is that they you kind of figure out that hard work isn't a punishment. you know It's not something that you should run from. and there There's this idea floating around that laboring with your hands is...
00:23:33
Speaker
the fate of people who aren't able to do anything else, you know, but some of the best lessons I've ever learned came from days when I got home so tired, I could barely stand. And my wife's over there feeling bad for me because I'm trying to smile and hang out with her and the kids, but don't mind me. I just hurt. i mean, I was popping ibuprofen just now before the show started, you know?
00:23:54
Speaker
Sure. And, The other thing is there's always this kind of a bigger picture, right? If you're only doing something for your next paycheck, you're going to burn out.
00:24:08
Speaker
and I do things for my wife, for my children, whether I'm getting up, you know, three o'clock in the morning to be at the sawmill by four when I'm freezing or I'm going out there and making sure the chickens are nice and warm or the ducks are warm and not frozen in the pond like the one was the other day, couldn't get out.
00:24:29
Speaker
I don't know what kind of animal just sits there and freezes in place, but yeah Yeah, that's an interesting one. um Yeah, I had to go out there with a hammer and chip it out. But everyone should work a blue-collar job or some kind of manual labor at least once
00:24:49
Speaker
for so for a short period in their life because it's going to show them that there's not really all that much to complain about in all of these other professions that you could possibly take.
00:25:00
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
Transition from Corporate to Manual Labor
00:25:02
Speaker
And you also learn that you can push further than you really thought you could. I mean, I'm working, I was working from four in the morning till four in the afternoon, completely exposed to the elements, the entire 12 hours.
00:25:15
Speaker
And it didn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter if you're the fastest, you're the strongest or whatever. You want to get respect to the other guys at the mill. You just show up, you do the job without complaining.
00:25:27
Speaker
And we could use a whole lot more young people who are not keen on complaining about every time something gets hard. Yeah, it's yeah what how you're describing it. For me, you know, my background has always been it was corporate world.
00:25:42
Speaker
And I always had a knack towards wanting to be involved in trades, manual labor, et cetera. And so we moved down to the farm and there are certain like lessons maybe of wisdom or maturity that I didn't even realize that I could grow in. And one of them, I think re it's kind of along the same line of what you're describing is it was for the first time for me that I recognize I have the opportunity to participate in these activities. I have the opportunity to participate in the church, not these are laws of nature and these are laws of the church that are imposed on me and I have to do, but I get to participate in them.
00:26:16
Speaker
Like going to mass on you know Sunday as an example, going out and planting seeds. I might not necessarily, i might prefer someone just make me ah the food and then I didn't have to be involved in the process at all of planting and harvesting and weeding and growing and preserving and all these things.
00:26:32
Speaker
But now my my mindset is actually, I just get to be a part of this. And I do it because I've got you know children who depend on me and a wife who depends on me. And there's something about them being around this that's good for them.
00:26:44
Speaker
And now they want to be involved in it. And I get to invite them into it. And that seems to make a lot of difference. And I can't really articulate necessarily why, but I feel like it makes a big difference for everybody.
00:26:57
Speaker
It does. i mean, your kids are all are sponges. They're going to emulate what they see you
Balancing Modern and Traditional Practices
00:27:03
Speaker
do. If my kids saw me. Well, I'm just going to hire this guy to fix my toilet. I'm going to hire this guy.
00:27:12
Speaker
Don't get me wrong. I hire a guy to cut my grass because I hate cutting grass.
00:27:18
Speaker
But, you know I can fix my own vehicles. i can. i mean, I built my kitchen. My wife wanted a new kitchen, so I gave her one. i built her custom cabinets and everything. And I got to you know have my kids come out there and be a part of that.
00:27:31
Speaker
i got My kids are a part of when I go out and I rip a chicken's head off and I dress it and throw it in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer. you know My kids are a part of that. And they get um even if they're never going to do it themselves, they know how.
00:27:46
Speaker
I'm giving them a childhood that I had, but also the childhood I wish I had. And my wife and I, we homeschooled. takes just a few hours a day, which is a whole lot better than the six to eight that they'd be spending in public school.
00:28:01
Speaker
And our kids get to grow up being kids while learning responsibility in real time. Right. You know, and like I said, I don't do it because it's the trad thing to do. I should return to the land and be a, be a farmer.
00:28:18
Speaker
No, no, believe me. I very much enjoy not having, uh, to use an outhouse. I enjoy my bidet that I installed myself.
00:28:30
Speaker
I enjoy heating and air conditioning. And yes, I still have a fireplace, but that's because my house was built in the forties and it's got more gaps in a politician's argument.
00:28:43
Speaker
But I mean, I just do things because I want to do them. and I don't think enough people do that. Sure. You know, they think I need some kind of permission to do this thing.
00:28:55
Speaker
Look, I don't even know what the zoning laws are here where I live. I don't know if I'm allowed to have the animals that I have. I just went and got them. That may so be something people have to make adjustments for. But you can just do things because you want to do them and then figure it out as you go.
Embracing Catholic Faith
00:29:12
Speaker
Well, hey, I want to i kind of want to turn this one last time and and maybe conclude on this too. and know you you recently came into the church in the last couple of years, and you mentioned that earlier today.
00:29:24
Speaker
But I just, I wonder how coming into the church or your experience in being Catholic has either been impacted by, you know, your involvement in trades and homestead life, or just really what your experience has been and how you, um how that's kind of come to fruition for you all.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, I'll My wife will be the first to tell you, I never do anything halfway. And I came into the church because I was writing a book with a Protestant friend of mine.
00:29:54
Speaker
ah And it was basically an 18-month project that was rooted in, what does it mean to be a good Christian man? An emphasis on Christian man, right?
00:30:06
Speaker
Not the... effeminate, boo-hooing, Jesus is your boyfriend type, you know, man. And I just started feeling the call one day, and you know what, I'm going to go to Mass.
00:30:19
Speaker
My wife was baptized Catholic, but she was never confirmed, never received First Communion, and never really pushed me into any direction. was like, you know what, I woke up one Sunday, we're all going to go to Mass.
00:30:33
Speaker
Went to Mass, and... came home from mass and I said, well, everyone we're Catholic now. We're not going to stop going to mass.
00:30:42
Speaker
And it's been that way ever since. Uh, but I don't do anything halfway. i mean, you can ask my wife when I started my own company, by the way, I'm going to spend all of our savings. Okay.
00:30:54
Speaker
Are you serious? Yeah. I just spent it all. She wasn't happy, but it was, you know, it worked out. Uh, I bought a punching bag one time because I thought it would be cool. Cause I was,
00:31:05
Speaker
going to the gym six days a week, three o'clock in the morning. And I am, I was 35 pounds heavier than I am now. ah was just jacked, long hair, long beard.
00:31:20
Speaker
I need some cardio. i'm going to buy a punching bag. So I bought a punching bag, threw it on my patio, hit it for a few hours and went, man, this would be fun. So I went to a boxing gym and I hired a one-on-one coach and I got my boxing license and said, you know what? I'm going to be a golden glove boxer now.
00:31:36
Speaker
And I did that. You know, like i said, I just do things because I want to do them. And I did that for a couple of years. And the only reason I'm not doing it now is because my last concussion with this 19 year old monster, i was 35 when I started, by the way, uh,
00:31:53
Speaker
I had blurry vision for like seven weeks. I was like, I'm not going to get hit in the head anymore. I got to fight, you know, I got to fight in the amateurs. I got to win a couple of fights, you know, got to have golden glove, you know, next to my name. That was cool.
00:32:09
Speaker
But yeah, I'm too old to get beat up anymore, which is why I carry. ah
00:32:16
Speaker
am way too old to get beat up. ah You know what? I'll talk to the judge. That's fine. But no, I just,
00:32:25
Speaker
It hit me so significantly when I went to mass that I knew immediately this is the objective truth, not a subjective truth.
00:32:36
Speaker
This is universally true, even for people who don't believe in it. They're just wrong. And there's no way I can ever stop. And I just dove in all the way.
00:32:47
Speaker
and you know, and some people have asked me, well, what are some Catholic teachings that you struggle with? Absolutely none. And they go, really? Yeah, because I figure if I even began to disagree with it, it's probably because I'm not smart enough to understand it, so I'll just take it as true on faith. I'm like, I'm not smart enough to argue this. so you know, Thomas Aquinas knows a whole lot more than me.
00:33:13
Speaker
I'll take his word for it. Yeah, I always took it similar. my It's funny you say it that way. My wife had an experience. She was Protestant, ah met me at college and we went to mass. i think it was our first date.
00:33:27
Speaker
And then later on, we went to adoration or we walked into confession. so I don't remember what it was like. I went to confession and. It was during where the seminarians where I was at school, where they were in adoration. She walked in the room and it was something like and I don't speak too much on her behalf, but ah I believe the story went something like she looked around and thought, all right, this is either real or not.
00:33:47
Speaker
Like it's it's binary. It's yes or no, because that is either Christ or it's not. And if it's kind of, then it is all the way and we have to be Catholic.
00:33:58
Speaker
And so she became, she came into the church and I had a similar experience too. And I, I suffered some really serious concussions when I was in high school and I don't remember a lot from my youth as a result, but I do remember one time also being in mass, looking up at the Eucharist, um, and just thinking it either is, or it is not.
00:34:18
Speaker
And if it is what the church says it is, uh, if that is the body of Christ, then it doesn't matter what I think about anything else. That is the truth. And I am a part of this church, period.
00:34:31
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, i went from thinking I knew everything to God forgive me. I am sinful and I don't know anything. Right. Immediately. i Yeah, i this is it. way but and I'm sure sometimes you know people will look at folks and think, man, I've got it all figured out. And just think, I don't know.
00:34:50
Speaker
I'm just in i'm in line. I'm just trying to do and just whatever whatever he asked me to do. I don't have anything figured out. I just fully submitted to Christ's authority. That's it.
00:35:02
Speaker
That's great. There's nothing. What am I going to do Argue with him? No, it's not going to work out. It's not historically, it's historically been not a good ah
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:35:14
Speaker
position. It's a poor strategy.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, good deal. Well, hey, Jeff, I appreciate you being here. I really do. um You know, you're, this this conversation is one that's, it's, you know, I've been looking forward to having for quite some time, very truthfully. so It's really neat to have a chance chance and an opportunity to talk with you here.
00:35:33
Speaker
And I hope that this is an inspiring conversation for many people who are you know looking for how to get started, whether it's honestly you know trades, homesteading, whatever it is. But most importantly, if they're looking at the church thinking, you know should I be there? And the answer is yes, obviously. So I'm so glad to hear you talk about it that way.
00:35:50
Speaker
um I don't know. I mean, have you got anything else you want to plug in here, toss in here? Where can people find you? I think that's important. They may want to get in touch with you. yeah oh The link that will probably work best for anyone to find me is my link on Twitter slash X, which is at the Jeff Putnam, T-H-E-J-E-F-F-P-U-T-N-A-M.
00:36:15
Speaker
And anything I ever put out, where whether it's my blog, YouTube channel I'm actually launching today, um they'll all be found there. You know, awesome it's easier for them to just go there and look rather than, hey, let me give you this list to add to your show notes. It's so much easier.
00:36:36
Speaker
That's good, man. Well, hey, thank you for being here. Really appreciate it. And I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Thank you for joining us on the Cottagers podcast. For more information on today's episode, check out the show notes or visit us at cottagepastures.com.
00:36:52
Speaker
We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.