Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Bhaaloo Candle Co. w/ Bhryan
46 Plays1 year ago
Bhryan from Bhaaloo Candle Co. and Bhaaloo Wildscapes joins us this week and schools us on the art of candle making and much more. Check him out on Instagram and give him a follow.
Bhaaloo Candle Co: https://www.instagram.com/bhaaloocandleco?igsh=MWdiMjN0am9maWFqNw==
Bhaaloo Wildscapes: https://www.instagram.com/bhaaloowildscapes?igsh=MW92ZG5raGxkOXNoZw==
Support our friends at Bhaaloo Candle Co.: https://bhaaloo.com/
Don't forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel Today's Craftsmen https://www.youtube.com/@TodaysCraftsmen
Merch:
The American Craftsman Podcast: https://amzn.to/482ttka
Greene Street Joinery: https://amzn.to/3Zfk5ph
Today's Craftsmen: https://amzn.to/3R5DRl8
Check Out Our Sponsors!
Visit Häfele at www.hafele.com
Visit Ridge Carbide at www.ridgecarbidetool.com
Visit Uneeda at www.sandpaper.com
Support us on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/Greene_st_joinery
Greene Street Joinery is a custom design & build shop located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. We build multigenerational furniture with an eco-friendly and sustainable mindset.
Inspired and guided by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, we believe in the use of traditional craftsmanship and simple, well-proportioned forms; sustainability and ethical practices; and importantly, taking pleasure in our work as craftsmen to create quality pieces of enduring value.
Follow us!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greene_st_joinery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenestreetjoinery
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-american-craftsman-podcast/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Announcement
00:00:28
Speaker
The American Craftsman podcast is sponsored by Hayfla. Hayfla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture making industries from hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, shop carts, wood glue and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as looks, LED lighting and Slido door hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at hayfla.com.
Meet Brian from Bailoo Candle Company
00:00:54
Speaker
Welcome back.
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah. How's it going? Good. It's just multiple children outside screaming. Yeah. We're joined today by our buddy Brian. Is it Bailoo? Bailoo. Bailoo Candle Company or Candle Co. Yeah. Candle Co.
00:01:14
Speaker
Some people go, they do the co and then they, they stick with the co when you're saying it, or sometimes they say company. So I'm not sure. What did you, what did you do? Um, I mean, in my life, I just call it Baloo and, um, I plan on opening multiple businesses and all of them will have that as a, as like a title name. That's, you know, in honor of my dog, whose name is bear. Um, still with us for now, you know, thank goodness, but he's an old boy. He's been with me for a long time. So his name's bear Baloo in Hindi means bear. So there's a relationship there.
00:01:43
Speaker
I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely unique and it, um, you know, candles kind of have this like ethereal sort of, you know, vibe to them. So it, you know, a unique name, I feel like adds to that. Yeah, I think so. I mean, speaking of like the intangible nature of, of candles and fragrance in general, I actually have like a little bit of a bone to pick with the marketing. When I first started this company,
00:02:10
Speaker
You know making social media posts and whatnot I was trying to like figure out how to do it where I fit in in that whole space and I almost quit because You know pretty much everything I saw was so Fruit fruit, you know, I mean like if you if you see a fragrance that it's almost like What is it? It's so abstract. Yeah unreal. Oh, yeah you
00:02:38
Speaker
They're like, let's have Johnny Depp walking down a beach and then, you know, just crazy. And a wolf will come out. Yeah. And he's wearing a tutu or something. It's just like, it's super weird all the time. And I don't mind weird, but, uh, I want to be able to make sense of it in some way, you know? So that's, uh, that's where I'm headed with this.
Candle Making Journey
00:02:59
Speaker
So when, when did you officially start? Like, um, maybe not even with the company itself, but like, when did you, when was the first time you ever
00:03:08
Speaker
made a candle? Not too long ago. I mean, a little over a year ago, maybe almost two years. I mean, candles, I think are a really, really good gift. Home warming, birthdays, whatever. They're a great gift. They last from a business point of view. It's a great business card alternative, real estate agent, client gifts or whatever. I wanted to pick your brain on that. Let's pick it up, dude.
00:03:33
Speaker
So I just, I wanted to get into it and make something that was consumable, but wasn't perishable. Right. This is an engineered, uh, perishability just naturally. Yeah. So, and there's, there's a lot of ways you can go with it. There's a lot of different vendors to choose from. Um, some are obviously better than others, I think.
00:03:54
Speaker
And it's just really accessible. I mean, $500, you could be in the candlemakers club. Yeah. No problem. So that's, yeah, very low barrier to entry. Um, you know, the, the most difficult thing is just figuring out how you want to do it and how you want to stand out. But that's, that's anything, right? Yeah. I mean, that's any business that's the hardest and you could be great at something, but setting yourself apart and all that other stuff. That's really the hard part.
00:04:24
Speaker
There's plenty of people who are masters at their craft who just can't manage to be successful because they can't figure out all that other stuff.
Role of Social Media in Business
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, you have to be able to put yourself in front of an audience if you're selling something, which is the thing I want to talk to you guys about, or I had a question I wanted to ask about your social media. I don't know if now's a good time to work. So you guys, I found you through Instagram as like a degrees of separation from my other interests. It was through like Brad Leone's thing and the salt boxes and three dot.
00:04:57
Speaker
And then I was like, hey, they're right across the street. I think you were moving in when I saw it, which was super exciting. And congratulations on the new space. But you have a huge following, you know? And I was curious about your, you know, why do you decide to engage in that so much? You know, this podcast included in like, what are your goals? You're just having fun.
00:05:18
Speaker
Well, so the genesis of the whole Instagram account was, so we worked at the shop and Rob was, I still don't know how to frame it, was temporarily laid off, which it turned into like a... Permanently. Yeah, it's this whole thing. You have to know the whole backstory of this guy. But anyway, so I'm still working there. And we had always talked about
00:05:48
Speaker
doing our own thing and because where we work, the guy kind of like to half ass everything. So we had this grand plan of breaking off and doing everything the way that we wanted to do it. So I was still working there and Rob was back in his shop, which is where the company started, but Rob had a shop before that.
00:06:11
Speaker
So I created this Instagram account, the Barone Woodwork Instagram account originally, which then just got name changed to Green Street when we started the company. But yeah, so in the beginning, it was really like a
00:06:26
Speaker
a way to try and drum up enough business where I could then leave the shop. An escape plan. Yeah, exactly. An escape plan. And so that was the very beginning of it. And then
00:06:42
Speaker
it was a lead generator. So I did finally leave and you have to stay busy. So I was on there cold messaging, interior designers, builders, architects. And it was a real slow growth in terms of the social media. So we were in it, I want to say
00:07:08
Speaker
Uh, over a year, it took us to get to like a thousand followers on Instagram. And then we, uh, I think slowly went up to like maybe like 8,000. And then there was like an insane jump from like 8,000 up to like in the twenties, just like some reels that went berserk. Um,
00:07:36
Speaker
And then it's been a slow, we've been stagnant at like 31, yeah, it was like 31.8 and we finally just ticked into 31.9 for like a year. But I haven't been putting as much effort into the social media.
00:07:52
Speaker
But at this point, it's A, it's advertising without having to pay for advertising and B, the biggest part is the networking. So, you know, have all of these contacts, guys all over the country in the world where, you know, oh, we're bidding this job. What do you what do you think? How much would you charge for this? How would you do this? So it's really a network. It's like a guild, like a woodworking furniture making guild. But you just do it right from your phone. Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, man. That's it. I think you guys are doing a great job. Oh, thanks. Sort of like, um, replaces in a way also, you know, a web presence like a, like a website used to be the only way people could find you on the internet. And now everyone's hooked up on Instagram. Yeah. And so it's just another way for people to spot you. For sure. I mean, that's how we, that's how the clients find us sometimes.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah. And there's that sort of spontaneous discovery that can happen on Instagram. Whereas like if you have a website, the only way someone's finding your website, unless you have ads out somewhere, is they literally have to search for something, you specifically or the topic that you're, you know, you have embedded in your SEO and then they have to go to your website. But on Instagram, we're being fed all kinds of, you know, people that we don't follow all the time. So you might just stumble across.
00:09:20
Speaker
You know, an account just like I did. Yeah. And likewise, you know, exactly it. So it's it's really powerful in that way where, you know, you can get out in front of people that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get out in front of. That's right. Yeah. And even for like, I mean, you guys don't do like an e-commerce type thing. But for e-commerce,
00:09:43
Speaker
every social media platform now has like embedded payment processing. So you can just have a business with nothing other than an Instagram account. If you have, you know, the reach for it. Yeah. Yeah. Like the three dot Leonie Kenji thing that came from social media, you know, they found this on Instagram. So yeah, it's a, I mean, there's people who have built empires via social media.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I think, I think you guys are doing great. And it looks like you're having fun. So I hope you keep on, keep, keep, keep on keeping on. You have to have fun. Yeah. Even if it's not on social media. Right. And what I, what I really enjoy is like doing the YouTube stuff with our buddy John. That's a lot of fun. It's it's very confusing though. You know, you're trying,
00:10:36
Speaker
understand what, you know, you put something out and it flops, and then you put something else out and it does well, and you're trying to figure out like, you know, algorithmically, how is this different than, you know, it's, it's crazy. Yeah, I mean, just speaking to YouTube, specifically,
00:10:53
Speaker
From what I understand, it's part social media, right? A platform, part search engine is what I've been reading. So like your title description is your SEO for those posts. I'm trying to wrap my head around that too. Aside from the candles, I'm doing that blue wildscapes adventure. So I have an Instagram account for that, building it up. And ideally that will turn into
00:11:18
Speaker
You know, green space management contracts or something. I'm trying to use what will be a YouTube channel. It's like a visual resume. But I got to get a handle on how to get that, you know, in front of people's spaces. Yeah, we have a buddy. His name is Austin and he's a machinist. He's down in Virginia, but his dad.
00:11:38
Speaker
created a gardening channel on, I guess, Instagram, and now he's on YouTube called Paw Paw Ridge. I think I've seen that. He is freaking huge. He blew up. You know, some people have the secret sauce, I guess, you know? Yeah. But there's a way to make it happen no matter what. There's plenty of people. I mean, we see him woodworking. It's not necessarily everything you know, you know, it's how you put it out there.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah, personality and video seem to be, and probably any sort of, you know, media content, seem to be like directly linked, no matter what. Because you could just pump out information all day long and be super boring about it. Yeah. And nobody cares. That's what books are for. Yeah. There's some fun books out there. Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Candle Crafting Techniques
00:12:29
Speaker
I wanted to ask about the wax. So it's soy and coconut wax, right?
00:12:37
Speaker
Is it like a true wax? Yes, so it's a plant-based wax. I should know more about the process of how plant oils are, I guess, saponified into that substance, but it's a coconut soy. Unfortunately, that's not made in the US. I'm trying to curate materials that are all made in the US, but the only available
00:13:00
Speaker
soy waxes that I know of that are made in the U.S. do not have coconut. I think that's an important addition for just performance. I think for the aromatic. Yeah. You know, it's definitely has because like I touched it and it's got like a really soft feel to it. You know, it almost feels like coconut oil. Yeah. And I mean, when it comes to like mixing the fragrance products and the wax, coconut wax will maintain a
00:13:30
Speaker
a texture at a lower temperature that's more appropriate for mixing because a lot of these, you know, fragrant compounds are volatile at low temperatures. So, you know, I have to, I'll melt it to like 180 degrees Fahrenheit and then I have to wait for it to cool like 165 before I mix some things in there and even lower for some. It's like if you're making candy, you know, you're making candy canes, you can't put the pepper and oil in. It's exactly the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. If you can bake, you can make candles. Yeah. No problem.
00:13:55
Speaker
All right. Take us to school on candles. Like tell us some stuff that, uh, that we wouldn't know. And that other people maybe, well, they probably don't know either. Let's, let's go on an adventure. Let's see. So, um, let's start with the wicks. This is the thing that, that blows most people's minds from what I understand. So.
00:14:12
Speaker
Not all wicks are created equal, right? So you can see these are double wicked candles that I make. I do that specifically because they're lower, they burn at a lower temperature, right? So that's going to be a reduced rate of burning the wax.
00:14:28
Speaker
So there's two of them. They have like a smaller burn radius as opposed to one with a large burn radius. Would one be like a larger diameter? It depends. So there's different manufacturers of wicks. And I think it depends on one, what like the filaments within the wick is and to the diameter. Yeah. So these are cotton.
00:14:47
Speaker
Unbleached cotton with paper filaments. They're about as clean a wick as you can make as opposed to some have a zinc or Lead, I don't even know if you can sell the ones in the US Nobody's checking that anyway Yeah, so I mean zinc I guess zinc it just burns up. I don't know but uh Supposedly you're not supposed to do it. So that actually makes this
00:15:08
Speaker
a pet safe, you could call this a pet safe candle. I try not to put that on any copy because I don't know what implications that means. Even like kids, they say, I forget, up until one or two years old, you're really not supposed to burn candles around children.
00:15:25
Speaker
Absolutely. And I mean, it is, there is like a mystery around fragrance, no matter who you are, unless you're the actual manufacturer of like the fragrant compound, it's like proprietary at every level. So like, I can't list the ingredients of what's in that fragrance oil. I can only know that I get it from a vendor that I trust, you know, and I trust them because they
00:15:45
Speaker
just short of the actual ingredient list, they put out everything. They bet their compounds and mixtures and it's all tested. So I can appreciate that. And they're the only ones out there that I know of that do that. It's candle science.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, they're good. And they have two distribution centers, one on the West Coast, one on the East Coast. So I don't have to like eat shipping charges from Texas, you know, every time I place an order. Yeah. You got to get like a part time like security job at IFF or something and just like break into the thing. Yeah, man, that's a fragrance. It's a crazy world. It's a crazy world. Everything is so like gate kept and secretive.
00:16:22
Speaker
especially in the perfumery side, which is where I want to get eventually, because having learned this much about this thing, if I want to go deeper, I have to go. I have to go there.
00:16:35
Speaker
But yeah, so wicks, they, these are cotton, double wicked, low burn time or low burn radius, which increases the burn time. So more bang for the candle receivers buck. Yeah. I've been burning one at home like crazy. And it's, it's probably about where that one is. That's been on all, all day. Nice.
00:16:53
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, they seem to perform really well. So I'm happy with them. I just changed the vessel too. So it actually improved the performance. I was using a slightly larger one before and the wicks were sized so that the melt pool would be like just up until the edge. And sometimes that had a negative side effect. But this one, it's slightly slimmer in diameter and seems to be like much, much better.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'll get back into what you were talking about with the candles, but I have a question. When you burn a candle sometimes and like it doesn't make it all the way and you have like that wall of wax that builds up, what's the solution for that? You have to remove it? Well, there's two solutions. One is scoop it out, which is nobody's favorite solution because then you're losing out on that stuff you just paid for.
00:17:45
Speaker
And with like a regular, you know, bullshit candle, that wax is like really hard. Right. Yeah. It's probably a petroleum wax. Um, and that stuff is super hard or even just straight soy wax is pretty hard too. Um, but there is, you could take tin foil and just kind of make a tube and just set it right on top. And it's going to, it's going to create like a heat dome and that'll melt it like in minutes. So easy peasy. I am struggling with that on these a little bit because I overfill them.
00:18:11
Speaker
on purpose because it better to over than under right and But it brings like the top layer of wax like too close to the top and then you lose that heat dome effect on those first couple burns Yeah, because the one that I brought home I did I had it
00:18:27
Speaker
in the beginning and I did that with the foil. Yeah. So look at that. Yeah. I figured it out on my own. You just, you did it. Yeah. That's all, that's all there is to it. And I'm sure, you know, there's someone out there that's makes like an aluminum candle, heat dome, adjustable diameter thing, but you don't need the candles yet. Yeah, you don't need that. So is there trial and error in sizing the vessel and the, and the, the diameter and wick placement and things like that?
00:18:55
Speaker
Yes. So I mean, usually the only variable that changes is the fragrance. So as long as you can dial in your wick size and your vessel, then you're good to go. The fragrance doesn't really change the consistency or like the burn rate of the wick. I mean, the important thing to
00:19:16
Speaker
avoid that tunneling problem is to just your first burn should be longer than normal. Right. But sometimes that doesn't work because it's so high. It's just a fact. You're supposed to liquefy the entire top layer. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. They people will say like the wax remembers.
00:19:31
Speaker
With air quotes, you know, it doesn't. It's just you're creating, I think, a less dense pool of wax in the middle when you do that. So next time you burn it, that's just going to happen. And then the wick reduces in height. And then by the time you do get to fixing that tunneling, then it's an issue. You know, you drown it out or whatever. What about trimming the wicks? You're supposed to trim the wicks like
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, you want to trim them pretty much as short as you can a quarter inch. You know, they will absolutely light if you try to light them, even if there's only a little bit left. Normally, the thing that's burning on the wick is not the wick itself. It's the, you know, the waxes and the fragrant oils that are being pulled out of the mill pool.
00:20:07
Speaker
I've done that before where you have like just the wick in the bottom and you light it. Yeah. I've given these away to friends, you know, for birthdays and whatever. And one of my friends, man, he just burnt one of the wicks because he was like, yeah, it'll last longer. And he just ruined the whole thing.
00:20:23
Speaker
Are the bottoms of the wicks adhesive? Do they stick to the? That's a yes, but it's a separate thing. So the wicks come in just like, you know, the string and then like a little aglet kind of on the bottom. You pull it through the. Yeah. I mean, it comes to me already done. Thank goodness there. You can buy like spools of wick and do it yourself, but that's insanity. I would never. And then you just get a adhesive dot.
00:20:46
Speaker
Stick them on the bottom. You have like a little template that you use? I have, I do have like a little jig for it. Yeah. I was going to say we can make, cut you on a laser if you need one. That would be way cooler than what I do have the thing I have. It's such a bummer. Like it's a, it's variable size. So it just like, it's made out of nothing, you know, made out of like leftover PVC or something. So it just like unscrews all the time. So you stick the wicks to the vessel and then pour
00:21:15
Speaker
Wicks, right? Sometimes. Yeah. I have like little, uh, little, uh, holders. I guess they're just little metal things with holes in them, you know, just put them right on top. But I run out of those because I don't have that many. So I should probably order more. And then I have to hold them, which is a super pain. It's like when they're frying corn dogs at the county fair and they got that little thing that holds a stick. Yes, exactly like that.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, but it's fun. And I mean, it's the best way to make your house smell amazing for days. Make a batch of candles. You cannot get rid of that fragrance even if, even if you try. So I have to do it upstairs. This is powerful.
00:21:49
Speaker
We would light it up like basically every day, I think, since you brought it over. But even when it's not lit, the room smells great. It smells so much nicer. Yeah. That's a function of the coconut wax, softening the wax. I guess it increases, you would call that a cold throw. So it gives that nice little effect. Yeah. And this, this is a relatively low concentration candle.
00:22:15
Speaker
It's like at somewhere between six and eight percent. That's proprietary. And I do that because I have a pretty sensitive sense of smell. So I have to like just to even be able to participate in this. I have to do it like that. But I also prefer candles that are not super potent. People have commented on there and enjoyed it.
00:22:37
Speaker
That's
Artisan vs Mainstream Candle Making
00:22:38
Speaker
good. That's good to know. I appreciate that. Yeah. My wife is not a huge fan of like, you know, most scented candles, but she likes this one. John said the same thing. I think somebody else might have said it too. Yeah. I can't really breathe almost when there's a heavily perfumed candle and this is nothing like that. Well, I appreciate that. Thanks guys.
00:23:01
Speaker
So what's like, speaking of these like heavily, I think of like Bed Bath and Beyond, you know, they do like that. I don't even, some kind of sale where women go and they buy like 10 billion of these, these ridiculous candles. What's the difference between something like that and something like this?
00:23:17
Speaker
Well, I mean, I can't really speak to what Bed Bath & Beyond puts in their product. As you know, they are 100% soy with a little bit of petroleum to adjust like the... I can't say I know that for sure. They didn't tell me. I read that somewhere.
00:23:33
Speaker
But it's a soy wax with a petroleum additive to either increase the burn time or the fragrance load capacity. Or lower the cost. Or lower the cost. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Yeah. And I mean, they probably, I mean, they're sourcing their fragrance in bulk. So, you know, I don't even know where they get that stuff from. 55 gallon drums. Probably in tankers. Yeah.
00:23:59
Speaker
But one thing that I know about my setup is that I only have to produce a few different fragrances to be in business. So they're producing. I have no idea how many and they're trying to accommodate the general population as an audience where really I'm just doing the things that I like and I hope other people enjoy it. So I get to really dial it in and be specific about what I'm putting out there and do it as clean as I can. And I hope people like it.
00:24:29
Speaker
I like that. We appreciate the sentiment. That's the way that we like to do things too. What other, what would you call it? I don't want to say style, but what other fragrances have you done? Last year I did nine. I tried to do three seasonal fragrances and then I just didn't do one for the summer.
00:24:55
Speaker
Not a big candle season, I guess. Yeah, not a big candle season. And I was kind of like disenchanted with the whole thing because of the, you know, struggling to participate in the social media side of it. But, um,
00:25:06
Speaker
Right now I just have this one for sale. I plan on doing a new one every month and then rotating, you know, ones that aren't popular out as needed. So I'm not sitting on like 30 plus fragrances at any one time. Cause I'm investing in just like the raw fragrance compound. That stuff's expensive. I have a thousand dollars in fragrances sitting in my spare bedroom right now. What's like the shelf life on, on that pretty long time? I mean, it depends on how you handle it, but a pretty long time.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yeah. They're in like amber colored specialty plastic containers and you just got to keep them out of heat and direct light in the last for a very long time. What's the fragrance like suspended in it? Is it like an oil or like a... Yeah. So if you're buying something called a fragrance oil, it will be a medley of fragrant compounds, whatever they are. And then there will be a carrier
00:25:57
Speaker
substance. So that is a petroleum product. This isn't totally free of that. I don't know specifically what it is. But again, from the same vendor, they produce the fragrance oils. So I trust them.
00:26:11
Speaker
Hey, I mean there's fragrances in everything. Unavoidable. Even unfragranced things have like a fragrance in them a lot of the times just to balance out the nasty. Exactly. Yes. Yes. To neutralize. We had some like black contractor bags that had like a
00:26:29
Speaker
Febreze or something. I'm like, this is like I understand for like your your house, you know, you go like a couple of days too long without changing out the trash bag. But a contractor doesn't really doesn't really call for a fragrance. Yeah. And you have to either like stick your whole arm in there or wave the whole thing around, you know, to open it up. Yeah. So what's the next step for Lulu?
Future Plans for Bailoo Candle Company
00:27:00
Speaker
Um, continuing to, to make fragrances. And also this, this isn't just like a fragrance candle making like outlet for me, uh, creatively, I'm getting into video editing. So I'm just having a fun time doing, you know, stuff that I like to do. Um, there will all be candle related videos, I'm sure, but, uh, you know, whatever comes to mind, I have the equipment for it at the software.
00:27:22
Speaker
Gonna have a good time. March fragrance is designed. The label is designed. I'm iffy on the title, but I have to place that label order like very soon. So I need to figure it out. And that one's really nice. That one's not a fruity. It's like a very woody, almost, almost a citrus, but woody. Very masculine. Very good. Like the sound of that. Yeah.
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a big fan of citrus. Like I went for, I go for a massage like every whatever, four to eight weeks. My wife is a hairdresser. She barters with a massage therapist. So it works out great. And she always asks like, you know, do you want me to put essential oils in the lotion or whatever? And yeah, I always go for like something citrus.
00:28:11
Speaker
What has she been doing recently? Orange and vanilla, which is pretty good combo. I like it. I'm a fan. That's a creamsicle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, creamsicle is good. She did cupping on my back this past weekend.
00:28:27
Speaker
I never had that done before. My back is like, looks like I have like someone like through like slices of salami in my back. She's like, they're not bruises. I'm like, those are definitely bruises. They're just healing bruises. Yeah. But I don't care what my back looks like at this point. Yeah. I've, uh, I've never done like a full cupping session. I've had like a at home cupping on my neck for issues, but I've never done like the full, the full thing. Was it super weird?
00:28:54
Speaker
It wasn't too bad. Usually she just focuses on my upper body because my legs and stuff are usually fine. It's my back and my neck. I lay on my back first and then I flip over. So when she got to my back, that's when she did the cupping.
00:29:13
Speaker
So it was like a whatever we did like an hour and then it was like a half hour cupping like when when they first suck them down because she they weren't like the glass kind it was like the kind that has like a little whatever like little gun it's like a little bit uncomfortable like it had like a little bit of like a pinch to it but uh
00:29:34
Speaker
you know, either you get used to it or wears off pretty quickly. Weird. And then she was like sliding them around while they were suctioned. Yeah. That's crazy. You know, they could do that. Yeah.
00:29:46
Speaker
Sounds almost unpleasant. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. I mean, like a massage, you know, if you're getting like a therapeutic massage, there's those moments of like uncomfortability. Yeah. And they're driving that elbow in. Oh yeah. I guess you have to be taken to that side so you can appreciate, you know, the side you want to be on. Yeah. And you know, it's like, uh, if I know that, like if my wife
00:30:11
Speaker
Like sometimes I'll be like, oh, you're on my neck and she'll do something that hurts. I'm like, okay, stop.
00:30:17
Speaker
But like with the massage therapist, it's like I know she knows what she's doing. It's like that she's not going to like accidentally. Feralize her my jugular vein, you know. So it's not too bad. She does this thing where she like puts my arm back and like rips like the pec, like inside of my armpit and like moves my arm and it freaking hurts so bad. But it only lasts, you know, it only lasts 30 seconds. So I can get through that. Nice. You did a good pec stretch.
00:30:47
Speaker
It's very
Diverse Experiences in Life and Business
00:30:48
Speaker
nice. Yeah, she's great. I had to cancel my next because I forgot it's my nephew's birthday. I'm like, Oh, no. Then I'm pushed to April.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yeah. I go from massages to usually like once a month to the same person. That's it. Once they get into the, it's funny how there's spots that hurt that you don't know hurt until they get there. She always does my right arm first. Yeah. And then when she's done and walking around, I'm like, I didn't realize my left arm hurts. Yeah.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's weird. Like sometimes like even like your shin or something, like I didn't even know that could hurt. Yeah. You know, they'll like get in there and like need it out.
00:31:33
Speaker
I loved like the forearm, like get your fingers all moving. It's crazy the relief you can feel. It's like the opposite of when you get like a good workout in, right? And you're like, I didn't even know I had those muscles kind of thing. Yeah. Rob, are you a musician? I am. I was going to say I was. I don't think you could ever unbecome a musician. Maybe I heard that on your last podcast. I listened to it. Thanks for the shout out, by the way. Oh, of course. Yeah. How long have you been playing? What do you play?
00:32:02
Speaker
I play guitar and bass. I started as a bassist when I was 13. So that's almost 50 years ago. And I played in a lot of bands, played in Texas, traveled all around the state, playing in cover bands when I was a teenager, like, you know,
00:32:24
Speaker
four nights a week, four hours a night, go to the next city. It was in the 70s, it was a completely different kind of thing. You'd pull into a town at the club and that's where everybody
00:32:41
Speaker
of age when, you know, there was no other thing happening. So you have to warrant four hours of live music. Like you can't find four hours of live music right here unless you go to the pony or something like that. And it was packed. It was it's so it was a crazy thing.
00:32:56
Speaker
Got lucky, had some stuff on the radio, and in New York, I became a songwriter, switched over to guitar, and I had some brushes with fame and infamy.
00:33:15
Speaker
That's cool. You came out, you came out, right? That's cool, man. And I sort of, you know, I, you know, there's this whole thing going on, like in New Jersey, in our area that I call the senior circuit. Okay. You know, it's all people my age, sixties, you know, even older, some a little younger.
00:33:39
Speaker
And they put these bands together and they play all these old, tired cover songs. Sweet Caroline. I just refused to be part of that. I had to stop. The band I was playing in wanted to do that because there's a certain sadness.
00:34:07
Speaker
And it's like, you know, I want to keep, you know, quit while I still have some dignity left. I think, and this isn't a dig to any of the people playing those kind of bands, but it's like,
00:34:19
Speaker
that that's the furthest that those people have ever gotten. So for them, it's like a big deal and it's cool. But for you, it's a, it's a come down. Yeah. It's like playing for the Yankees. And then you're like, you know, not even the, the soft, the, the company softball team. Yeah. Um,
00:34:45
Speaker
So it's been a big part of my life. Right. You know, that's awesome. Yeah. The song, the intro song, that's Rob. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. From 92. Very cool. Recorded in a bedroom in San Francisco. Very, very cool. Nice. That's where all the best things happen. Yeah. That's right. All the best things happen in a bedroom in San Francisco. Yeah. Specifically. Yeah.
00:35:09
Speaker
How old are you? I'm 29. One of you said young twenties. I'm knocking on 30. So I appreciate that. Thank you. It's all downhill from here. That's what I'm hearing. I just turned 35. It's rough. Oh dude. I'm like, I'm starting to like not bounce back from my injuries. Oh yeah. Jeff, tell him about that. I was scraping Steve's door yesterday. Last night I get home like, man, my arm is killing me. Like my wrist. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah. Like when we do installations the next day, I'm just so sore all the time. Yeah. Oh yeah. My knees can't take it anymore. Fish oil is not enough at this point. Yeah. I do fish oil and collagen every morning, but it does help because I notice if sometimes like I'll run out of collagen and I'll like not order it for a couple of weeks just because I don't know how it is. And I'll notice like that my joints hurt more.
00:36:07
Speaker
It could be psychosomatic. Who knows? Whatever dude, psychosomatic is fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It makes you feel better. Yeah. For 30 bucks a month. Like I'm willing to pay for that placebo. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I have an issue in my upper back that like flares up.
00:36:23
Speaker
not as recently or not as much recently, thankfully, but, um, I used to train jujitsu a lot and that would trigger it all the time. And it used to be like a couple of days out, a couple of days out and go back, a couple of days out and go back, whatever. Um, and now it's like two weeks plus. If that ever happens, I like don't touch me for two weeks. I'm going to be grumpy. It's going to hurt. I can't turn my head. It's like a thing.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, wait till you, I hate to say wait till you get like up around where I am. Yeah. Like sometimes injuries never go away. Yeah. Like you have, like you hurt your shoulder and. That's just what it feels like. Yeah. It's just, it's just while your knee, I got a bad shoulder now. Yeah. You know, you got to baby it because you know, you do one wrong thing and it's your back to square one. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
Yeah, I like separated my shoulder. Not dislocated, but separated where like the whatever this is separates from the... I'm not a human anatomy expert. And that bothered me. It was from carrying something on my shoulder. I guess it pushed it down. I don't know if it was separated, but whatever. I screwed up my shoulder and it hurt for probably eight or 10 months. It was brutal.
00:37:44
Speaker
Because, I mean, everything we do in here is we're picking up pieces of plywood, big pieces of wood, cabinets. You're twisting funny. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
So Brian did jujitsu with member junior. Oh yeah. When we first, like before green street was even a thing, we made all those cutting boards and that grace. Yeah. Had you ever eaten a grace? Uh, yeah. After I found out that that was junior spot. Yeah. I went there. That place was so good. I think he's opening something else. I have been seeing, yeah. On his Instagram. Yeah. Very excited for that. I think is that an Island to Atlantic islands? Um,
00:38:20
Speaker
I want to say Atlantic Islands. It's like a surf and turf place. Yeah. Yeah. He's amazing. He catered my wedding in his little, he has like a food truck trailer. Yeah. It was great. Short rib. Also we have fluke. Yeah. That was like my wife and I's spot was great. It's like if we're going to go out to dinner, that's where we went. Nice. So she worked with a friend
00:38:49
Speaker
of his or maybe his wife. I forget, but my wife used to work with a woman who knew them. So that's how we found out. But yeah, that was a great restaurant. Yeah.
00:38:59
Speaker
He's got super talented Chris or Shaggy. I don't know what you know him as the other guy. Oh, the one that I saw. Yeah. Yeah. So I call him Shaggy. I don't know how far that that name goes. That might be like a Jiu Jitsu gym specific thing, but super nice guy. They're both very talented. They're both great dudes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. He used to have the bone marrow and he'd like bring out a shot of bourbon. You could like drink it out of the bone. That sounds amazing. Yeah. Bone marrow is good.
00:39:29
Speaker
So other than candles and jujitsu, what are you into?
Sustainable Landscaping and Ecology
00:39:35
Speaker
So my most, it's my most recent, but my most potent passion is this naturalized wildscaping or naturalized landscaping. I call it wildscaping because I think it's a cool name. Yeah. Landscaping sounds very like manufactured. Yeah. You hear it everywhere, right? It's like a wallpaper.
00:39:53
Speaker
Wildscaping, I think, is cool and I think it looks cool written out. But anyway, so landscaping in a visually appealing and striking manner in a way that is both low maintenance and sustainable, also supporting local ecology and wildlife. So I'm learning about that now. I've spent all winter reading up on it and I feel like I'm in a place now that I can start making informational content.
00:40:19
Speaker
And once it warms up a little bit more, I'm going to head down to the Pine Lands nursery, pick up some stuff, start doing my own space as kind of a demo, a video demo. And also I do need to landscape my, my area. It was neglected. Yeah, man. So I'm going to be getting plugs and plugs ideally. And I'll, I'll, I want to go around to people that I know. I mean, you're, you're self included and just put like a little bit of, a little bit of love into the space. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
Oh, wow. We even went. So we had to do like the town like they just jumped through hoops to get into this building. Really? I had to do like a rendering and everything. And we had like some boxwoods and stuff outside. We never go back there in the front. Like I put them in the rendering. We never made good on any of that. I don't know. We did paint the building. Yeah, they weren't requiring that that we had to make it look exactly like that rendering. But it would be nice to have some. And I looked for some of those like long
00:41:17
Speaker
And the problem is I don't want to go too deep like planners. It would be nice to have some, you know, stuff out there. Yeah. Would you, would you just build planters? We could. I like the look of like those like concrete kind of ones though. Oh yeah. Those, those are nice. That would fit in. You have to find them used like where somebody's just needs them out.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah. Are you talking about like the concrete textured epoxy planters like that? You would get at Lowe's or like, um, like actual kind of just like, uh, you know, say like 30 inches high by like 16 inches deep by like long, you know, or you can't get that probably not like commercial stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Or yeah. Or sometimes they're like black aluminum or something, but I think that would look cool. Yeah. Cause I don't want to go out much further than the columns.
00:42:10
Speaker
I mean, it's going to be just a place for people to put their cigarettes out and throw their... We get a lot of trash outside. Main street is rough. It must be. But your building's paint job seems to have survived, which is good. A couple instances of graffiti. Oh, really? Oh, man. So our buddy Lou, shout out to Lou at Short Pro Painting, painted the shop for us.
00:42:34
Speaker
And so he went around for like a week and scraped all the loose paint because you know they had. They had phoned it in for god knows how many years prior painting it. And then he finally got to the priming stage and he we were up in Jersey City doing something and he called me he's like I hate to tell you he had prime that side of the shop.
00:42:54
Speaker
somebody graffitied the shop last night. So I went and I looked at the cameras, a bunch of little kids, but like a bunch of spots on that side. So luckily it hadn't been finished painted yet. So he was able to just prime back over it. And then we had, the door has been hit a couple of times, but on the corner there, I want to say in the fall or the, wait,
00:43:18
Speaker
Have we gotten the fall yet? What season? It's winter. Maybe in the fall. Yeah. Uh, somebody tagged the wall. I was able to get it off, thankfully, but yeah, I didn't call the cops on that one, but I made sure that.
00:43:33
Speaker
Oh wait, no, didn't they do that two nights in a row or something? Yeah. On the side. He primed over it and then they came back like the next night. But I, you know, I called the cops just because, A, it's not our, we don't own the building. So I want there to be a record, you know, like we're going to be pressing charges on some children for, you know. Throw them a beat. Yeah. Yeah. Pop their bike tires. Get them back there to pull the fricking, not weed. Yeah.
00:44:01
Speaker
We'll be back there forever, man. That doesn't go away. I know. So we go fishing up in upstate New York in this town called Pulaski, or Pulaski is what the locals call it. It's like an hour north of Syracuse. And there's a section of river that we fish called Douglas and Salmon Run. And it's like a private
00:44:22
Speaker
stretch a river, like pay to fish kind of thing and there's a couple islands in the middle of the river and they're overgrown with knotweed. It's insane.
00:44:32
Speaker
Yeah. It's a, it's prolific. I mean, not even, not even just in the Northeast. I mean, it goes so far down South, but it's everywhere. It's just like the tree heaven. It's like, I feel like they, they probably both entered like the same Harbor, you know, it was followed the same track. I haven't seen the tree. Look, look, look anywhere on main street. They are all over the place. Oh really? Yeah. I, um, last summer I had to get nine of them cut down.
00:44:54
Speaker
which really they're all clones of the same one. Looks familiar. But they were, yeah, I mean, I guess they're probably very hard to identify in the winter when they don't have the foliage. Oh, those things. Yeah, but there was one growing out of a crack between a sidewalk and a building down towards the bay over here. I was walking my dog and I saw it and I stomped it out. It's probably, you know, grew back by now though. Doesn't Virginia Creeper kind of look like this? I'm not sure.
00:45:27
Speaker
That's the best thing about Google is you can just miss anything. I guess not.
00:45:34
Speaker
Maybe I've been seeing Tree of Heaven and I've been calling it Virginia Creeper my whole life. Maybe. I mean, it's, uh, it's, it's exploded and it's, um, it's footprint is pretty much identical with the lantern fly issue. Oh wow. Because that is a, they're from the same geography and they, uh, it's a preferred host plant for them. So if you see one high likelihood, especially if it's a couple of years old, uh, it's covered in eggs. Wow.
00:46:01
Speaker
What are like some local plants that you think, you know, like A, well if they're local, obviously they do good, but what are some things that would do well here, but are also like maybe threatened, you know, that would like, I know milkweed, a lot of people plant milkweed because it's beneficial to the butterflies. Yeah. I mean, that depends. A lot of
00:46:26
Speaker
The conversation of endangerment and like threatened is weird because You can have you can have like a healthy native ecosystem But like in a native forest you're not gonna have the same species that you'd have in like a native
00:46:44
Speaker
savanna or prairie, right? So there's things that are just beneficial to plant. The fact though, and like milk, butterfly milkweed is one of them, right? It's not an aggressive species of milkweed. Any oak, blackjack oak, red oak, white oak, those are all keystone species in this area. So they are host plants for endangered
00:47:09
Speaker
caterpillars and butterflies and moths. So that's like a pinch point in the food web. So I mean, I don't know if you guys are familiar with this guy, Doug Tallamy. He's kind of from this area, like mid-Atlantic Northeast. I think he teaches at like U-Dell or something, but he is like the granddaddy of the naturalized landscaping movement, especially in this part of the country.
00:47:30
Speaker
He's got many, many books on it. He just spoke at Monmouth University, but I only found out about it yesterday. And it was like two weeks ago. That's the best. Heartbroken, man. You're like this one niche thing that I'm really into. Oh, I would have loved to go to that. Yeah. But I mean, if you have the space for it, oak, low growing oak specifically.
00:47:53
Speaker
And if you have a full sun environment that's pretty dry, butterfly milkweed. I mean, those are just those two alone will support so many species. You'd be doing the world a favor. Yeah. Sure.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not, I mean, I can appreciate like looking at a nice green lawn, but there's just something about it. It's not, it's very uninteresting. Yeah. Um, yeah. And it's nicely landscaped with like, you know, areas of, uh, when they sort of have like an island of like, you know, a couple of trees, maybe like a big rock. That's cool. But
00:48:25
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. The, the two things that I will be pushing against, I think pretty religiously going forward is, um, resource intensive turf lawn. Oh yeah. Like if you have to water your lawn every morning. Yeah. And, or, and, uh, bare ground slash
00:48:43
Speaker
you know, excessive mulch in a bed. Mulch is good. It's ground cover. It prevents, you know, light exposure and whatever that weed seeds need to germinate, but it's not doing anything other than that, you know, and then you have to replace it because it breaks down. So you can, instead of just doing mulch, mulch, mulch, you can do mulch your first year and then do
00:49:04
Speaker
low growing ground covers that have like deep tap roots, you know, that will bring up water from, from, you know, the water table and that'll help feed other early successional species that you plant. That's interesting. I need something like that around my house. Suck up some of that water. Yeah. Oh dude, I got a whole story about that if you want to hear it.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, let's see, we got nothing but time. So I live in Kingsburg and I have a basement, right? So that's a horror story in and of itself. I'm in Leonardo and I have a basement. So yeah, I've got water in my basement too. Oh man, it's a mess or it can be a mess, but I hired quality first basements up in Cliffwood to do a
00:49:46
Speaker
to do a redo of my French drain. There was like a DIY job or something when I moved in with a sump that was failing. And that was tied into my main sewer line, which I don't think that's supposed to be a thing. And every time it went off, which was very regularly, it would, my shower drain would like gurgle. Impreventing. Yeah. So I have that too. Yeah. Yeah. This whole house has one two inch vent. Yeah.
00:50:13
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, so it was a mess. And they came in, they did a fantastic job, but my property is landlocked, right? So I can't, where does that water go? So new subsystem, drain works great, but the water is all just in my yard. So after I had that done, I thought, you know what, this is okay. Having surface level water, that's fine. If I plant something, I'm gonna have to water it anyway, probably.
00:50:40
Speaker
So let me do like a rain garden style water catchment so I can like sequester it all in one area and then have the rest of the yard to do whatever I need to do. Um, I completely underestimated the volume dude. I just have like a swimming pool. I did like a pitch and everything and did like rocks and mulched and whatever. And it was just terrible. So bad. So now I have to dig all that out and do like one to two dry wells with the, with the French drain run outside, which is fine. I can do it. I just,
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah, I have, um, so we have two leaders that come down on the highway side of my, my house. And then one that's on the other side. So basically the entire load of the whole roof is coming to one side and it goes into, you know, black pipe in the ground and it goes out to the highway. But I know those pipes are all, they have to be jacked up, you know, over, I don't know who put it in or when, um,
00:51:35
Speaker
But yeah, you know that we had that crazy rain in the spring where it rained like five inches in like a day. And then I guess it's like what? Six weeks ago we had a lot of rain and then what was it? Two weeks ago we had a lot of rain and I had water in my basement. All three of those. Yeah. Hope you have a wet back.
00:51:58
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah. And I bought a surface pump for this last one thinking that, um, what a bug. Yeah. I got one too. It's just sitting in the box, but it's ready. Ready for the next. Better sitting in the box then. Yeah. Ideally that's where it stays. Right.
00:52:13
Speaker
Yeah, that the one in the spring, I think for about 10 days we had or maybe more two weeks we had water in the basement. And, you know, I could vacuum it up all day and it would just, you know, the sump can't keep up because it has to hit the bottom of the slab before it goes over there anyway. So it's just coming through any little crack in the floor. Yeah. I mean, don't put basements in your wet side houses. Yeah. Lesson learned.
00:52:41
Speaker
I filled some cracks between the two rain events ago and this most recent one. And the ones that I filled didn't leak, but it created leaks in other areas because it was like, oh, now we'll just come up over here. And those ones are not accessible. Yeah. At least I know where, where the look for the water in my basement. Yeah. Yeah. It likewise comes up through the floor. Yeah.
00:53:08
Speaker
Yeah, when I moved in, there was already a drain system installed. So it was just completely clogged up. Like a perimeter drain? Perimeter drain. So it would just come up through the holes that were in the drain. It would come up at rates that were completely impossible to keep up with. You have a slop sink in the basement? No.
00:53:27
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, you don't even have a good option. It's like you have to put it in the sump pit. Yeah. And then the sump pump is just like, yeah, you have a crazy sump pump. But now I do. Now I have a solar. No, it's, um, I forget the brand. It's whatever, whatever quality first basements uses. I think it's like a home serve brand or something like that. I don't know. The guy that owns that company has like a billion patents on this kind of equipment. Um, we need to call them.
00:53:50
Speaker
They're good. I mean, they're, they're pricey, but they're really good and it's all a warranty. So it's good, good work. But they installed some like triple safe pumps or a sump, a backup, and then a battery backup. So it's like, I feel safe. Knock on wood.
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah. I'm looking at like a, yeah, like a 600 or no, it's like a thousand bucks is older and it has a battery backup. And when it is ejecting the water, it's actually charging the battery. So like the power could go out and your sump pump will continue to work. Nice. Yeah, it's cool. That's crazy. Yeah. How does that even work?
00:54:27
Speaker
I don't know. They've been around for a while. I never looked into them until recently, but I just have, excuse me, some bullshit ever built or something that they put in like right before we bought the house because our realtor went over and she's like, oh, there's water in the basement. They're like, we'll replace the sun. Yeah.
00:54:47
Speaker
Yeah. I, uh, when I was buying this house, it had rained. It just happened to have rained the day before. Every single day I went to look at it for whatever reason. And that's good. It is good, but I, you know, it was like, okay, let me check the basement. Never saw water up until the final walkthrough hours before closing. And I was like, well, I'm in too deep now. I gotta do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there was like a whole oil tank situation. So this was like a month's long closing process that I just needed it and needed it to be done. You know, you know how it goes. When did you buy the house? 2020.
00:55:17
Speaker
So you got in Kingsburg ground floor. Sure did. You might be able to retire off that house. I would love it. I'd love that. I mean, odds are pretty high. Yeah. Yeah, man. It's, it's definitely, I definitely got a good deal. Definitely has some equity, but there's no beating that interest rate. So like, where am I going to go? Yeah. We're in the same boat. We can't move. Yeah. Yeah. Bought a house in Leonardo, you know, with like a two, two and change interest rate or like a 3.0, something like that.
00:55:46
Speaker
And now like the value has, it's like increased by 70%. You know, I mean, but the problem is yeah, where can you go? You can't buy a houseboat or something. Yeah. Or V. Yeah.
00:56:05
Speaker
So you live really near the shop. I can see the shop from my backyard. See the lights come on at like, you know, five o'clock in the morning. Yeah. I'm probably still sneezing at that point, but yeah, man, I, um, which I didn't realize up until I had come here and then I was letting my dog out a couple of days ago and I was like, Oh, that is the shop right there. You know? But the, the, previously the tree of heaven was blocking that when it was all filled out. So I just never noticed. But yeah, I left my house at,
00:56:33
Speaker
229, I got here, 229 in 30 seconds. That we endeared ourselves to the neighborhood when we painted the building.
00:56:49
Speaker
Was it, I don't even remember what this building looked like previous. It was like a peeling grayish kind of paint, but there was like, you know, all the windows were boarded up. The doors were boarded up. The knotweed was above the roof in the back. Yeah. And it's like, the roof is like 14 feet. And it was well, well above. I mean, inside, it's like inexplicable how bad it was. It was,
00:57:19
Speaker
Bad roof caving in people squatting in the building. It was there was no electricity. So we had like a Makita like spotlight. You know, I don't know what what we were thinking. We came in with some rose colored glasses.
00:57:37
Speaker
Well, I mean, it looks like you you materialized it. This looks great. Yeah. This is the one, you know, the one area that we haven't done anything, which I'd love to soon. But like what? This office itself, you know, aside from I mean, you could see where they had finally cabinets for. For God knows how long. It's like there was like a deer right there or something. Deerhead. Yeah. There's like some plaques over there. Those clipboards, if you move them, you can see the outline of the
00:58:06
Speaker
clipboard, you're probably like smoking cigarettes in here for like 60 years. Yeah. This was like a machine shop. I think going back to like the forties and there's still like areas in there that are soaked with oil from the lubrication of like a lathe or whatever. But I mean, we're happy to like get into a building that
00:58:30
Speaker
used to be used for manufacturing and now is again, um, rather than see it just like leveled and they put up like some condos or something. Yeah.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm happy with what you guys are doing as a resident. So it looks nice and it's remarkable how good it looks, especially in your shop compared to what you described it to have looked like. It's a nice, big, brightly lit open space. I wish we had taken some pictures. It was kind of impossible. You needed flash photography. You didn't have any electricity.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah, like there was no, um, there was like an outlet by the panel and like, and there's some outlets in the ceiling, half of which don't work. But, uh, you know, aside from that, uh, power in here, like we had to run all new power. Um, it was crazy. Very crazy. Do you know how long this was vacant?
00:59:22
Speaker
Um, at least five years. Yeah. I was going to guess eight because, uh, our landlord bought it in 2019. We moved in in 2023. Um, and I'm, I'm pretty sure no one was in here for a while before he bought it.
00:59:44
Speaker
Did he, do you know if he bought it with the intention of renting it out or, um, or was he going to do something here? If he, if he had the intention, he wasn't trying very hard because, you know, it took him, you know, uh, three and a half years or whatever to find somebody to get into it.
01:00:07
Speaker
Which is crazy. I don't know. It seems crazy. I guess because it was in such bad shape, you know, part of the whole thing was like he put a new roof on the building and cleaned it up. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Emptied out all the debris. Yeah. Which there was a lot of. Yeah. Did some minor repairs. Yeah.
01:00:27
Speaker
We're like, yeah, you know, you could probably just like, she rocked the whole ceiling while you're at it. And they're like, we'll just like put this piece here. They're like, that's fine. We had to get the toilets running. I mean, we had to do everything. Yeah. It was a money pit. You guys have any idea what you want to do in, in this office?
01:00:45
Speaker
We'd like to have a nice functioning office. Definitely keep an area for the podcast and just build ourselves nice, whatever, desks and cabinets and stuff.
01:00:59
Speaker
Not so much as a showroom, like, hey, look, we could build you this. It's just like a representation of what's possible, you know? Like when you walk into like a kitchen design showroom or whatever and you see all these like fake kitchens and it just seems very... That's not what we're looking for. Yeah, no. It's more like, I'd rather build stuff that's way nicer. And then it's like, well, you could have this, but we could do, obviously if we did this, we could do anything that you want, you know?
01:01:31
Speaker
But yeah, it's at, it's one of those things where we just have to actually decide to start doing something. Otherwise it's never going to happen. Yeah. We'd like a big, big window there would be nice, but that's, uh, where this, uh, missing missing pad. Yes. It looks like there, there must've been a window there at some point and they blocked it in. Yeah. Cause as you can see, framed out.
01:02:00
Speaker
I guess they needed more, uh, more office space, more space for their plaques. Yeah. What, um, what kind of tree is this on your American craftsman and green tree joinery? That's the tree of life. Oh, that is, that is a tree of life. Yeah. Yeah. Just a nondescript, I guess, uh, with those shaped leaves.
01:02:29
Speaker
be the one to identify that, right? I don't know. We'll, we'll call it a, uh, call it a Sycamore. Okay. It does. It does have Sycamore vibes. Yeah. Sycamore is the city tree of Kingsburg. Is that why they're everywhere? I mean, it's a C it's a city tree. Oh yes. Like in Brooklyn, they planted, you know,
01:02:52
Speaker
a million sycamores. It's a big tree in this area. Yeah. And I guess they can withstand, you know, an urban environment. Yes, they are pollution resistant. You go to Shrewsbury, it's like sycamores everywhere. Yeah. They're also, I mean, if
01:03:10
Speaker
If you're planting an American sycamore, I don't know like the species name, but those are native to New Jersey, the whole state. And there's a bunch. There's like two big ones right across the street from you guys.
01:03:22
Speaker
Really? Like catty core. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We don't do much time looking. Yeah. Just when there's a commotion. Yeah. Like when that person took out that fire hydrant. Do you remember that? No. Did you live here then? I definitely did, but I didn't know. I saw somebody run through my neighbor's gate over here at the, at the top of Broander place. But, um,
01:03:47
Speaker
I forget. Fire hydrant. It was. Yes, he was on a phone the summertime. Yeah. She slammed into the back of a parked car and then pushed that car into the fire hydrant and knocked it over. No. But unfortunately, water didn't shoot out of the ground. That would have been poetic. That would have been. Yeah. Yeah. We learned something now that the shutoffs are below ground, which makes sense. You know, I've just never thought of it. It's like when you see a fire hydrant get knocked off, you expect water to come out. Right. Well, that's what the media has fed us. Yeah.
01:04:17
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't like the movies at all. Dang it. Does it have to redo it? A lot of, you know, small accidents right here. We had one of our delivery drivers in like, I don't know if he was in the tractor trailer or in just the box truck. I think like the big box truck. Like a 26 or 30 some odd foot box truck. Someone just like smashed into the side of it, like sideswiped his huge metal bumper.
01:04:46
Speaker
her mirror comes flying off. I mean, and then she stops like, you know, halfway down the block. She's like, are you guys okay? It's like we were inside.
01:04:58
Speaker
No, it's people drive pretty crazy on a sort of, especially in the double parked area of like the liquor store. It's nuts up there. Yeah. Every day when I leave over there, there's somebody, you know, trying to sneak, sneak out and cross the street. Um, cause I think people park in the, I always forget what it is. Dollar general, something like that. Yeah. The dollar store. And then they walk across to the liquor store. They're always trying to, uh, you know, Jay walk, you know, between cars. Oh man.
01:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, especially at night. It's it's nuts. I was blinded by like an oncoming truck the other day. And I was slowing down because it was double parked and it was a big truck. And I thought that they were coming through, but they were stopped for a pedestrian. And I couldn't see her. She was between me and the headlights. And I saw her just in time. Got it. Got to stop, thankfully. But that was like I could have been bad. It's scary. Um.
01:05:48
Speaker
So as a full-time Keens burger, what do you recommend for food? Oh man, I'm the worst person to ask.
01:05:58
Speaker
There is, I don't know the name of it. It's a newer Mexican spot up the street on Main Street. Is that Delphi? Delphi's. It is Delphi's. Yeah. So they were good. I like them a lot. I've heard that's good. Jackie from Timbersons. Yeah, that's two recommendations. We'll have to try that. Yeah, they're good. I haven't been to that new half moon spot down the street. It's pretty good. Oh, yeah. It is. I've been there for music. A friend of mine, Lee, who's actually a Luthier, played there over the summer. But that's about it. I do a lot of home cooking. What do you like to cook?
01:06:29
Speaker
Tasty stuff. I would hope so. Yeah. No sense in cooking if it's going to be bad. Right. I eat pretty clean. Honestly, it's pretty boring. So chicken rice, vegetable a lot of the time. My mom taught me some Indian cooking. So I do that every once in a while, some keema. I'm not very good at it. I haven't done it too much. I like Indian food. Yeah. Yeah. Have you been to Nilam? Of course. It's like the only Indian.
01:06:53
Speaker
Well, actually there's, uh, yeah, that place is good too. That place is good. The guy that used to own it. I don't think he's involved anymore. The chef bought it, right? Something. I think so. Yeah. But the old guy used to train at a garden state with me. There's cool guy. Oh man. The best Indian food I ever had was, um, what's, what's his name? Oh, uh, Anand. Anand. I was a client of mine and
01:07:22
Speaker
They were so gracious. Like I, I was on, I was on the installations, let's say four days. We'd have to stop every day and I'd eat with the family.
01:07:34
Speaker
Nice. That's that's the best. Yeah. And it wasn't the same kind of Indian food that is prevalent in the restaurant. Right. I can't remember if I think she said they were from the south. So it was it was all this other stuff. Yeah. And it was all so good. Yeah. It was unbelievable.
01:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. It's a Northern Indian is definitely the common Indian restaurant cuisine around here. Yeah. How the jock does do a little bit of both. That sounds, that sounds like a gift. It was, it was, you know, I didn't know what anything was. And you know, so the excitement of like eating all this new stuff and it being so delicious. How do you do with the spice?
01:08:17
Speaker
I'm not, it depends. It depends. I like spicy, but sometimes if it's, if it's too much where that's all that I'm getting is the spice. Yeah.
Food Preferences and Experiences
01:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. It might be too much. Like I love Mexican food, but I usually go somewhere in the middle with the spice there. I like spicy, but I get the hiccups. Oh, dry, dry hiccups. I hope.
01:08:40
Speaker
I guess you'd know if they were not trying. They haven't been wet. I can say. Okay. Those are the worst. But yeah, I, um, spice level fluctuates, I think, depending on everything else that's going on.
01:08:54
Speaker
What style of Indian food is your specialty? Oh, I don't know that I would consider any style my specialty, but it's, it's probably North Indian. It's, it's more like a, um, like a wet Curry. And then like, uh, you know, like a drier mixture of, you know, uh, legumes, chickpeas, paneer, stuff like that, that you might need.
01:09:15
Speaker
I like paneer. I used to get at Trader Joe's that was a Palak paneer. It's like a spinach. Yeah, that's good. Oh, I know about that. Even just like frozen from Trader Joe's. It's good. It's Indian food. I mean, if it's like in a curry style, it's a very sauce heavy. It freezes like no problem. What did I get at Neelam? Is the chicken korma?
01:09:36
Speaker
Chicken korma is always a great one. It's like a coconut milk and I think it's good. Lambsog is my go-to. If I'm trying a new place out, I'll order the Lambsog. That's how I know. There's not many foods that I don't like.
01:09:53
Speaker
I'll teach walk man. I haven't been there in ages. I forgot that was even there. Yeah. Yeah. I like that place. I think a little bit more than, um, it's definitely a little more like, uh, you know, like Neelam to me, it feels equivalent to like a Chinese restaurant. Yeah. And maybe it's more authentic than that. Like, you know, um, maybe it feels a little dated. You mean?
01:10:15
Speaker
Yeah. Just like a little bit like catering towards like an American palette, whereas haldi chalk maybe is a little more like true to what it's actually supposed to be. It's like a chef driven experience. There you go. And also it's just more brightly lit in haldi chalk. That's like my number one feedback. It's just so dim in the alarm. I love them. Their food's great. I've been going there for years. It's just dark in there. Apparently in, uh, what is it?
01:10:42
Speaker
I know Edison, there's a bunch of really good Indian restaurants, but more south of here, not ocean. Is it ocean township? There's supposed to be a place that's really good. There's a new spot in Shrewsbury. I forget what it's called. It's on 35, I think. That could be it. Yeah.
01:11:00
Speaker
Yeah. You got to try half moon. Half moon is good. What about Julio's? You know, enjoy pizza. Julio's is good. That's right before Dixie Lee. Yeah. They have another place in Atlantic islands on first half. Good pizza. They make a pickle pizza, which is very good. It's like a white, like a garlic white sauce with pickles on top.
01:11:23
Speaker
I'm down with that. It's good. Yeah. I get the gluten-free pizza there too sometimes. Yeah. That's what my wife gets. That's like her, if she wants pizza, that's where she goes because they have a good gluten-free. Nice. That's important, man. I remember what, 10 years ago, gluten-free, everything everywhere, but it was terrible. Yeah. I think we've come a long way in the gluten-free world. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're trying to make, like I was going to say macaroni pasta, like the gluten, but now there's stuff that I love. Yeah.
01:11:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I've been doing keto for like six or seven years. And, you know, my wife sometimes kind of groans about having to do gluten free. I'm like, listen, I could do this like easily. Like they make everything gluten free. You know, you can eat anything. Like there's no key. I mean, they make some stuff, but it's really if you're trying to actually do it, most of this stuff that's labeled keto, you really can't. Yeah.
01:12:20
Speaker
That was like we bought those from Costco. It's like keto coconut clusters when we went fishing and I'm eating them like, man, these are good. And I look at the thing, it's like first ingredient was agave syrup. I'm like, how can they even put this on the, yeah. But yeah, they got gluten-free pretzels and bread and pasta. And it's good now. Yeah, it's really good. That's gluten-free pretzels. Delicious.
01:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, actually, so my parents, you know, obviously started buying some gluten-free things like when we'd go over there. And now like my dad eats the gluten-free pretzels because he likes them better than the regular. Yeah. I used to work at a vegan bakery over in Madawan. Oh, Papa Ganache? Yes. Yeah. And their gluten-free stuff sometimes, not always, but specifically their brownies and their rainbow cookies, better than their non-gluten-free.
01:13:16
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like brownies especially lend themselves really well as gluten-free. Because you get that fudgy, like it's hard to get something really light with gluten-free because you can't get the gluten to, not that you want gluten and brownies, but like bread. I came home Monday, I'm like, oh, I'm like, what's that smell? Smells good. My wife had made gluten-free focaccia bread. She's like, yeah, but it's kind of like
01:13:38
Speaker
I'm like, well, yeah, there's no gluten or, or, you know, there's no yeast and why maybe she used yeast, but there's no gluten to like make those bubbles to make it, you know. Yeah. It's a science, man. Ganesh. Yeah. That, that place is like the legendary, it's vegan and well, yeah, vegan. And then they have gluten free. Yes. I think, I mean, it's been a while since I worked there, but
01:14:05
Speaker
I think every, everything Papa Ganache is vegan, but they also have like a line of gluten-free products. And I think that's like a significant portion of their, their mix. I think since I have worked there, they have a gluten-free dedicated kitchen because they've expanded their wholesale. So I think in order to be compliant and stuff, they needed to do that multiple occasions. They seem to be doing pretty well.
01:14:26
Speaker
There's a place in Aberdeen. Uh, what the hell is it called? Alternate endings brewery. Yes. And they have the food from the Lula's and that pizza. I think all that stuff is vegan. Um, that pizza was really good. So good. They do like sesame seeds on the, yeah. And went there for, uh, my wife's Christmas party.
01:14:51
Speaker
So Lula is, where are they in Long Branch or Asbury? Yeah, I was off the wagon for that one. They had, um, what kind of squash was it? Squash fries. But I can't remember what, maybe it was Kombucha squash or Kombucha squash that they cut into like, you know, French fries and with like some Goju Jang or something. Oh God, it was good.
01:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's that that place is always a treat to go to their deep dish pies. I love them little nine by nines Salads are great beers really good. Yeah, the beer was good They had did you try like the foamy beer that they have the slow pour they have like some kind of yes tap that it'll pour beer That's like all foam
01:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's one beer that they have and then when you slow pour it, which is like an extra charge, which I don't know. It's like less beer. Yeah, it's less beer. But I saw them do it one time. It takes a long time. And then you're supposed to chug the beer. Oh, really? That's what they told me. Oh, I don't know anything about that. But no, I never got it. I saw it. I'd say go for something else. Yeah.
01:16:00
Speaker
It wasn't bad, but yeah,
Craft Beer and Personal Habits
01:16:03
Speaker
their beer was good.
01:16:07
Speaker
There are guys, uh, big, big beer enthusiasts, like local brewery. I was, I really don't, because I'm keto and now I really can't drink beer. True. Um, but I used to work at, I don't know if you ever heard of Twin Lights Hap House in Highlands, which was like a pro, like the prolific craft beer bar in this area. I don't know about, are they affiliated with like the Twin Lights? No. Um,
01:16:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you would, you probably wouldn't know because they closed in 2012 with Sandy. So it was like a couple of years prior to that. Um, but yeah, that place was like, we had all the rare beers, you know, um, limited releases, firkins, all kinds of crazy stuff. Very cool. We used to do a beer of the week. Yeah. Here on the podcast. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. First what? Two seasons. Yeah.
01:16:58
Speaker
Then we started like trying to record four episodes in a day, like one day per month, do four episodes. Like, yeah, there's no way that we can do this. Because of all the beer. Yeah. One person would buy the beer and then it would be a surprise for the other person. And then we, you know, we crack them open at the beginning. Give her tasting notes.
01:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. That sounds like our opinion. So we were always getting, you know, something that you'd never heard of.
Cultural Identity and Integration
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah. What about you in the beer? Um, I was, uh, more so a few years ago. Uh, I don't drink much these days. So that's our problem too. Yeah. We don't really drink just on, you know, whatever we go out or something. Yeah. It's, it's fun. It does turn into an expensive hobby. I feel like, especially if you're, you're, you're doing like the local craft scene, um, which is the way to do it, I think. Yeah. But, uh,
01:17:54
Speaker
Yeah. Happy to save that money. Yeah. And like, you know, early on you run through all like the, you know, like I drank every stone beer, every beer from rogue, every beer from, you know, and then you get into like, Oh, I'm get this evil twin four pack. It's like 2799. Yeah. Or you start buying single bottles, you know, KBS or, uh, what else I forget. I'm so out of it now, but some of the McKeller beers, um,
01:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, actually I have a Stein hops and barley tattooed on my leg. I was super into beer. I brew my own beer. Oh yeah. That sounds like fun. Yeah. That's something I would like to do.
01:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. It's cool to watch the whole process of fermentation. And I mean, I think you have to do it a lot of times to make like really good beer. Like the beer was drinkable, but it's cheaper just to go buy a six pack of something that you know is going to taste good. Yeah. I know somebody who was brewing beer for about 30 years now. And when he started, I was like,
01:18:58
Speaker
What is this? Who brews beer in their basement? It was such a foreign concept to me. This whole thing, I guess he was really in at the ground floor, this whole thing. Well, come on, all your relatives are making wine in the basement. Is that true?
01:19:20
Speaker
made everything. Yeah, you know, back then we'd get like their little shipments from from the other side from the farm. But
01:19:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's like you were talking about how your mom taught you some Indian food. That's sort of how we maintain some of our cultural identity here in the US. Because we all sort of become American and meld together. And
01:19:57
Speaker
Like I'm first generation American. I couldn't be more American. Right. You know, and so to me, it's interesting to watch like the, you know, the kids of like, you know, somebody from Mexico or something like that. The parents barely speak English, the kid.
01:20:14
Speaker
He just, he looks like he's Mexican, but he's as American as they come. It happens in a blink of an eye. And so, um, it's always interesting to me to watch that because, you know, I, I think back, it's like, Oh my God. It's like, that's.
01:20:32
Speaker
my experience, although I don't remember it much. You know what I mean? It's like, I'm so far removed from that, but you got to keep it in perspective. You know, it's like we all did this for some point in time. It's definitely valuable to maintain some family history in that way. Yeah. A lot of times too, the first generation sort of has a rejection towards the
01:20:56
Speaker
that culture because, you know, they're there. They feel they don't feel like that's their identity. You know, they feel like they're an American. So that's like Felix and his son. Yeah. Felix and Felix.
01:21:12
Speaker
Exactly. I mean, in a blink of an eye. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used to see it a lot in San Francisco, you know, in the Chinese community, where the kids like they'd be little kids like seven, eight years old, they'd be translating, you know, if you're in a store or something like that. Not even an accent. Right. Yeah, man, they're, they're living it. Yeah. First generation. Yeah.
01:21:40
Speaker
Oh man. So are you from this area? Were you born in Monmouth County? I've lived in Monmouth County for most of my life. Um, I moved around a bit as a kid, but I was born in, in India. Oh really? I was born in a Madras. Yeah. Famous from indoor, which is on like the Madras is on the East coast. Indoor is like central West. Yeah. Cool. I don't know much about the geography of India, but it's big. No, it's big. I watch a travel guy.
01:22:10
Speaker
I watch a couple. One, I watch like most of his stuff. I don't know if you watch any travel guys on YouTube. Outdoor boys mostly. I don't know if that counts. Yeah. We were just talking about outdoor boys. I was watching all of his stuff. I had to, I'm giving myself a break right now. His stuff is cool though. This guy bald and bankrupt. He's a British dude.
01:22:29
Speaker
He goes all over. He actually did the, what do they call it? There's a path from Venezuela to the United States through a jungle. Like it's how, you know, if you were trying to immigrate to the United States, you would take this like dangerous path through a jungle in, I think the jungles in Panama. And he did that with this Greek dude and like people like die. It was crazy. But he goes to India a lot and
01:22:57
Speaker
chaotic is like the one word that I think of. There's just so much going on. Obviously that's like in the cities and stuff. You can find that in New York, but yeah, there's just so much going on. It's insane. I mean, not from a firsthand experience. I don't remember any of it. I was an infant when I came over, but my cousins who grew up there, I was talking to my cousin, Janet, the other day, or a couple of weeks ago at this point, I guess.
01:23:23
Speaker
Wow, it's been a long time. Anyway, time goes by so fast. But she, I was talking smack about New York City being like just super busy. Like you were saying, kind of dirty in places you enter in Penn station. You're like, what the heck's going on here? Right. And we're from the beautiful, clean suburbs of New Jersey. So quite, quite the disparity.
Home Renovation and Woodworking
01:23:43
Speaker
And I was saying something about it and she's like, it's like nothing compared to, you know, XYZ town indoor, I guess, even with the population.
01:23:52
Speaker
I think exceeding New York City, probably a bigger footprint of a city, but yeah, the roads, just like the volume of life that's in that space, it's gotta be crazy.
01:24:03
Speaker
Yeah. I had a kid working for me from India and I learned something that I had no idea. He had it like a Latin, like a Hispanic name. Oh yeah. And he was from Goa. He was from the part of India that the Portuguese had. I didn't know any of this. Yeah. That would be a Goa, which is the, like the Western central coast. Yeah. It's like the Hawaii of India.
01:24:31
Speaker
Oh, they surf there, right? They surf there. Yep. Yeah. It's nice about my uncle lives there. And, uh, yeah, I thought it was like, you know, are you kidding me? Like, are you like fun in me? Like trying to like, well, that's like Romania. Have you ever heard a Romanian person talk? No. Sounds like they're speaking Spanish.
01:24:50
Speaker
Oh, really? Romania is. Romans, Romania. Romans, you know, settled. So it's not. I guess it sounds more like Italian. To me, it sounded like Spanish, but they're both Latin, you know, whatever Latin based. So they don't have that that Eastern European, more Russian sort of sounding language. They sound like they're speaking Spanish. Wild. Yeah. Romania is Eastern Europe. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I can't place it on a map, but it's definitely over there.
01:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. First time I heard that, I was like, what? Actually same guy, that travel guy, he was in Romania. I'm like, where is he? Oh, you guys are from, from New Jersey for the most part. Jeff's from Jersey. I'm from New York. Okay. Yeah. I grew up in Mercer County, um, out in West Windsor, Princeton kind of area. And I've been out here for, um, 13 years now.
01:25:49
Speaker
I've been in the area for 22 years. Nice. Yeah. I'm from Brooklyn and lived out West for about a dozen years, but it's, so I'm, I'm a New Jersey and by any stretch, I mean, I, I,
01:26:07
Speaker
The longest I ever lived anywhere else was let's say in any state would be four years. So I've been here for 22 years. Got you locked in. Why don't you change the plates? It's official. Yeah. There's plenty of New Yorkers living in New Jersey with New York plates still. Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I like it here. I think it's a nice area. Yeah. Yeah. I like this area, the Bay Shore. Yes. It's nice. The proximity to the city, excuse me, the beach, everything. International airport. You can go anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. You have, you know, what four to choose from. You can go LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, or Philly is really not that far. Right. Atlantic city. Yeah.
01:26:56
Speaker
It's a great place i'm excited to be able to like invest like time and creative energy into this space i recently learned about.
01:27:07
Speaker
a group. Tell me if you know it. Monmouth County. No, I'm sorry. I only learned it yesterday. Monmouth Conservation Foundation. I think it's a nonprofit. I guess they partner with municipalities and their donors and they purchase green spaces like Huberwoods, you know, like parks and they, you know,
01:27:31
Speaker
do with their conservation thing. And it's, it's really, really cool. And I want to do something very similar to that. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. You should get linked up with our buddy, John. He does a lot of, um,
01:27:42
Speaker
like lawn stuff, but he tried out the, I don't know what you would call it, where you kind of just like let it go and do whatever it's going to do. And he cut some paths and stuff into it. And I thought it looked really cool. And I think he had some hangups about how it was going, but he might be interested in some tutelage on your end. That's very flattering.
01:28:05
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you. That's, that's the kind of thing that I want to get into. So yeah, absolutely. He's got a nice, nice piece of property. Yeah. You know, he's got room for all kinds of, you know, cool landscaping stuff. Yeah. Landscape design as a concept is, is.
01:28:20
Speaker
so broad and you can do it in so many different styles. But I'm trying to niche down into doing something very similar to what you just described. But by understanding archetypes and succession within a landscape that is left alone, I think you can kickstart it in the right direction and get results in two to three years that are significant.
01:28:43
Speaker
So that's, that's my plan, but I have to, I have to, you know, do it, I think first in order to, to, to anyone's horn. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There's no, no substitution for experience. Right. Right. So I got to do dry well, dig everything up, put it back, sedges and milkweed everywhere. How deep are the dry wells?
01:29:04
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. I have to, I have to put them in. So I think standard is like four feet. I bought like a kit from Lowe's. Um, I don't know if that's going to be the thing that I actually use, but I was just like in a frenzy of I have to fix this problem right now. You got the kit, got the corrugated, uh, PVC, and then I just like didn't do anything. So it's collecting dust. Yeah.
01:29:28
Speaker
We're in that club. I got a kitchen that's in that state right now. Yeah, home ownership. I have exposed framing in my kitchen. We took down a drop ceiling and a piece of wall and we're like, well, we'll revisit this in 12 months, you know? Yeah, I was down to the studs in my kitchen for quite some time. But it was an improvement over what was, you know, ripping it all apart. That's the crazy thing, right? Yeah. At least you can say it's in progress. Yeah. My kitchen was like, I think eight by 12.
01:29:57
Speaker
and then adjacent to it was the dining room, I took the wall out in between. So yeah, just doing that, like even having it gutted was better than... I have sheetrock up now. Yeah, nice. My wife, she's been very patient, but...
01:30:14
Speaker
It's on some point. Yeah, that's very validating the taking the wall down as an improvement. That's what I want to do. But it's like the only load bearing on the whole house. Oh, really? So it's like, then you got to get an engineer. Yeah. Well, you don't have to get. No, I probably should. I probably should. Who knows? We'll see. I'm not even knocking on that door yet. You know, that's like a, I had one guy come out two years ago for a, for a, um, a quote.
01:30:43
Speaker
It was within reason, but then my HVAC blew. It was older than I was. So I was like, okay, all that money, gone. What year was the house built? 56, I think. And then I think in the 70s, there was some amount of renovation with the HVAC and they put in like some drop ceiling stuff. Yeah, I had drop ceilings too. And I have these in the hole upstairs. These are, are these? Yeah, 12 by 24.
01:31:11
Speaker
Tiles which is just covering up plaster, you know because rather than take down the plaster on the ceiling Which sucks because I had to do it in the you know half of the first floor They were just like yeah, let's just stick this up there. Yeah, I'm contemplating honestly doing something similar I was gonna frame in my kitchen because I took the drop ceiling out already and there's like there's a wire running there's ductwork and stuff which I have already kind of put up back where it belongs, but I was thinking about doing something
01:31:43
Speaker
I guess not wood paneling, kind of shiplap. What is that material called? Do you know what I'm talking about? Bead board. Is that what it is? Bead board is another style that has like a 21st century wood paneling, pretty much. Yeah, it has a bead.
01:31:59
Speaker
would be like a half semi-circle. Okay. So maybe doing something like that as a better looking drop ceiling, but I'm not willing to do any of that until the wall comes down because- How far do you have to come down? Not far. Yeah. You could always just pat, you know, just fur down the ceiling and then just sheetrock it. Yeah. So that's what I was thinking about doing. But we'll see. We'll see. It's going to come down when the wall comes down. Yeah.
01:32:25
Speaker
That's my problem is I have all these things that I want to do, but it's like, well, I got to do this before that. And I don't want to do this because then I can't do that. You know, like a snake eating its own tail. Yeah. Kind of thing. Like if I had like, you know, 200 K sitting around, I could just pay somebody to come and do all of it at once. But it's like, oh, I should really paint the front door. It's like, wow, I should. I want to do the siding first and maybe I'll just build a new door. Yeah. You know, you just get into this.
01:32:54
Speaker
this analysis paralysis. Yeah. In your guys's homes, do you have, you know, custom made furniture or is that, uh, actually I do because I, I learned on a bunch of stuff. So I have some that, you know, you could proudly show off and some that like, you know, failures of one degree or another, but yeah, that's,
01:33:21
Speaker
When I started, basically that's how I started. It's like proof of concept. Let's see, I'm going to try and build a dresser here. Let's see how this goes. Very nice. Yeah, what I have, I have a bed. Two beds actually. I built myself a bed. I built my son a bed. We built some tables for the... We used to do the podcast in my basement. We had these
01:33:47
Speaker
leather recliners and like, and we used to film at coffee table, side tables. So those have been repurposed into a coffee table and side tables in my living room. That's it. Yeah. The beds. I might have some little bullshit doodads that I built just sort of real functional things just as temporary. But yeah, I'm building a kitchen now. It's all on my screen match cherry. I haven't touched it.
01:34:17
Speaker
I can tell you how long. There's parts here. They do exist. Nice. Awesome. That's cool. That's cool. The only thing I've built in my house is one work table in my garage.
01:34:29
Speaker
Is it plywood and two by threes? But it's level. At least where it's at right now. You got buddies who are woodworkers now. So anything you need. Oh, I wanted to ask you about the blanks that you were using for the Leoni Kenji boxes. So they're three eights, right? So I mean, we could talk about this offline if you prefer, but I was going to ask you guys if it would be worth your time to
01:34:59
Speaker
make what would basically be coasters, but they would act as candle lids and then flip them under for coasters. So I don't know if there's like a minimum order quantity or value that you'd be looking for out of that, but we could talk about it. Three eighths I think is the perfect thickness. And they would be circular of course. And I guess the two design options would be routed on the outside edge so they sit in or routed on the inside edge so they could sit, you know, kind of cup it. I don't know if three eighths is too thin for something like that,
01:35:30
Speaker
No, because it doesn't need to go too far. Right. Well, if you're interested, I'm interested. Yeah. I like that idea. What about maybe a piece of cork on the, what would be the inside when it's closed? So then when you flip it or actually, well, even then you have the cork down. When you sit it on, it'd be a little bit of a little stable. So imagine like that glue to a round piece of wood. Maybe not that thick, but right. I, I, that sounds cool.
01:35:57
Speaker
I just, I don't know about extinguishing the
Creative Product Ideas and Content Creation
01:36:00
Speaker
flame with that. Would that be a, uh, that would be a bad idea. Yeah. You should, you should blow out your candles. Yeah. Shouldn't use a lid, uh, no matter what it's made out of, just because you know, it could light on fire. And I feel like it traps all the smoke in there. You know, that does affect black smoke and then at all. Yeah. That, that affects like when you light it next for sure. You'll get that fragrance out of it. If you trap the smoke in there, cause it'll just settle in the wax, you know, it might not be particularly powerful, but it'll, you'll notice it.
01:36:28
Speaker
Yeah. There was, um, when I was starting this candle thing, I was looking at like accoutrement items, um, you know, for, for basket building, whatever, looking through this, uh, wholesaler site called fair.com. I don't know if you ever, you ever heard of it. It's, it's a good site. You can filter it for like us-based, uh, manufacturers and stuff, but they had like, I guess cause candles again, being a little barrier to entry, you know, anyone can do it. And a lot of people do. So catering to candle makers is like its own little niche industry.
01:36:58
Speaker
and candle snuffers are like a great add-on item for these. I think you don't need them. So I wouldn't feel right selling those people, but that's supposed to be the preferred method. So you don't, I don't know, let your eyebrows on fire when you blow it out or something. I'm not really sure. What would you call that? It's not a jarred candle. It's a poured candle. A container candle. I've seen it for like a candlestick.
01:37:26
Speaker
It's the same thing, but it's just the, uh, the little bell shaped top or snuffer is just on like a hinge so that when you, you know, you can, you can get over the wick and do what you gotta do. I was talking to a buddy, I was talking to bliss and I said, Oh yeah, we're right. We have a candle maker coming on the podcast and he goes, Oh, tell him I have some shaker, uh, molds. If he needs them, he's a big fan. Are you familiar with the shakers? I don't think so.
01:37:50
Speaker
Um, they're like a sect of, uh, the Protestant. Yeah. They're definitely Protestant. Yeah. Um, they're like all but dead now. I think there's maybe like two living, but they came to sort of infamy in the
01:38:08
Speaker
early 1800s as furniture, I mean, aside from being a religious movement, and they called them the Shakers because they sort of like went into convulsions kind of thing. Yeah. And they talked in tongues and, but they were,
01:38:25
Speaker
They were all about labor and about craft. You know, that was a big part of their religious beliefs or whatever. And, you know, they were huge chair makers and there's a whole design style based on what they made, but they made candles and he's got some, you know, candlestick molds or something. Yeah. The candle table. But yeah, this, I guess this kind of wax is not suitable. No. Yeah. You need a harder wax for that. That's, that's where like straight soy or paraffin comes in handy. But those are like,
01:38:56
Speaker
I would love to make them because they're just cool. I think like a candle on like a candelabra is like so elegant and cool, but it's such a pain in the butt to make because you have to make the candle and then wick it, usually. You have to pour them upside down. So it's like you make it, you pop a hole in it. Ow, I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe a heated like threads thing or something. And then you gotta thread it through. What about beeswax? Is that used for candles or?
01:39:21
Speaker
Yes. Oh, I guess those could be made out of bees backs. Yeah. Bees backs is, is very hard. So it's used as an additive sometimes to firm it up. If you got to firm it up or buddy, John, we were talking about, he has a bees. Oh yeah. Yeah. And he makes honey. The honey is killer. Yeah, dude. Fresh honey. Yeah. So good. He comes up by constantly. He's like, Oh, I brought honey. Nice. Yeah. I got like honey on honey. Yeah. You can eat honey.
01:39:45
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. I mean, you know, I fall off the wagon pretty often these days, depending on the stress level. That's usually what determines honey and butter on toast. Yeah. Well, if you watch outdoor boys, he's all about the honey and butter. Yeah. That guy, you know how much money that guy makes on YouTube? Yeah. It's insane. He's got one video, 67 million views that nerf wars video, dude.
01:40:09
Speaker
the guy must be making hundreds of dollars a day on that one video for six years. Yeah. I read somewhere that he makes like 80,000 a month from YouTube ads, from Google ads sense. And then that's on top of, uh, well, I guess he doesn't really like sell anything. Yeah. I don't know that he sponsors or he is sponsored by anything. Um, he might be, I wouldn't be surprised if he was sponsored by like the maker of one of those, any, any number of like, uh, snowy terrain, heavy machinery that he has.
01:40:40
Speaker
Yeah, his videos are cool. Yeah. I forget how I stumbled upon his stuff. He blew up recently. Yeah. I mean, he's been big for a while, I think, but he just also popped off recently. And what he's done is he's created. He's allowed or maybe not allowed. He's.
01:40:56
Speaker
Cultivated the sort of thing where he's doing what he wants to do and that's what's creating the content and what's making the money. It's just a self perpetuating. He's like, oh, let's go to Hawaii for a week and we're going to go spear fishing and then we're going to go on a boat tour and then this and that. So by spending this money, he's making himself money. It's it's a wild concept.
01:41:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's the dream, man. It's 100% personality driven. And he's not even like, I mean, he's pretty good, but he's not like, you know.
Sports Culture and Its Impacts
01:41:23
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't call him like a showman, you know, but he's not like a bad guy. He seems like a good guy. Yeah, the stuff he does, man. Yeah. Crazy.
01:41:31
Speaker
Maybe that's the secret sauce in Mr. Relatable. I 100% agree. 100% agree. Especially if you're doing something that's like, you can also do this. You want to say that to somebody, then you can't be like overtly removed from their identity.
01:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, I was listening to these guys talk about the quarterbacks from San Francisco. And do you follow football at all? Not so much, but I think I know you're talking about. So Brock Purdy is the San Francisco quarterback currently. He was the last pick in the draft. They call that Mr. Irrelevant. And he's just an average looking guy.
01:42:17
Speaker
everybody sort of roots for him. He's like a great underdog story and he's replaced the guy Jimmy Garoppolo.
01:42:26
Speaker
who looks like a movie star and, you know, he was coveted, you know, they traded for him and everything like that. And he got blamed for everything. Like whenever they, you know, whenever they lost, like they lost in the Superbowl, it was like, Oh, he overthrew the guy, this and that. So there's this big disparity in how the public views these two guys. But the thing is their stats are almost identical.
01:42:54
Speaker
So it's the relatable guy that people, you know, it's like a rock party last guy doesn't, he's not so handsome.
01:43:10
Speaker
Yeah, man. Yeah, perspective. You guys, I imagine you watched the game this weekend. I gave up watching football a long time ago, but I thought, yeah, like maybe half of it. I went to bed at halftime. Yeah. Yeah. I call it the first half. And then I was at my girlfriend's parents' house and we had to go home. Yeah. I always say like, I'm in it for the snacks. Like if you invite me over to watch football and there's going to be snacks,
01:43:37
Speaker
I'll come watch the game. You're not going to catch me at home on Sunday putting on the football game. I'm with you on that. Or any sports, you know, for that matter. You know, I played sports. I enjoyed playing sports, but I don't have three hours for a football game or a hockey game or a baseball games. I feel like six hours long. Yeah. What about you?
01:44:01
Speaker
Yeah. I, I used to be really enthusiastic about watching football, but it it's.
01:44:13
Speaker
I don't know. You know, I guess taste change. I, I'd like to watch the highlight wrap up show, like just give it to me. It's become so commercialized and like, why does the pregame show start like six hours before the game? You know, and then they have like skits, the guy who's that guy that does the Frank Coliendo. And it's funny, but it's like,
01:44:37
Speaker
It's not about football anymore. No, it's, it's another, it's like WWF. It's like wrestling now where it's like just this, they've created this entertainment empire. Um, you know, they had a spongebob super bowl this year. Yeah. Where they actually had like spongebob and Patrick and then a human guy that we're doing like an alternate broadcast of the super bowl on Nickelodeon.
01:45:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I like to watch and see who won, you know, I can get that in a half an hour. And the other thing, which, you know, it's my own personal, you know, bugaboo is like, there's so much money, you know, there's,
01:45:19
Speaker
The NFL generates $9 billion and players don't they not pay taxes or something? Probably. I'm pretty sure that, you know, like a quarterback salary, you know, good quarterback salary is 40 million a year. Um, and I don't want to question whether they deserve it or not. I'm just, there's something about all that money.
01:45:45
Speaker
going to this small group. Obviously, if you take a look around in the world, there's so much that we could do. So the disparity there, it's just kind of... Meanwhile, they're charging, I don't know, what's face value of a ticket? $95 a beer.
01:46:06
Speaker
if you're just a regular kid, you can't go to a, you know, and that's who it's supposed to be for. Right. So I don't want to bash it. It's just, you know, that's my personal thing. I'm with you. There's too much inequality in the world and too much concentration of wealth. And even though I root for these teams and, you know, all this other stuff, it's like,
01:46:32
Speaker
Can't we spread it around a little bit? Yeah. Well said. I agree. What really put a bad taste in my mouth is like I played football for 13 years and then like becoming an adult and seeing this sort of, um, and it's mostly with men, this like, uh, toxic machismo football team thing where it's like, you know, uh,
01:46:59
Speaker
I don't know, like an opportunity to become violent over a game. Like people just getting overly.
01:47:07
Speaker
I don't know, fired up over something that's just like happening on TV. I don't know. There's just like a weird thing about it. Brand short for fanatic. Yeah. Yeah. Just like, this isn't real life, you know? Yeah. I mean, you could, I guess it's just so available, right? And you're exposed to it. It's at a young age. You can let it melt into your identity of who you become, but I'm with you guys on that.
01:47:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I love sports like Jeff. I played sports and it was a big part of my youth. But it's it's changed. Things have changed and my opinions have changed as well. Yeah. So, you know, we all evolve, hopefully. Ideally.
01:47:48
Speaker
I think fantasy football, around the era that fantasy football came around, that's like really when I was like, I've had enough of this. It's like, you mean that you're spending all week like playing on your phone, like trading players on a team that doesn't- Yeah, it's very obsessive. Yeah. Yeah. I actually have no idea how fantasy football works. Neither do I. I'm not sure it's really a thing anymore. No, it's big. It's big.
01:48:11
Speaker
you have like a fake draft where you create and usually it's like with a group of people. So like we would get together and have a draft and we would draft our players and then like whoever ends up with the best stats at the end of the week is the winner of the week or something. Yeah. I'm not sure how they compute the stats, but if you watch any sports television, which I do,
01:48:34
Speaker
they have like all kinds of. Yeah. Like if you're running back, how many, you know, how many carries, how many yards points you make. So it's, it's a thing for sure. Um, and the betting is huge now too. I think they've legalized all this betting. And I said to my wife, I'm like, man, imagine like, if you had a problem, like you could just gamble anywhere now. Yeah. And for as much money as you want. Yeah. And they're like, if you sign up, we'll give you 200 bucks. Yeah.
01:49:03
Speaker
If you take a lowdown for $10,000, we'll give you $50. We're not telling you that you have to spend 200 before we give you that 200. Yeah, that's insane.
Conclusion and Closing Remarks
01:49:16
Speaker
It's just another one of those things. Oh, shit.
01:49:22
Speaker
We got to wrap this up and we have to thank our sponsors. When you need the right saw blade for the job, put your trust in Ridge carbide tools. That's right. For over 50 years, Ridge carbide has been producing industrial saw blades designed with exact specifications for the cutting results you expect.
01:49:42
Speaker
Before you buy, call Ridge Carbide and they'll help you determine the right tool that meets your needs and your budget. After the sale, Ridge Carbide provides shopping services for all your saw blades, Kato sets, router bits, and jointer planer knives. Located in Kansas Ridge Carbide, sorry, located in Kansas, Ridge Carbide Tools provides high quality products with outstanding customer service at a fair price. What are you cutting? Our blades arrived on Monday. Oh.
01:50:10
Speaker
That's where we send our blades to be sharpened. So we sent like a 20 pound box of saw blades. I checked the tracking before I threw away the receipt. We also have to thank our sponsor Unida. And you know, we've been using the hell out of the three by four sanders. You can get your own at sandpaper.com. Use joinery 15 to save 15 percent. And make sure you use that because I know a bunch of people bought sanders and they didn't use the code. So I'll save you some money.
01:50:41
Speaker
Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. So any parting words of wisdom, where can people find you? Um, so you can find me on Instagram, uh, at Baloo candle, co B H A A L O O candle, co or Baloo wildscape, same spelling, wildscape W I L D S C A P E.
01:51:03
Speaker
and Baloo.com. Yeah. It says Baloo with an H in there. Baloo with an H. Yeah. The BH, my name is spelled with a BH. So that's been like an identifying thing for my whole life. It's always been like, somebody spell your name right, Brian. I'm like, no, no, no. It's been like a whole dance. I've had to do so. BH Ryan. Yeah. That's what I, that's how I now remember. Yes. Yeah. So I've, uh, to be able to like, you know, put that on a business card, I think is really cool. Yeah.
01:51:29
Speaker
Yeah, we'll put, we'll put those links in the podcast description. Awesome. Thanks guys. And I mean, no, no words of wisdom, but you know, thanks for having me on. And I admire you guys. You're doing some really cool stuff over here. We all admire each other. Keep up the good work. Likewise. Yeah. I'm looking forward to working with you guys in the future.
01:51:47
Speaker
Keensburg strong. That's right. Well, we need a guest last minute. We know who to call you. I will come over here. My PJ's man. No problem. Give you a candlelight podcast. Yeah. Oh, well, those can be unscented. That would be a little crazy.
01:52:02
Speaker
Yeah. If you had seen the old podcast studio here. Yeah. Yeah. We needed scented candles in there. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. This place was super musty. I'll leave it at this. It was like, I always say it's like, if you had like an older brother and had a friend who like had a basement where they smoke pot. Yes. That's like what it looks like. You know, that's an oddly comforting visual. It was pretty. But I understand what you mean. Like there could be like UV, like those like velour posters.
01:52:30
Speaker
They're just a tarped off area. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Nice. Oh man. That's cool. Well, thanks for coming and thanks everybody for listening. Thank you. Thanks. We truly appreciate you listening. If you want to support the show, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Share the show with your friends or consider subscribing to our Patreon. We'll see you next week.
01:53:21
Speaker
Nothing again.