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Episode 7: Interview with Mathew - A Year in Review
203 Plays2 years ago
A lot can be learned in one year on the homestead! In this episode, Mathew discusses successes and challenges of the farm and homestead from the past year.
For information about farm inventory, upcoming events and more - check out Littlewayhomestead.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to Little Way Farm and Homestead
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Little Way Farm and Homestead is a regenerative and educational farm in southeastern Indiana. Motivated by the Catholic faith, we strive to inspire, encourage, and support the development of homesteads and small-scale farms in faith and virtue. I'm Matthew. And I'm Karissa. We're excited for you to join us on the podcast.
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to another episode.
Interview Reversal: Karissa and Matthew
00:00:25
Speaker
I am so excited this week to turn the tables and interview Matthew about his past year on the homestead. I thought it was really interesting last week to be able to have a conversation and for him to ask questions and see what my perspective of our first year out here on this homestead was like. And now I'm excited to see what his perspective was.
00:00:48
Speaker
By the look on your face and some of the, uh, smiling and laughing and giggling that you've done before this episode, I am a little bit nervous about what you're about to ask me, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. It will be fun. I'm sure. Okay. So we're going to start out our first question.
Establishing Farm Infrastructure
00:01:03
Speaker
What are you most proud of from the last year?
00:01:06
Speaker
I think I'm most proud of the fact that we just really got started with what we're doing. We took on a lot of design work as well as a lot of infrastructure work over the farm and the homestead. We've also distinguished, I think, pretty well between the homestead priorities as well as the farm priorities.
00:01:22
Speaker
Now, when I say that I don't think that we've necessarily or I haven't necessarily always given the best attention specifically to the homestead as opposed to the farm, but I am proud of the fact that they are distinguished in a way that's recognizable. So our customers understand the farm and we are working quickly to more so adapt the landscape and the activities of the homesteading environment for what we need to do, which is to raise a family and to pursue God.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think that we could probably find more structured balance on those, but I agree with you. I think that that was really exciting just to get started and everything that we were able to get up and running.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's been a lot of work. I think there's often much opportunity to look back and say, well, I wish we could have done this better or wish we would have done that better. But ultimately, it's been a lot of fun, and we've learned a lot. We've learned a lot, I think, that can maybe be of help to other people so that they don't maybe repeat some of the things that we did so that they can have a more enjoyable homesteading experience at times. Because often, some of the things that we took on were a little bit of a cross between the farm and the homestead.
00:02:32
Speaker
and it creates a little bit of confusion about what the priority is and how much of a scale you want to go to and how much you need to invest in it. But it is pretty clear to me that we're figuring those things out quickly and we've received good positive feedback from them and I'm very excited for what comes next as now we look forward, you know, in the autumn time now to the upcoming winter and spring and just repeating and recreating and then building on what was done this year. That's exciting to me.
00:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely agree. So looking back over this past year, what would you say was the hardest physical task that you took
Challenges of Manual Water Management
00:03:10
Speaker
on?
00:03:10
Speaker
Water. Everything associated with water was done super manually, and it was one of those things where you almost take for granted how important this specific tool or substance is, which is water, because it's easy just to fill up a bucket, walk it across a certain area, and then give it to animals. But one of the things which becomes really difficult is that during certain seasonal peaks, like when it gets hotter out or drier out,
00:03:37
Speaker
animals want to drink a lot more because they need to just for their own nutrition. And that becomes really difficult because you are constantly finding yourselves dragging water across the farm or filling up buckets and taking them out or driving them out to different places. And the problem with that is that in the beginning you do what you have to do based on finances or simply what you're prepared to do or what you can handle.
00:04:00
Speaker
But over time, some of those tasks begin to just add up. And so I found that water is not only a very manual task right now, which I quickly need to find ways of mitigating the amount of time and energy spent doing, but it also becomes a very mentally taxing challenge because it always seems to need to be done. Even as we talk right now, I think when we're finished here, I'm probably going to go fill up water and take it back to some of the cattle.
00:04:28
Speaker
And so it's just one of those tasks that's always on the radar, but there are ways that we can mitigate that. And I think that I have a couple ideas in mind about how we're going to be able to provide more water that is refreshing to the animals out there and all of all the various animals, but also will require less time or at least less involvement from us right now.
00:04:50
Speaker
That's interesting that that is what you would consider your hardest physical task. I know I have heard you've been talking about that and talking about resolving that issue more quickly lately. I've heard it brought up with a couple different people, but as the year has gone on, that's just not something that I've ever heard you complain about really.
00:05:15
Speaker
I think I totally believe you that it was the hardest task. It's just so interesting from my perspective because there were so many, like more minute tasks of building certain things or moving things around that I know was a lot of hard work, but I guess the long drawn out having to do it every day and always coming back to it probably added to the physicality of it.
00:05:40
Speaker
That's really what it is because there's a lot of other things we do that are probably more physically exhausting, but they're not as often. And so it's almost becomes enjoyable or at least it's novel enough that it's not burdensome mentally.
00:05:55
Speaker
but it's really not so much of a consideration for the physical challenges. It's really the mental burden and there's just certain things that just become so mundane and so routine that you almost take them for granted, except that it's not really taking it for granted. It's just a constant reminder that you have to do this particular task and there's no way around it. There's no, oh, I'd prefer, you know, we'll put off water till tomorrow. That's not a thing that can happen. The animals need water right now.
00:06:23
Speaker
That's definitely true. In a similar vein, not physical, but what would you say was the hardest mental or emotional aspect of moving out here and starting the homestead the last year that you had to deal with or face?
Coping with Loss of Animals
00:06:40
Speaker
This is a great question.
00:06:44
Speaker
Something that has recently come up due to unfortunate circumstances has probably been the hardest mental challenge on the farm and homestead, at least in the most more recent months, which is the last minute or unexpected death of a certain few animals. So for example, we've over the last year or so, we really didn't lose any chickens to any human causes like vehicles or accidentally killing them.
00:07:08
Speaker
And in the last few months we've experienced similar situations where animals have died, specifically chickens, due to humans in ways that we just did not expect. And I found that to be particularly troubling and difficult to accept, especially in the moment because
00:07:23
Speaker
You look at these animals and you think these were under my stewardship or under my care. And also there's a financial aspect to it where I've spent X amount of dollars on these animals, raising them. There's a time commitment that's been experienced. And I found that to be very difficult. And I think that really exposed in me something to probably related to pride that I could address.
00:07:45
Speaker
But it was really upsetting to me losing animals recently that I just think we should not have lost. And even to this day, I think, well, if maybe we had just paid a little bit more attention or maybe if I had done something just a little bit different, then those animals would not have been killed. And that's really frustrating to me just because at the same time I also think, okay, well, this is just one more layer hen that is now decreased from our flock size. So that means that's,
00:08:10
Speaker
You know, one egg times X amount of days less that now I have to find a way to replace for customers or for our family. So that's really frustrating. Especially when you consider the time of year that it is as we head into the autumn and whether or not you can just easily, you know, you can't just easily replace a chicken. And it also takes a certain amount of months and when you're going into the winter, a certain amount of months for them to be productive laying wise. And when you're heading into the winter, that timeline seems to stretch a little bit longer.
00:08:40
Speaker
You really get kind of antsy about making sure that your flock is taken care of after summertime because you can't just as easily replace those chickens and get them up to productivity because of the lack of sunlight in the winter. Yeah, that has been an interesting thing that just...
00:08:57
Speaker
all at once it seems like we kept losing and it wasn't even just one it was like one here one there two here for silly things that like you said could be preventable at one point we had problems with predators with the chickens and
00:09:16
Speaker
the we lost quite a few before we figured out what was going on and we're able to manage that but that that even felt different than having these things where you're like what that was so stupid like that didn't have to happen yeah those are frustrating the predator one is always frustrating for people because when it comes to predator losses often it's huge losses really quickly and swiftly and you often don't have much of a notice that it's even a concern
00:09:44
Speaker
So that would be like a raccoon sneaking into a chicken coop through an opening that you weren't aware of or a possum getting access to it or something like that, a fox. But when it comes to human losses, that would be things like vehicular issues, motorized issues, fencing issues, things like that. It's just very frustrating because they are often preventable.
00:10:05
Speaker
Sometimes they're not and it's just a part of the business, but often they are preventable and it's very frustrating and disappointing when you do lose one. And then if it's incremental, it becomes even more frustrating because it seems to poke at your sturdiness in your homestead, in your farm, or like the infrastructure around it that's protecting everything because ultimately we're stewards of the environment here.
00:10:27
Speaker
and so it almost seems to acknowledge in a very visceral way that your homestead isn't as secure as you thought it was and you have a lot of opportunity to fix it but it does create a sense of humility where now I think okay I can walk outside and think
00:10:42
Speaker
where can we improve or what priorities can we consider that might make this environment safer or stronger or more productive? And if I'm trying to put a positive spin on some of those experiences that I remember, that's where it is. Sometimes it's system, sometimes it's processes, sometimes it's fencing, sometimes it's the location of the animals on the farm. It's a lot of things added together, but ultimately it allows me this mindset that's more design oriented and always improving.
00:11:09
Speaker
as opposed to thinking we've got it set up, it's working today, but maybe there's things that we can do better to make it stronger for tomorrow. I think that is absolutely true. That's one of the great things about the homestead is that all of the hard lessons very clearly have
00:11:29
Speaker
or all the hard experiences very clearly have a lesson attached to it. It's always something like, yes, it's hard in this moment, but now clearly I see where the weakness was and now I can go address that weakness and we can better prevent that happening again.
Spiritual Lessons from Farming
00:11:45
Speaker
Well, and there's also, I find that the connection between what happens naturally on the farm and the homestead really easy to connect that to the spiritual life as well. And even easier than that, you know, for our own self-reflection, but also for explaining the faith to the children. It just seems, you know, natural consequences are very easy to explain. Natural benefits are easy to explain. And you can very simply explain those also in terms of grace and sin and the relationship between how we respond to God, et cetera.
00:12:15
Speaker
I think that even though it is frustrating, obviously, I haven't lost any chickens today, which is nice. Actually, that's not true. I think one broiler passed away today, unfortunately, but I did expect that one. There are reflections that are available in that that make it very easy to then understand
00:12:37
Speaker
Hey, we've lost a couple things because we had bad fencing over here or damaged infrastructure over here. Where in my spiritual life are there damages in the fencing that prevent sin from coming in or potentially are keeping myself blocked off from God?
00:12:55
Speaker
And so that really helps me too, to consider those things. And I don't find that to be much of a leap or a stretch or a jump to make those comparisons. I find them to be really accessible and mentally I find them to be very clear and helpful.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, even experiencing those things on the farm and the homestead almost makes it like more palatable to be able to address them in our spiritual life. Like it, it makes it feel not quite as scary and hard. Like you see how important and natural it is in the natural world and with animals and being able to see like, yes,
00:13:34
Speaker
that's hard but it also opens up an opportunity to be able to see where you need strengthening and I find that the more that I grow in the spiritual life that's exactly what we're doing maybe at first it's really obvious your mortal sins that you fall to all the time that you need to
00:13:54
Speaker
confess and get out of the way. But once you start getting deeper into your own spirit and like what is going on in there and what's holding you back from being closer to God like you were saying, it can be harder for us to be able to see those things. So then when an opportunity comes up and we make a mistake, it's, it's hard and you don't like that you made the mistake, but you also are like, wow, thanks. Now I get to, now I see that now I can go and work on that and start rooting that out.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, I find that ultimately that starts to get at some more deeper spiritual oriented things that we have that stand as obstacles to our relationship with God. And even at times when another specifically pride just continues to come up because I think, Oh man, I can't believe one of my chickens didn't make it because of my behavior or my lack of planning or my activities.
00:14:44
Speaker
And it's just frustrating because the first thing you want to do is be mad and angry and almost be embarrassed. But really, you know, we can take those instances and recognize the loss for what it is and move on and build up and avoid those in the future. And that's a part of the process of growing. Yeah, it is. So looking back over the last year, what was something that was totally unexpected that you learned? Totally unexpected that I learned. That's a great question.
00:15:15
Speaker
I learned that the homestead is physically exhausting, but more than that, it will challenge you mentally. I think that was what I learned that was unexpected. I think it did come as a unexpected reality that my physical body is not as strong as I also thought it was.
00:15:33
Speaker
Because I find that over time we have often maybe spent time in sporting activities or working out or in other things that challenges physically. But the type of physical activity required on the homestead is of a particular nature where it's more monotonous and excruciatingly dull at times while it also is physical and difficult.
00:15:55
Speaker
And that makes it hard mentally because you have to wrestle with the fact that your body is not necessarily able to keep up with exactly what you think it ought to keep up with. It also, I call it to mind the first part there of it being more mentally difficult because there are simply many times where you find that the excitement or the novelty of living on a farm and homestead, the changes in the lifestyle does not equal the motivation needed to actually accomplish the tasks for the day.
00:16:24
Speaker
And the task for the day, because they are routine, especially when it comes to animal management or crop management or garden management, if you're doing like more intensive crops in gardening space, it doesn't matter exactly how you feel about it because those things require a certain amount of continuous inputs and you can't neglect them.
00:16:44
Speaker
So they don't reason, they don't have thought, they just are, and then that's what they do. And so you have to continue to provide for them as a matter of stewardship. And so it pushes you into this place of what could be considered almost discipline, almost by compulsion, but in a way that you have voluntarily set yourself up for. Because ultimately we're the ones who have orchestrated the environment that we have now, we've bought the animals we have.
00:17:08
Speaker
We allow, you know, certain animals to have, um, you know, mating experiences that lead to more animals and we plant all the seeds. So all of those things were voluntarily in some ways really putting on ourselves, but it has challenged me to make sure that my mental sharpness is oriented with the right motivation, which is the development of the family here, the support of the family, the raising of children, and ultimately the pursuit of heaven.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yes, and I think that is where something we've discussed in previous episodes comes back and is really important. In understanding really deeply what is your why? Like why are we out here doing this? Why are we putting ourselves through all of this?
00:17:50
Speaker
and continuing to grow in that why probably like not just figuring out your why and then setting that aside as like this is what we're going to come back to but continuing to grow and develop your why and making it deeper by reading more and studying and just getting really in depth
00:18:12
Speaker
on your family's reason for doing all of this in the first place and then also making sure that you have the community around you because when you have people that you can go to and you can be like this is really hard and they can be like yeah i know it's really hard but like we're doing it for this greater reason it's like it's just one of those things that builds you back up and you're like okay i can do it
00:18:33
Speaker
They're doing it. We're doing this together in a way, even though our homesteads are separate. There is a sense of sharpening each other by doing it together. Right. I think there's absolutely a space for making sure that when you want set out to begin a homestead, that you do have your motivations set up. And that often means maybe writing them down and
00:18:55
Speaker
comparing home with your spouse and making sure that you're on the same page because not having a good motivation or a motivation that's strong enough to weather the storms of difficult times on the homestead is going to be a very challenging experience that could be avoided or at least mitigated.
The Role of Motivation and Community
00:19:13
Speaker
We're not going to get rid of challenging experiences that shake us or cause us to
00:19:18
Speaker
uh, consider in our relationships at times, but what we are going to be able to do is set ourselves up for success in weathering those experiences in a way that helps us to respond to God's grace and keeps us motivated and keeps us on the right path so that when things do become difficult, because they probably are going to become difficult for many people or they will, whether that's in the form of animal loss,
00:19:41
Speaker
financial situations, death in the family, or other things that you're able to do so with a certain tack that keeps you oriented on the right path to heaven and not put you in a position to make poor decisions because you're unprepared for those experiences. And in no way is that designed as a comment to suggest that those experiences are anyway but earth shattering because they very well could be for many people.
00:20:04
Speaker
And that's why that community aspect is so important because it's not always the need for us to rely on our own strength, but on the community around us and ultimately on the relationship that we have with God.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, again, when you reflect on what this says about the spiritual life, I think that a lot of people can often fall away from the faith because they're, when things get hard, they don't have this solid why of like, why was I doing this in the first place? Why was I, why have I been putting in all this hard work for to just come across something that is
00:20:43
Speaker
heartbreaking or physically demanding of me or mentally spiritually demanding of me. But being able to consistently come back to the why and what is driving you for growth in your spiritual life, obviously it should be to know love and serve God, but that that can feel
00:21:05
Speaker
really hard if it's not built in your foundation whenever you face those hard challenges. And when it comes to home setting or farming behaviors, you could come up with all kinds of examples of this. I put in a lot of work to get milk on the table when we could just go to the grocery store. Instead, I not only have to invest in a cow, but I also spend time giving that cow water, making sure she's got the right nutrients, that she's being put on fresh pasture for new grass.
00:21:34
Speaker
and that she's being milked and then the milk has to be strained afterwards. And that's a lot of effort for something that a lot of people would just consider saying, hey, why would you do that? Like we've moved on past that and now we just go to the grocery store where they have milk. And there are reasons why we choose not to just go to the grocery store and buy milk. And there's lots of reasons for that, which we don't have to get into right now. But ultimately I do think that what we do and the way that we do it is worth it in the way that we believe that we need to live our lives right now.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's not a claim that everybody has to do that, but that it is a movement towards a worldview and an expression of our faith that we think is very positive in the current climate. Yeah. And at the very least it encourages growth for ourselves and our family in our spiritual pursuit of God. So.
Learning from Mistakes
00:22:22
Speaker
Can you explain some of the mistakes that you might've made in this first year and how will you approach those things differently next year or in the upcoming years? The immediate and the biggest mistake I think that I made was simply a misunderstanding of the importance of priorities between building out a homestead and responding to God appropriately for my life.
00:22:49
Speaker
And what I mean by that is that no matter how much I might've thought I was not doing this, I think I did go very heavy in a lot of investments for animals and infrastructure and gardens and building everything out with the idea that we might need all of this to be productive immediately.
00:23:07
Speaker
probably because it comes from a scared mindset something of a scarcity mindset or simply a lack of preparation as in hey the grocery stores could be shut down tomorrow and then we won't have access to these foods and therefore we're not going to survive and the reality is is that it doesn't
00:23:26
Speaker
We can't live our lives in that way with that kind of scared mentality. We have to recognize that the way that we're building out a homestead and the reasons for living on a homestead are not to survive some nearly unsurvivable apocalyptic situation, but simply as a way of giving glory and honor to God and focusing on things that ought to be focused on.
00:23:47
Speaker
I think that was the biggest, uh, immediate thing that I look back on. And I think, yeah, I really wish I would have had a better attitude about it because I was so focused on getting it all done right away and getting all the animals right away that I'm sure I not only missed a lot of opportunities to experience those with my children the way that could have been more productive and encouraging to them, but I also probably missed a lot of opportunity to build out those infrastructures that were required to take care of those animals.
00:24:17
Speaker
in a way that was more suitable or could have been more sound. We do have a toddler who has awoken and joined the podcast, so you might hear babbles. To be fair with that about the toddler, it's actually relatively impressive. I think that we've made it this far without any toddler sounds, unless you've heard them on other episodes of the podcast. But this is probably the most explicit time right now where she's absolutely right here with us. Yes, she doesn't want to be anywhere else right now. No.
00:24:47
Speaker
So did you, do you have any intentional ways of addressing that mistake that you've, you had in your priorities or your perspective last year? Have you thought of any intentional ways to address that this coming year? 100%. I don't think it really has anything to do with the homestead or the farm though. I think it really has to do with making sure that first priorities are first priorities. And the first priority is a deeper, stronger, and continuously pursued relationship with God, which means prayer.
00:25:17
Speaker
Ultimately. Yeah. I think that's something that privately we discuss a lot more is just, we, we have to make this a priority priority. We have to have our prayer life set ahead. Everything else seems so imminent. Like we have to take care of all of these things and we do, but understanding that we have to take care of our spiritual life before any of it and just figuring out exactly where that fits in practically day to day.
00:25:47
Speaker
Exactly because it's so easy to get up and just get going in the day because by the time you wake up no matter how early you try to wake up your animals are probably either ready to respond to you as soon as you walk out the door or they are probably up before you and as soon as you walk out the door they're still going to respond to you and want you to feed them or give them water or something and so it's very easy to get caught up and allow the homestead and the farm to in some ways
00:26:12
Speaker
Just applies so much pressure to you with so many priorities that everything else gets pushed to the side and I'm sure many people have experienced something like that where you get in and at first these are all new things and so they're novel so they're exciting even if they're hard they're still exciting and new and Then ultimately they become mundane because it's the same things over and over but the same pressures are also going to be there and
00:26:35
Speaker
And those pressures and those priorities are so pressing on you that if you don't take ownership of it and be a steward and not just a responder to the environment, then you can become just a giver to the animals and to the farm and the homestead.
00:26:48
Speaker
and not an actual contributor from a stewardship perspective, as in you are in charge because God's put you in charge, uh, as evidenced by a quick reading of the book of Genesis. So I think that we really have to make sure. And I have to make sure that my prayer life is organized in a way that allows it to be prioritized before the farm and the homestead, because ultimately the way that I respond to the farm and the homestead ought to be in some ways inspired by the way that I engage in prayer.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's actually really interesting looking back over a lot of the things that we've discussed today about our year on the homestead. I think a lot of people probably experience these same things, especially when it relates to the spiritual life.
00:27:35
Speaker
even not being on a homestead like this one that you just discussed about making sure that your spiritual life takes priority that your prayer life takes priority there are like not being on a homestead at all there's so much going on in the world and when you're raising a family that feels like this needs my attention like i have to take care of this first and it crowds out that
00:27:59
Speaker
that thing in your mind where you're like no I have to I have to be still I have to be quiet and I have to work put the work in for my spiritual life but the benefit of being on the homestead is those lessons are just so much clearer there's so much like direct connection with the natural life and how proper order works
00:28:21
Speaker
that it's so hard to do it and not see the lessons. Whereas in life, not on the homestead, these lessons are always in front of our face. It's just not always as clear to us. We don't always see the direct connection because you see all these different factors that get in the way and cloud up that lesson that could be there for you to learn anyway. Right. That's a, no, I think that's completely accurate because immediately what comes to mind for me is the pursuit of like business work.
00:28:48
Speaker
So career development, things of that nature can become very difficult. Even parental responsibilities, responsibilities within a courtship relationship or between a husband and wife as well. I mean, you can think of any of these things and often they're good things in some capacity, but they themselves don't take priority over prayer.
00:29:11
Speaker
And that's really the lesson there. That's the lesson for me. That's that's what I want to change primarily, not necessarily just in the coming year, but today. Yeah. Well, I, I think that that is such a great lesson. And I, I'm also going to reflect on that some more.
00:29:31
Speaker
So to finish it up, we talked a lot about things that you learned and were challenged by, but can you share a couple of things that you are excited about and hope to accomplish in this upcoming
Future Plans for Farm Expansion
00:29:44
Speaker
year?
00:29:44
Speaker
Well, immediate things that I'm excited about for the farm is the continued building out of the farm over the next year. We have a lot of exciting perspective, new offerings, product wise, meat wise. We're solidifying some of our business ventures, both for the actual things that the farm produces. So that would be specifically pasture raised meat, produce. We also have some very specific produce offerings that we're beginning to specialize in that I'm excited to begin that direction.
00:30:14
Speaker
We also, with regards to the farm, are getting much more invested in on-farm workshops, conferences, and basically setting up this environment that could be considered something of a demonstration farm in Homestead. And I'm very excited about that because not only does it allow us to continue to produce and cultivate the land for ourselves and for customers, but it also puts us in a position of being able to really capture on that educational aspect.
00:30:41
Speaker
where we can bring people in and we can instruct them and teach them about home setting and farming, where we can bring experts in these fields and in very niche processes associated with the farm or in very specific enterprises and we can begin to have those experiences for people on the farm here.
00:30:57
Speaker
and hopefully that serves as a source of inspiration for many people. I'm excited about that. On the homestead, I'm excited to very much more get into the way of landscaping and design on the homestead. Really interested in building out a more picturesque environment full of very useful pollinator-friendly flowers, things that call to mind
00:31:20
Speaker
maybe some Marian significances, flowers associated with Mary, things that we can recall that help us also point towards God and ultimately just design a landscaping experience that's not just welcoming to people but also very visually appealing in a way that is encouraging and inspiring.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah. And lifts the mind towards, towards God and towards truth and beauty. Exactly. Yeah. I really think there's an opportunity to do that with landscaping and sometimes that just gets lost. Like we spend so much time going to the stores and buying flowers that the stores decide to offer or sell or grow. And we don't really think about the plants that would grow well around our house or where we are, or that would be useful or helpful.
00:32:03
Speaker
And I really think that's something we can consider more and I'm excited to do so because one I find it to be enjoyable, but also because it ultimately stands as a hopefully an educational guide and inspiration to people to think of the same for where they live. Because the same plants that grow well here and are useful for us here are not the same ones that maybe grow in a different climate.
00:32:23
Speaker
So I'm excited, hopefully, that this can become a place that helps to point people towards that so that they don't come here for tours and visits and workshops and think, I want to recreate exactly what they did, but that you see what we do here and you're able to take little tidbits of it as inspiration and education, go back to where you live and design it for where you live that is best supportive of yourself and your family or your little society wherever you live.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yes, I love that so much. I'm also excited to see what we both and a little bit more of you probably do with all of that. I will obviously put in my input to everything, but you are the man when it comes to landscaping and just doing all that outdoor work. I really enjoy it. You're so good at it too.
00:33:16
Speaker
Okay. So that is all of the like more in-depth questions, but I'm going to end with a true lightning round. Most all of these questions can be answered in one word or one sentence. Okay. All right. Okay. So first,
00:33:35
Speaker
What is your favorite animal enterprise on the farm currently? Oh, that was harder than I thought I had to think about it. I'm so sorry. Favorite animal enterprise currently on the farm. Beef. Beef cattle, really? Okay. What was your favorite thing that we grew this year? Favorite thing that we grew this year.
00:34:02
Speaker
Buckwheat. I'm very inspired by the buckwheat because it serves the regenerative aspect of the farm and it opens up this awesome door to talking about cover cropping in a way that I find really inspiring and interesting.
00:34:17
Speaker
That's, that's true. I thought you were going to say garlic, but yeah, the buckwheat was, it has so many purposes. It's very useful. And it was, it was a nice little gem we found this year. And right now buckwheat is growing over the garlic rose. So yeah, in preparation for the garlic. We did really enjoy the garlic too. Okay. So describe this past year, describe year one on the homestead in one word. Encouraging.
00:34:45
Speaker
Oh, that's good. That's a good word. Because there was a lot of hard words that could have been, but encouraging. Yeah. To be fair, my first word that came to mind was challenging and I switched it to encouraging because I think it more captures how I feel today.
00:35:01
Speaker
Well, yeah. And like we've kind of discussed challenging it, it opens the door for encouraging. Like it has, all of this has been very hard, but it also has like built so much hope, I think in our lives. Right. Exactly. All
Spiritual Growth through Homesteading
00:35:18
Speaker
right. What is the number one animal that you're looking forward to adding to the homestead next year or in the following years?
00:35:26
Speaker
pigs pigs. I'm very excited about, uh, adding a forest raise and pasture raise pork to the farm offerings. Yeah. And I think that that'll be available, uh, for pickup and purchase early summer of this upcoming year. And I'm very excited to get them on the farm.
00:35:43
Speaker
Well, I am certainly excited to have some fresh pork in our lives because we haven't had very much pork in the last year. I I've bought bacon from the store because it's hard to find it for anyone local. So I am also excited about the pigs. All right. What non-farming project are you most looking forward to? Building out cabinets for the kitchen.
00:36:07
Speaker
Okay. Yes, I'm also- I'm very excited to finish up the kitchen. Yes, that will be very helpful. I think it'll streamline a lot of things inside the house. Okay, next one. What are you planning for our anniversary next month? Oh, I didn't know these were on the conversation. Okay, it's kind of a joke. You don't have to answer it. I just wanted to see what your reaction would be. I should start thinking about that right now. Our nine-year anniversary is coming up in October.
00:36:37
Speaker
We're historically not great at planning out a celebration, but we've been talking about it for a while this year. I think that kind of comes from just being very busy and not having a lot of time just to put into our relationship. So I think we're both really excited for whatever we come up with. Yeah, we'll figure something out. That'll be fun. Okay, so truly the last question. Where have you seen God in this journey on the homestead in this first year?
00:37:03
Speaker
Wow. Everywhere. I mean, I don't know. We're not, uh, all over the place. The homestead is a great place to raise a family and to amazing place to raise children and to grow in your own spiritual journey. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:37:20
Speaker
Well, thank you for participating in my interview. I liked getting to see your perspective from what this last year was like growing our homestead and our farm. And I'm excited for the conversation that we're going to have again next week. Sounds great. Thank you all for joining us. And again, check us out at littlewayhomestead.com.