Creative Mountain Mama
Welcome to the Creative Mountain Mama podcast! For those seeking a connection to the land, family, and a simpler way of life, we're talking about faith, motherhood, and slow country living. If you're up for real talk, genuine experiences, and finding inspiration in some of the most extraordinary places, this is for you!
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Creative Mountain Mama
Living off the Land: Building Legacy with Haley Matwich
In this episode of the podcast, we reconnect with Haley Matwich and get an update on her journey of living off the land and building a legacy for generations to come. Haley shares updates on her homesteading progress, from fending off bears to hunting her own land and a new addition in the spring.
We discuss the challenges and rewards of rural living, the lessons learned from sustainable practices, and the slow but rewarding process of developing a self-sufficient lifestyle. Whether you’re interested in homesteading, raising animals, or creating a meaningful legacy, Haley’s story will inspire you to embrace a simpler, intentional way of life.
Tune in to hear firsthand insights about adapting to nature, the joys of raising chickens, and the perseverance needed to thrive in a rural environment.
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do you have any animals in there with you now, or are you like inside the house?
Speaker 2:we're in the house oh nice, okay, yeah, yeah, um, so basically the only change from last year because, um, we were in the house, um, but super bare bones like dry cabin, cabin, nothing, yeah. And I think when we talked last, I don't even think there was a bathroom inside, it was all open. I don't even know if I'd hung curtains yet to like, give us our walls our walls, you can see. So we're a little further in our developing our home situation, but it's still slow going.
Speaker 1:So last time you were out with chickens, are you guys still doing chickens, and are they the same ones?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we. Our flock is about 30. We've had some crazy moms that right at the beginning of fall, decided to hatch out a bunch of chicks, and so we do have a few more. We didn't do, and so we do have a few more we didn't do. Usually we cull every year because I won't have a flock more than two years old, and so we'll cull every year and we didn't cull any this year and we didn't get any chicks. But then the moms had some babies and we just let them do it. We just kind of slowed down and chilled out this year and we're like it's just one year and it's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1:So we didn't do any focusing on chickens this year. When do they usually lay an?
Speaker 2:egg. Why is that weird delay in fall? Typically, if I'm going to let I mean cause they'll do it anytime, they'll go broody anytime but if I'm going to let moms hatch out babies, I would do it like late spring and in the summer, because there are odds of like if they're a bad mom and they ditch their babies like it'll kind of be okay because it's warmer. But because we don't like offer any heat sources or anything, that means I have to take the babies and keep them warm and do all of that stuff, and I do lots of stuff and that's just one of the stuffs I don't want to do. So if they're going to do it, I'm like you better be a good mom, take good care of them and hatch them out when it's nice and warm.
Speaker 2:But they've done great. They have done great. They've been keeping their babies warm. She won't go into the coop because they free range and she won't go into the coop with them, but she's got this parcel of like 10 chicks running behind her and she's doing awesome we can't have chickens and I'm always complaining about it.
Speaker 1:I've never done anything about it. But we have crazy, you know, bears and just this year we've had bears and mountain lions and it will bring the predators and, like the predators are here, you can fortify and keep chickens anyway, and the neighborhood across the street from us has chickens and horses and they can do all the cool stuff that we can't do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't. We don't lack predators out here. I mean, I've been in a tree watching my goat give birth and the wind bear in a tree.
Speaker 1:That's high stakes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was. It was just chilling up there, it was dark and I had gotten home I had this one, this one doe that was due to kid, and I had every time I went out there. I'm like you're going to do it the second I leave. And I had run into town and I had a friend coming up from Oregon and I went and got her. We came back, we ate dinner and I was like I have a goat that's about to kid, let's go check on her. I go out there.
Speaker 2:She had kid there's, you know, there's a mess everywhere after birth and my dogs, my two livestock dogs, were real relaxed and everything and same, are like family dog. And then all of a sudden the wind shifts. You hear it through the trees and then just mayhem, the dogs freak out about, leap over the fence, my, our family dog. He goes barreling off into the dark and you hear this like scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, like just like this bear is just falling down this tree and takes off. My husband and my brother-in-law are over Um, we were still in the trailers at this point and they're over there. So they come running out with guns and my friend's got a baby on her hip and she's like is this like normal? We do this all the time there's a bear in the tree.
Speaker 1:Yay, exciting, but is that the one that was visiting from Oregon? Yeah, yeah, baby on the hip, welcome to our house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, and then that night she was staying in a tent and that night she texted me and she's like there was something outside my tent, cause she was all like revved up from this experience and it was a cat. It was a cat playing with one of the cords and she was, she was, it was just one of our barn cats, but she was just all like tweaked out about the bear, so she was a little on high alert. It was pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Well they do come back back. They'll circle back around. We actually found, because we had so many encounters with the same bear and just one other bear, we found getting in the car and just laying on the horn was enough to kind of get them out of the area. You know we can't, we can't do anything really about them, but I found that was a nice tip. After so many encounters we started figuring out, just lay on the horn and you know they'll scamper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we realized because we didn't really know a lot about like their habits and how they behave and stuff, because bears were a big issue for us our first year here and then our second as well.
Speaker 2:They were popping up all over the place. We had um dispatched one of our meat goats and had it hanging in a tree and we've always had livestock dogs just guard the tree, Um, cause there wasn't really a great place to hang them. We don't have like a room or anything that's like nice and temperature controlled, so we have to wait until late fall, early winter, and it was kind of an amateur move but it was hanging in a tree, plenty high. We're thinking like coyotes and wolves. This bear climbs up the tree, chews the rope, the bottom part of our goat, comes down out of the tree and it's just sitting there chewing on our goat. The dogs, they won't jump the fence unless they're protecting their herd and their herd was the fence. So they were like freaking out, but they didn't do anything about our glorious goat carcass hanging from the tree getting eaten by a bear.
Speaker 1:So how do you train? Do you find dogs like that? Do you train dogs Is that kind of just in their breed and their nature?
Speaker 2:Yes and yes. So livestock dogs there are certain breeds that thrive. They need jobs. Just like you know, you're herding dogs and stuff. It's not the same as like a guardian for livestock. Their personality they're more prone to bond with other animals and when they're raised in that they are, they're like the alpha, so they are looking at the weaker animals that they're surrounded by and they just begin to protect them. So, um, yeah, the our two dogs, um, we've raised, since puppies, um, to love their goats and their lambs. And um, my particular dogs don't do as well with chickens. They're fine, but every once in a while they're like chicken snack and so they don't do as well with that. But there are dogs that protect poultry all the time. I just didn't focus enough in that area with mine. But yeah, it's certain breeds that just thrive in that. And then there are certain breeds that just you should never and wouldn't ever. It just doesn't work out.
Speaker 1:My specific dog at home right now, for example.
Speaker 2:What's the breed? So one of ours is. He is my love. He's a Central Asian Shepherd. He's 170 pounds, looks like a polar bear. He's a Central Asian shepherd. He's 170 pounds, looks like a polar bear. He's gorgeous, amazing temperament. We actually got him while we were still in Oregon with the intention of property protection, because we had to fully fence two acres so he would run the two acres and just keep people from stopping and messing around. My kids played out there. We had some weird instances around the pandemic and so it was really great to have a giant dog running the property and he adapted really well from a little bit of livestock protection but mainly like a family protection.
Speaker 2:Their temperaments, central Asian Shepherds, it's incredible. I will not go on because I could go on for days. I absolutely. The breed is amazing, kind of hard to find but it's becoming a more popular breed. Our other dog he's a mix.
Speaker 2:He's Great Pyrenees, maremma, and then he has like a little dash of Ackbash in him. So he just looks like those really fluffy Pyrenees long hair like. He just looks like that. But that's the three breeds that he is, which are all livestock breeds and they're totally different their temperament and their personality. But livestock dogs are so cool the way they like orchestrate themselves. Our larger dog, bigger bark, louder bark, and he is like frontline, he always goes straight to the fence line, whereas our other dog, jax, he goes and herds all the animals and he'll usually herd them into the barn a little bit, or he'll just stand and and kind of weave in between them and kind of keep them in a tight area and then sigs out, barking and being intense, him and his 170 pounds. Um, but livestock dogs are so cool, the way they work is just so fascinating and really, really amazing and back to the bears.
Speaker 1:Just even temperament around big animals or are they like on guard around big animals? How did how did they interact and train?
Speaker 2:them to do that. Yes, um, yes, there, I mean there definitely is, like you, uh, them being aware, um, but then, like, even between the breeds of livestock, dogs, like Sig, the Central Asian Shepherd, um, even from a puppy so mellow and he was always looking up, he's just always looking around, um, he always had eyes on my kids, um, and so, like I mean, they bark at hawks and crows. They know birds of prey or no. They alert us when there's deer around, which can be very helpful. They alert us when there's other animals around, but their reaction to like deer is not the same as a bear.
Speaker 2:A bear you can hear like a little bit of panic just from the house. A deer is just loud but it's intermittent and it's very. They're just watchful, distrustful, but a bear is like they turn into Cujo. It's really. I really like, I really enjoy just being out there and watching them look around. If a bear lands in or a bear lands in around, if a bear lands in the pasture, a bird lands in the pasture, they chase it off. It doesn't matter if it's a Tweety bird or a crow, they're just very, very intense about their job and it's really cool.
Speaker 2:How are they handling goats to cows? That is like this huge, this huge thing. They do grade around cows. We have that experience this year because we had so many steers breaking onto our property and then mowing over our polynet, which is what we rotationally graze our goats and lambs in. They were just mowing over it to get to our water trough because they couldn't find their way off of our property and they hadn't seen the pond yet. So they were going after our water troughs and same thing like they would alert us that they were there but they just weren't bothered by them, which was a little annoying given that at that point we weren't transitioning into cows, and so we were like scare them off, but they're very mellow with them. I think they just have an instinct for this isn't harmful.
Speaker 1:Sure. How is that transition going?
Speaker 2:So we are bringing home a dairy cow. In May we went from a herd of 16 and we my husband and I started talking about the cow because the idea behind it was we need to manage less bodies. Now that we have our heavy equipment repair business down in town and it's not mobile, we have to be able to commit to being down there more. And so I'm like I can't manage the 15 and move the pasture every day by myself. I'm physically too small, I cannot get all the stuff moved. So it's always been a two-person job and it's been really labor intensive. And so we prayed over it and God was like good job, guys, yes. So I sold off half of the herd to one person. It was just, it went so smoothly.
Speaker 2:And then we butchered our last two meat goats. I have two dairy girls that will keep through the winter and then they're going to a really dear friend up in Washington in spring. So we have two goats left, three lambs. The lambs go in the freezer next month, middle of the month, and we're going to sail through winter with two goats, which is crazy Two goats, 30 chickens. And then we have the pigs. But yeah, our farm is going to be small for a while, and I'm actually really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Oh good, Okay, I was thinking. It's just sad to see you know you have to distance yourself, but it's sad to see.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I never had a heart for like a dairy cow, like I was so satisfied with my goats, like I loved them and I loved the process and planning, breeding, and they were just easy for the kids to manage. That was one thing I really loved is they got so much responsibility that they learned through animals that were more sized that there was easier for them to manage and I enjoyed that. But my heart has completely shifted and as I'm saying goodbye the two that I was the saddest about, my friend was like, oh well, I'll take them and I'm like, yeah, and I'll see them again and I'll get to see their babies. And so it really is working out wonderfully. Everything with the cow is lining up perfectly, like it's so a God thing, completely a God thing, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you get that peace around it and ease and often surrounding a hard decision.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, when do we get peace surrounding livestock? They're chaos, but yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Kids are bigger, the animal is going to be bigger. What are you thinking Like? You have venison in the freezer, right? What else is in the freezer for you guys for, like, the hard part of the winter?
Speaker 2:Um, so we've got venison. Um, we just put two goats in the freezer. Um, we usually eat through our beef so quick, so there's almost never beef. It's always in the freezer in the summer and then we have a lot of food on the shelf as well, like we've got. We did well during turkey season small animal, but we made a lot with it. We've got venison on the shelf. Goat on the shelf. Chicken We've got some chickens in the freezer. My sister and brother-in-law do. What did they just do? I think they just put like 15 in the freezer and so we helped with that and we got some chickens there. They helped with our goats. They got some goat there.
Speaker 1:And when you say on the shelf it's canned, yeah, yeah, is that pressure.
Speaker 2:It has to be right. Yeah, well, as I'm finding out, there's people who will water bath meat for three hours, and I'm not interested in that, but that it's possible, yeah, but yeah, so that's pressure canned, and then we'll have the lambs coming in in January, which I really like. How we stagger that, because we don't have all the space. So, while it is a bit of a nuisance to keep the animal alive, because you're funneling, you're putting money into feeding them and with our property, we don't typically have to pay to feed them until it starts to snow. So it's a little bit of a. It feels a little wasteful, but it is kind of like a. You know this doesn't fit right now, but it will. And then we have pork.
Speaker 1:You have pigs? Yes, okay, I don't know how I missed that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is our second year of raising pigs, and pigs are um something that we that's a whole family endeavor, um, because we have my parents up here and then my sister, brother-in-law and their two kids, and so pigs are not like a like a us thing, um family thing, so like the chores are just rotated, like a like a us thing, um family thing, so like the chores are just rotated. We have our chore days, Um, ours are Saturday, Sunday and um, then we just kind of delegated out through the week, Um, and then when it comes to butcher day, everyone has their own pig. We wipe them all out together, get it done and then we got, then we start over.
Speaker 1:And you guys are processing everything yourselves because you have right like a room or like you made a processing area someday.
Speaker 2:right now, my house we literally hang animals from my rafters with a plastic sheet underneath, like my house is the, because my house is like I don't have anything permanent right now, like I don't have cupboards I don't have, so like we can just push everything to the side and clear my whole house out and turn it into a processing room. And then we've got my husband built a nine foot like Island and we have just we just cover it and put like giant industrial cutting boards all over it and we've got meat hanging from the ceiling and it's great.
Speaker 1:It works out really nicely. That's when you invite the guests from out of town.
Speaker 2:Well, it's our neighbors. We're raising a lamb for our neighbors and for my parents and our neighbors. They haven't butchered anything before, they've never processed, they've never like connected with their food, like that, and so they're really excited to learn, but they're really dreading. They're really dreading January because they're just, they're nervous, um, about the emotion behind it. But I'm really excited for them, um, to have that experience and, um, we'll see if we raise any animals for them again. Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 1:I wonder if you can like how do you get that out to people Like I don't you have to do it, you just have to do it, yeah, and they'll talk. You can't like, read a book about it. You can't like, you know, watch it. You could watch a YouTube video, but it's not nothing like doing it yourself. That's awesome, it's not the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like they came over, we I I don't know if this was like kind of a little more intense than they had hoped, but like it's. It's not hard for me to go raise a lamb for somebody. I have the infrastructure. The way we worked it was. They put in the monetary, like there was a few things we needed to provide for them, and my husband and I, our contribution was our time and our and our knowledge and so. But we had them come over and bottle feed these lambs while they were still little to connect, because that's a part of it and if they were just like we have a lamb over at the neighbor's, it's not the same thing as we helped. One of them was really sick because we got bummers and we brought him back from the brink of death and we made them be a part of that too, and because I want them to have that full experience like that we cared for them and we gave them a really good life and they have one bad day and you're there for that too, yeah.
Speaker 1:So on the other side, how was your guys' fall? Tell me about the hunt.
Speaker 2:It sounded like Turkey and uh, yeah, turkey, and then, um, deer and um, we just hunt. We hunt the unit that our land is on. It's just the most convenient because I can just, you know, pop around with the kids whenever I like hunting with my husband, so, and I like it being a family thing, but he just has so much less time and so it's nice to, um, you know, have tags on the unit that our property is on. Um, we didn't do super well this year. Um, I got a doe, a little tiny doe.
Speaker 2:All the bucks disappeared, um, and uh, yeah, there was just some issues up here, um, with poaching and whatnot, so it was a. It was a bit of a struggle this year, um, but I was able to get one. Um, my husband turned his back and got a deer. The kids got to be there for it and, randomly, our barn cat that followed us on our five mile hike. Um, it was not a surprise, um, he probably thinks less of me now, but uh, but um, yeah, it was a lot of surprise. Um, he probably thinks less of me now, but uh, but um, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was really fun and we have new plans for next year. We actually spent a lot of time exploring the side of our property that isn't as like farmland, usable, and so, um, we explored a lot of game trails and we just saw a lot of new stuff and it's definitely going to aid us in how and where we hunt next year, and then my daughter actually will be able to hunt next year, so we'll be able to pull three tags. And then, as far as elk elk is so hard to get up here in this particular unit, so we'll put in for it, but probably won't get it we're putting in for moose tags this next year as well. Probably won't get it, but maybe someday. That was a preference points build up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you guys have sustenance tags available?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure we raise so much of our own food that like this is the first year we actually focused on wild game because we were managing so much of our own farm and we realized that phasing out goats, we wouldn't have that. Just like you know, whenever the freezer has some room, go put some more in it, just with that one dairy cow and then the pigs we this year we're like all right, we gotta like we gotta get going on hunting, and so I don't know as much as I should or as much as I would like to cause I've been like tunnel vision on farm.
Speaker 1:So but I'm not sure about that and you guys, I'm sure you can trap. Have you ever looked into trapping and setting some up Trapping?
Speaker 2:is really good over here. I haven't done it. I haven't done it. We have a neighbor who is like let me know. He's like it's amazing, you guys need to do it, and I think that's something my son would absolutely love. Like I'd love to be like go check your trap line, little buddy, yeah. So, yeah, that's all in the works.
Speaker 1:I think that not managing so many bodies is really going to free up, kind of diversify, our ability to like try different things and see which ones work better for us, and I'm really excited for that yeah, it's not a great source of meat, right, but you can use the furs and you know flying gloves and stuff and it's nice to have someone that knows how to set a line without taking a finger off. Another thing you can't really learn from a book and YouTube. Youtube is there. That's what most people do. But to have someone say, hey, you know, put the, put all of your energy on this one spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean for predator management and stuff. That's another thing that we kind of we want to get a little better at as well. We feel very protected because of our dogs but like I mean, this is our first year that we haven't had bears just running out our ears and just constantly harassing us. I mean we're sitting there having a cup of coffee and one just pops up right behind my sister's trailer and isn't bothered by us at all, making noise, nothing like just no fear. We noticed that it's always two, there's always two combing the area and what we learned was that, um, mama will have like cubs and they might all hang out together for a while, but cubs will typically stick together for quite some time. So, um, we're always hearing them call to each other and you you'll just be out doing night chores and hear bears.
Speaker 2:So this is the first year that I have not seen. Yeah, usually we see them all summer and fall and I haven't seen a single bear. And it's actually been really nice, because my kids like to run amok, like I don't want to have to worry about it. Right, I haven't carried. Um, I uh, last winter you had winter, well, because of coyotes and wolves and stuff. But um, like, uh, spring and stuff we were, we had to be armed at all times and like it's fine. But like I don't want to be like really kind of nervous and uncomfortable if I walk out my door and I forgot, um, you know, to bring my sidearm or something. It's nice to worry about that so much, and so that's been really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had my. I wasn't home for whatever reason, but my husband and my son were in the hammock and they had kind of like closed it and the dogs were quiet and there was a bear right there and they were, you know, like playing and it just the dogs caught the scent and then, you know, chaos, everyone was fine, everyone was safe. But you don't have that luxury when and you guys are in year three, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, april 25 will be three solid years.
Speaker 1:I'm sure they've been in that area minding their own business.
Speaker 2:This area Like who are?
Speaker 1:you people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this area that we're in was raw land Like. So when we purchased the land, they broke up three pieces of like I don't remember what the acreage was, but they broke it up and there was nothing here. There was nothing on here. Some of the neighbors that we've talked to over time were like, yeah, because there's a lot of beef ranchers up here, they're like, I mean, yeah, we leased it out and ran cows on it, but it's never been inhabited. So we, our first couple of years, it's never been inhabited. So we, our first couple of years.
Speaker 2:Um, yellow jackets, uh, wasps were horrible, Ticks were terrible. Um, we've been managing that with a flock of guineas, for this will be the third year and it's huge difference, huge difference. Um, we also do really well with the snakes, and so just the longer we've been here, the better that stuff has been. And, yeah, the bears are definitely moving off. Even the coyotes, like our first year here, mating season was the stuff of nightmares All night long. My dogs in the morning and the coyotes would be back, but they were dead. They were so tired from just being on high alert all day or all night and then into the morning we'd be out doing chores and my kids were terrified to go out. Our family dog was like boxing them in trying to keep them safe. It was stressful. It was really stressful. But I mean, this last winter wasn't like that at all, it was wild.
Speaker 1:You guys are definitely. You know, putting in the work to get the reward is just a lot of hard work and nothing in life is worth having without that hard work. Right it comes easy. It's probably not that great.
Speaker 2:It definitely brings out a lot of good stories and it definitely puts pressure on your faith and makes you focus on making sure that, like, god is the center, because I mean, I wouldn't be here I would be done if it weren't for just knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is where God has us.
Speaker 2:And I mean, when you look at it, it's like it's kind kind of cool that God decided this was my story and it's been really challenging. It's been a lot of fun and I think a lot of times, with the way that life can be now, we lose the opportunity to have just those really cool good stories. Our grandparents tell cool stories like just interesting and fascinating stories about how life was, and I'm pretty excited that my kids are going to cool good stories. Our grandparents tell cool stories like just interesting and fascinating stories about how life was, and I'm pretty excited that my kids are going to have some wild stories like the time that the elk chased our dog and like just just good stories and um, and so I'm really grateful for that.
Speaker 1:You guys are living the wild, the wild story from old. Living the wild, the wild story a little bit from old.
Speaker 2:So what was the story of the elk chasing the dog? Um, so we had just moved to the top part of our property. Um, like I said, when we got here, basically, and we came in, um, uh, fifth wheels, and we had to drive across the field and then our property dips down to this like little valley and then we climb up and we get into like a bunch of timber, but we couldn't access the top. So we came in in April. Spring was real muddy, real rough. It was by the grace of God that we made it onto our property because we were thinking we were going to have to set up our trailers for a couple of weeks on state lands because we weren't sure we could get into ours. And so we had just carved out the road to the top of the property, moved our stuff up and my husband, my dad and my brother-in-law took the kids and our family dog Chevy for a walk, and so they cruised down the road that they had just made and then they were headed out to state land past our pond, where we would commonly see elk.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think my dog's ever seen an elk before, like not inside a vehicle where he could like kind of do whatever he wanted and I don't think he knew what to do with himself. So, all in protection mode, he starts chasing this elk and they run out of sight and they're like, oh no, like you know, he could get stomped. He's making bad choices. And then all of a sudden they see him and there is an elk chasing. It sees all the people and then it like stops and snorts and then runs off. And Chevy learned his lesson. He didn't. He doesn't chase elk anymore. He doesn't even chase turkeys anymore. He doesn't know what to expect, so he just doesn't do any of it. He just sits there and growls, like you know, like he should. But uh, was it full rack? It was actually, um, it was a mama protecting a little cat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Almost even scarier. Yeah, I think that's worse. And wild turkeys look so wily they're like I'm going to leave those things alone. Yeah, have you guys processed like farm turkeys versus wild turkeys? What's the? I know there's a different processing. How do you process your wild turkeys versus wild turkeys?
Speaker 2:What's the? I know there's a different processing. How do you process your wild turkeys? Um, so well, I mean, we process them the exactly the same, it's just a difference. And then what's interesting is what you'll see in their crop is so much different, obviously, farm-raised turkeys. We did that, um, when we were still in Oregon. Uh, we raised like Royal palms and they were enormous. We raised them out to 40 pounds hanging weight, which was insane. We should have butchered sooner. But just size is really what you'll see as a difference.
Speaker 2:The wild turkeys are so clean, they're so, so clean. I mean they're roosting in trees oftentimes a different tree every night if they're moving around, and stuff a different tree every night if they're moving around and stuff. They're very, very clean and their crop is just full of like berries and grass where the farm turkeys are a bunch of, you know, feed, grain and stuff. But processing wise, you just process them the exact same. But we have noticed we may raise turkeys again which we're kind of like, oh, that seems so ridiculous. We just don't enjoy, um, wild turkey Like we do our farm raised turkey. Um, they're not as big, uh, they're not as meaty, the meat's a little tougher. So whenever we um, whenever we have a wild turkey, um, we pressure, can it? We'll do soups with it because the flavor is good, but it's just really tough.
Speaker 2:So yeah, turkey season isn't something we get super excited about. It's just a means to have food and it seems kind of silly to squander it, especially since they're like rodents. This morning there was about 60 of them right in front of my porch. They usually come through here like every other day, and there's just there's tons of them. So it seems like squandering if we don't take advantage of them. I make a joke. I think that it's because they're everywhere and they'll try and get into our feed barn and stuff and every once in a while they'll chase our free ranging chickens and our guineas get so upset at them They'll be screaming at them from, like you know, down a little ways. But I make the joke that I think it's pretty ridiculous that you can only eat your neighbors in the fall Everywhere, like we just hang out with them all the time. Yeah, worse for us.
Speaker 1:We draw units nearby. Can't do anything in the neighborhood, but we'll get home and they'll be waiting for us on the front porch pecking in front of the house.
Speaker 2:They know stuff, Like they know where to be or not to be. We were house sitting for some neighbors last year on Thanksgiving and we literally had a turkey that we were taking up to their house because we were just going to utilize the fact that there was a fully functioning house at our disposal, and so we did our little Thanksgiving over there and there was probably a hundred turkeys sitting there and I'm like I don't even need a turkey right now, but they're hanging out feeling really comfortable. It's funny.
Speaker 1:Wild turkeys are bananas. I do like turkey season. I like the calls. I like the call and response. The crow calls and it's like adult Marco Polo I just enjoy hunting.
Speaker 2:in general I don't really care what I'm hunting for, but I do love when what you're hunting for and you're successful, when it's larger and it feels worth putting the time and energy into. If hunting weren't so easy to just do, I probably wouldn't hunt turkey at all, because I just don't love it that much. But it's like it's just, it's too easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're out there, you feel the seasons. It's not like you're walking into a store and you see the seasons, like you know, commercialized. You're actually in the rhythm of nature and you get. Okay, we've got this beautiful change in the world and it is worth celebrating and it is super cool out there in the woods.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was just going to say I think that like one of the reasons that we've really prioritized like now that we're settled in a little bit better and we kind of have a flow to life kind of you know as much as you can, but we want this is a really great age for our kids to be hunting.
Speaker 2:I mean, every age really is a great time to introduce something that's going to be so big in your life but our kids just love it so much. Big in your life, but our kids just love it so much. And so we're trying to utilize every single season to get them really excited about it, because I definitely I mean, I grew up my family was huge hunting family. I didn't care to go until like later in life, but there's just so much good family time and so many good memories from it and I want my kids to have those because I have really fond ones of it. So, even if it's not a season we're super excited about, we are trying to make that more of a priority and it's been really enjoyable.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Get them out, teach them responsibility.
Speaker 1:The fun for the hunt? I didn't start until I was an adult. I never wanted to go as a kid. Fun for the hunt? I didn't start until I was an adult. I never wanted to go as a kid. And then I am realizing like as an adult I make these decisions that are, you know, premeditated and practical, and I get out there. Um, you know, I'll just forget stuff Like I we drove out for my birthday, we camped, and then we were like, well, it's my birthday, you know, it's the end of the day.
Speaker 1:We had a good day scouting the area, time to camp, and I was like, oh, let's go get some beer. So we get in the truck, we drive in and we pass just a herd of does my husband's like this is our area, this is our unit, and I didn't bring anything with me. And you know, we didn't see him the next day. We were loud and kind of spooked him out of the area. And then the next one, we climbed a mountain and I forgot my trigger at the truck. So I unpacked my whole bag when we got up there stocking a buck, climbed back down the mountain. Trigger was on the, you know, on the side of the truck where I was getting ready, climbed back up.
Speaker 1:And then the last one oh, I stepped on my own bow coming back from the bathroom and I messed up the site. And then we were 250 yards away and my husband was like, okay, this is best opportunity. They don't know we're here. I skylined myself a little bit, the sun was behind me and I just made like a movement, you know, and spooked them. I was like there's no way. They saw me. Yes, they saw you, and you're just a noob at this. You actually are the worst at hunting. So it's funny starting as an adult and making kid mistakes, when I could have just gone as a kid and gotten this all smoothed out.
Speaker 2:Well, but you've also chose because you're bow hunting and that definitely is like a whole nother, like you chose a harder, hard, and so I mean, when you do, when you do, master, that that's going to be quite, that's going to be quite the accomplishment. I don't, I don't bow hunt. My husband's bow hunted and I just I enjoy rifle hunting and and he just likes to do, we just like to do the stuff together. So he's like I'm not gonna go bow home by myself. So, um, but yeah, you chose the harder, hard, so don't beat yourself up too much.
Speaker 1:There's so many things that have to go right. You have to have the wind at your back, you have to have all your gear, you gotta have your tag, you gotta have your. You know checks and balances as you go through do. I have everything with me, and then you have to get in that right spot with the right. You know you have to train all year. It's nuts. Everything has to go right to make that. So when it does, I'm putting the photo up and I'm going to be like yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I definitely and I think that's another thing too is I think that there's more like, more training and necessary time needs to be put into bow hunting. Like with this is now. I just feel like basically I'm just lazy hunting Basically. I go out there, I started my rifle, I'm like, yep, you can still hit the broadside of burn. Let's go Free snack.
Speaker 1:Well, I was going to ask are you guys doing blinds? Are you doing like the Western style boots on the ground?
Speaker 2:My husband cannot. He can't sit. Still I he he's the funniest bow hunter because obviously you need to be pretty stealthy, but he wants to bow hunt by moving all the time and, um, that's like how he prefers. We have great places where we could do blinds or tree stands or something, and that's probably going to happen eventually. It would be nice just for those. You know, whatever situations where it's like no, today I really do just want to sit. We also have a lot of hillsides and like really cliffy areas where it's actually like really great, you're basically in a tree stand because you're just like out of sight and you get this nice valley where you can just nail something and then bring the truck down, and so that's really nice and I think that's one of the reasons that we haven't even bothered.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and to go with my husband is hilarious because he's got huge feet and he wants to move Like. He's like we got to cover some ground and I'm like no, we don't. So I mean like I'm squatting down, yeah, like Sasquatch. I'm following Sasquatch through the woods, like, but I'll squat down, you know, and look below the tree line and I'm like there's feet, I see deer like stop moving and he's like where'd you see those? I'm like I'm down here, like let's sit down for a minute, buddy, I mean.
Speaker 2:But he just he he likes to mob, he's a busy guy and he loves to hunt because it's a great excuse to just mob through the woods and it's funny. Now you know we've got kids trailing. They do so stinking good. Like those kids, that's awesome. We'll give them a stick. Sometimes I'm gonna be like carry the stick, because someday it'll be a rifle and they'll be climbing up hillsides with it like in their elbows and I'm just like this is the best, like this is so cool. But yeah, he has had to slow down because of the kids and I think it's hilarious because I can see like this, like he'll be like rolling his neck around, like are we, you guys want to like jog for a bit?
Speaker 1:Well, I, so we on that stock where I forgot my trigger we had, you know, got bumped this buck. So we had to be that super stealthy. I didn't realize I was more exhausted going a mile that day than I had the 10 the day before, cause I didn't know this. There was like a bell curve. So if you're moving at your normal rate, like your normal pace around your house, you're conserving the most amount of energy. Maybe it's an inverse curve? Yeah, it's inverse. So if you're going too slow or if you're going too fast I knew this one you burn a ton of energy. It's a ton of calories. To go fast, like sprinting, it's also burns a ton of calories. To go slower than your normal Restrain, so slow, stalking and lifting one foot and then pausing, that's going to burn as many calories as sprinting through the forest. That's nuts.
Speaker 2:Then it's a lot of brain power too, I mean, cause you're you're making sure you're not cracking every twig and I mean most of the time you've got a good, a good boot on. So it's a little heavier and like everything and like we'll, we'll go out for a good part of the day. So I mean we're usually packing a little something. And then the weight of your rifle and well, unless you have a bow, that is like one thing I'm like maybe we should bow hunt. They seem lighter, they're totally yeah, yeah, they're nice and light, but I mean there's so much other things that make it very difficult. But yeah, there's definitely. It's nice when we're trying to get to a location, cause you're kind of you're a little more lax and you're moving at a good pace. But yeah, you're right that slow down and that stalking is tiring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just feel like super fit. I love just the mental toughness getting up, getting out, getting up early, and then you have. You know we're at 10,000 feet, you have not. Oh my.
Speaker 2:God, if you're out there and you haven't trained 10,000 feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our highest point is the lookout tower and it's just up the road, so we live at, you know, 7,500. I'm, you know, towered. It's just up the road, so we live at, you know, 7,500. I'm, you know, jogging around our little cul-de-sac area at 7,500, but 10 is the high point, so you can't mess around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, we're at 5,000 and we've always lived like around that, maybe a little lower, but I was just like yeah, geez, we're at 5,000 feet, 10,000, 7,000.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's true, Western hunting. My husband comes from the Midwest. In Michigan, Tree blind, deer camps, the you know drunk fest, you roll up, you're napping all day, you come home and you know you're successful. Because they have a population management or not management issue, population issue Just a different ballgame for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the, the. I don't think I would be as interested in, like big game hunting, or really any at all, if it was all like um sitting in a blind. I don't think I would enjoy it as much as I do, cause you see so much. I mean, we're looking at scat piles and, um, you know where a bear has been rubbing on a tree or like you know um an elk or whatnot, and the kids are identifying droppings and um, then we weirdly have a barn cat following us for miles. Like you know, there's a lot of interesting things that happen when you're on the move and you see some beautiful country and stuff. Yeah, it definitely is. There's definitely different kinds of hunters. Some people really enjoy that for what that is, and I like to move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had so many pictures of poop on my camera roll. I was like I got to stop because I wanted to identify it. When I got home I was like why did I take so many pictures of poop?
Speaker 2:on the ground. Then you see one of those things on Instagram like no cheating, post your, post, your last picture and I'm like poop scat.
Speaker 1:You know what it was it was an odd shape, so I had to take a picture of it. I'm like I gotta stop doing this to myself. Yeah, what were you? Eating snap well, the bear is. The bear is the weirdest too. It's like neon colored in the forest. I'm like, how did you get neon, pink, scat, and it's interesting. Thank you so much. You're walking around looking at interesting, interesting stuff. How's the business?
Speaker 2:It's going good. Um, we just we just switched from being a hundred percent mobile to now having a shop and it's been. It's been so good. And I say that like with like I know it's going to get better, but it's been really good, like our name.
Speaker 2:The thing is is you cruise into a new community and you're like I am a mobile mechanic and you show up, nobody knows who you are and you're in a. You know he's got a service truck and everything. But it's like what people really struggle with around here is people show up, they collect the service call, they do the diagnose, they claim their ordering parts after collecting a parts deposit and then they don't come back and you never hear from him again. So for us, that was like it was hard for him to build a reputation being nowhere to the area, but once he did, word of mouth was really great. But then now having a shop and people like we're sitting right next to and renting this building from a very reputable business and it's just been really great. They know exactly where their equipment is, which I mean even when it was at their home. You know it's like they knew where it was, but it just it's panned out to be really really wonderful Again, a complete and total God thing.
Speaker 2:Panned out to be really really wonderful Again, a complete and total God thing. And it's great because this time of year, when he was mobile, you pretty much you don't get much work. Farmers are it's maintenance season, so usually you'd see a lot, but it just wasn't the case for us last year and I think that was really pivotal in us feeling like a business or a permanent shop and not being mobile was such a good thing, because it doesn't make sense during maintenance season, when they're not using their farm equipment, to have no business. And so now we see, I think it was just more of a needing to have like a more reputable situation set up, and so God's been really good. We've been busy, we've been busy, it's been really good, we've been busy, we've been busy, it's been really wonderful.
Speaker 1:You're out of the house more, but it's because you have more work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's an interesting shift because we're like, okay, I mean, lord, why did you sit us in the middle of nowhere to then have us drive an hour and a half in nice weather into a shop five days a week and go into town six days a week, because we go to church on Sundays, so we have one day a week that we don't go into town, and I don't go every day. The kids and I go. In the summers we do twice a week and in the winter we just do one. I just catch up on whatever I need to do on that one day and then. So it seems a little funny, but it's it's. It is funny.
Speaker 2:God has provided every step of the way we get to live, cause, I mean, a lot of people look at it like you have to drive that all the time. It's a gorgeous, stinking drive. I don't ever want to lose that Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I live here. Um, so it's really a. I get to live here and I get to have a business where we're serving our community and meeting a lot of really cool people and making really awesome connections. So I get to, I get to do it, I get to enjoy a nice drive where you decompress and just look at the beauty and you know sometimes it's white knuckle driving, but I get to, it's awesome driving, but I get to and it's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking that of you get more community. And then when you know, 200 years ago you made the community where you were at cause you couldn't drive and make these big treks into a more populated area. You had to be. You know the, the tech in your area. And more community, more people. I'm naturally good at this and that's what I'm going to serve in my community. And then we like kind of COVID generation that moved far away. We're like, well, we have these towns but we're all kind of in our own huts, isolated. And then, like us, we have town. And then we have a village and everyone kind of goes to town, not the village, because they have more to offer and kind of lose that community piece.
Speaker 2:But it sounds like you guys get that, you get the friendships, you get the long term. So it was like the kids were isolated because I don't have a choice, like I can't not homeschool, I absolutely couldn't, you know, make that work Even with my husband going into town every day, like I want to homeschool them, but even with him going in every day, it's just like that would just be so much to manage. And then it does feel like well, I would be kind of squandering this, like gorgeous chunk of property that I have them to grow up on and help us cultivate and stuff in it, and so it. I don't remember where I was going with that actually.
Speaker 1:But anyway, Less isolating, more community yeah isolating, isolating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a little isolating, but then it's like, and we didn't really have a way out of that we're like this is amazing, but we're lacking a little bit because we weren't meant to. Just, you know, exist alone. And like we have our family on the property and stuff, but like I don't want to not be a part of my community that was never my goal like moving in the middle of nowhere. It's not self-sufficiency, it's community sufficiency. And eventually, you know, we end up meeting each other and other people and dang, if we didn't land in like an amazing community. And and God started showing us that by, by showing us that the isolation didn't work and it wasn't going to work. And we're like we're not isolated, we have great neighbors and my family lives up here. Like we're not isolated, but we were. And so now you know my husband, there's places I'll go in town and they're like, oh, cause he's out in town all the time. And they're like, oh, you're the wife.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, what did he do? That's Proverbs girl your husband's. Known in the city circle, well-regarded in the city circle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is, and he's making, really making a name for himself and I'm I'm so proud. He's just one of those guys that he works so hard and he cares so much and he will bend over backwards for anybody and so no, and he's so talented at, he's so good, like I. I love watching my husband work on working on machinery. Like I think it is so fascinating. I love it when he runs his mouth and tells me what he's doing, um and so for him to, you know, for the Lord to really be blessing um, our business, it just it makes me so happy for him because he loves to do it and and he's just so great at it, and so it's really exciting to see that going really well. I knew it would someday. It was just God's timing.
Speaker 1:Do you have to work with the parks and wildlife department for your acreage?
Speaker 2:Nope, we have like Idaho fish and game. They cruise around up here a bit and like during the seasons and stuff, um, they have checkpoints where you, whether you, whether you were successful or not you check in, um, but like we don't have anybody, I mean, unless there's something going on. Um, there was some poaching up here and so, um, like the neighbors who were, uh, around those surrounding areas, you know, they checked in with them and stuff, but unless there's something going on, we don't. I never hear from them.
Speaker 1:So you don't want to no news is good news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I don't. I mean, the thing about our property too is so there's like a fair amount of state land, but it's mostly private up here, mostly private. And so where we are, particularly, we are surrounded on three sides by private land and one side by state land, but it's kind of like inaccessible. I mean you have to really hike in. You're not going to drive into it and so, and then like if you wanted to visit, you'd have to know where we are. It's not like an address won't do you any good. And so we just we're kind of in our own little world. We don't, you know, you don't really run into someone that you don't know back here, unless they're trespassing. So we don't really hear from, we don't hear from government officials or really anything. Back here. We're behind locked gate with, yeah, like a padlock, so no one really comes back here, and if they're back here, you should be worried.
Speaker 1:Anything you're working on that you want to share, to kind of wrap up.
Speaker 2:Um well, we're just, uh, we're just transitioning getting our farm transitioned for, um, the cow in the spring, which I'm really excited about. I've been painting more, which has been really fun and really rewarding and, yeah, just trying to make sure that we are listening to the Lord and staying on a path that he has chosen for us, because it's been a really great path and I do assume veering off would probably be a lot less fun. So rewarding.
Speaker 1:It's that right. You shoulder your cross uphill. I always have to remember that, like not only are you shouldering your cross, it's uphill, the yoke is light, something's easy.
Speaker 2:Watching that Bible verse. Yeah, I, I know, and I know that verse and I love that verse, but right now I can't tell you like it's good.
Speaker 1:My point is hard work's good, you get good results. Doing what you guys are doing from the ground up is hard yeah, I have to remember that story, I have to remember that too like because have to remember that too.
Speaker 2:Like cause it's really discouraging sometimes when you're not, like when you're not moving forward at a pace that you feel like you should be, um, but like where the Lord has placed us right now is like a really hard spot. Like especially like in the timeline of it, like we're in the first three years of our off-grid, like raw land development. That's hard and you hear, statistically, like three to five years is like the failure point. Like people are like I've had enough, and then we're also doing a small business. And same thing like the first couple of years, three to five is really challenging and you see either success or failure. And it's really your ability to determine whether or not is this actually going to succeed, even if I do push through, like is there a success point that I'm going to reach or am I hanging on to something that is just not thriving? Like determining that and then sticking with it.
Speaker 2:And we're in the early stages of two things that often people fail at. And so I'm like I have to remember that, like it's not like we're doing a terrible job, it's not like we're slow, it's not, it's none of that, it's that we are like at the pinnacle of that, that challenge, where it's not the physical anymore, it's really the mental toughness that you have to dig into. And fortunately we have realized that that mental toughness really does come from our spiritual walk with the Lord. And so I'll say it again, I would not be here, would not be here I'm still doing this nuts stuff if I was not encouraged daily by the Lord, because it's been really challenging. There's been a lot of hurdles and we're headed for more of them, but it's fine, it's good because God's got it, but yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:God's got it. And if you could pull out, especially with a family extended not extended family, but close family you guys are building a legacy and you could just for him as many descendants as the same. You just don't know what that turns into three generations from now, four generations from now, and then you can look back and be like, wow, we planted our you know flag, our family flag, here and look at what's coming.
Speaker 2:So we have a we have this uh sign that my husband made.
Speaker 2:He like fabricated um, and he broke up.
Speaker 2:So our, uh, our last names, um, my parents and then um, and then my sister and brother-in-laws and then ours, and he smashed it together Like we, we made this joke a while back and we're like we're this one weird family, and so we cut the names up and he made he made this like big um metal sign and um, it's Schmattberg, it's so goofy, but uh, uh smashed it all together and we have it like hanging out by the entrance and I really want to put it like on these pillars, because I mean, how many people get to chat with their daughter and son about like well, where do you want to build your house?
Speaker 2:Like lord willing, lord willing, you meet, um, you know when you meet the people that the Lord has for you in in due time, where you know if, if you're, if the plan for your life is to be up here, like where do you see yourself, where's your favorite spot on the property? And like getting to talk about that with my kids and stuff and just not knowing where. Like this act of obedience, um, by moving out in the middle of nowhere and doing all this hard stuff like where, what is that going to do for my children? Um, I'm just, I'm really, really, really excited to see how that that all plays out, and it just gives me a lot of joy to know that, um, this is kind of inheritance for for it's our legacy.
Speaker 1:Yep responsibility, huge payoff. Have you heard of yellowstone? Yeah, you guys are like the 18 1800s version. It's gonna pay off it is.
Speaker 2:it is, and I mean, look at the cool things that they'll do in their lives because they've got whether they, you know, choose to, you know go into town and have plumbing, you know, whether they do or do not, this will be tucked in their back pocket just knowing that this is going to be a place, whether they choose to live here or not, whether it's God's plan for them or not, like that this is a place where they're going to always want to come back, Like that's. What I want for them is to like I can't wait to go see mom and dad, I can't wait to take grandkids up there. My husband and I want to do like a dog trot style and have like a guest house, like right off the side of this house eventually, just so that they always have like a place to come home, you know.
Speaker 1:And even if they do big city stuff, you see Hallmark every year and it reminds you yeah, they're big city, but they'll be here, that's okay.
Speaker 2:Like it's not, there's nothing wrong. God puts people in the city, and just not us, you know, and not a lot of other people. But you know, if that's what's for them, I hope that their heart will be content there and that they will love every minute that they get to come back here. And it's funny because a lot of people are like well, you don't know where the Lord's going to take you. And I got this weird, weird feeling. It's okay if it's wrong, but this weird feeling that this is like, if for us, like this is like I feel like I'm going to die on this land. Because how crazy would it be for the Lord to like lead us here and be like you should do all these hard things, build a house. You don't know how to build a house, but you should do that and you don't know how to do all of these things and then be like and I mean, trying to sell this property would be absolutely so weird, there'll be three homes built on it.
Speaker 2:It like yeah, it's one of those things where if you leave, you leave everything behind with the family and it just stays. It stays in the family. So it'd be really interesting to see if that ever happened. But it feels like it just feels like a final, a final place, and that's kind of really a peaceful feeling, knowing feeling, unless it changes, it's okay if it does. I don't want to say never, because the Lord does like to have us never like we've never, never before, but it's a very peaceful feeling, knowing that, like everything that we do, you know, it feels like we'll see that in 20 years We'll see that I mean, until the Lord comes back, we will see the fruits of our labor and every year we'll be like dang, that that's really nice, that progress is so nice. Yeah, this has been slow going by your hands. All right, thank you for joining me. Yeah, no problem.
