November 29, 2023 • 12 mins
After 15 years in digital advertising, Sam and Carolynn completely changed their lives and bought Shirttail Creek Farm just outside of Brenham, TX! Listen to their amazing story on this episode of the Dana Tyson podcast.
~ Follow Shirttail Creek Farm ~
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirttailcreekfarm/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shirttailcreekfarm
Website: https://shirttailcreekfarm.com/
~ Follow Sunny 99.1 and Dana ~
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunny99houston/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sunny99Houston
Dana's IG: https://www.instagram.com/danatyson/
~ Follow Shirttail Creek Farm ~
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirttailcreekfarm/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shirttailcreekfarm
Website: https://shirttailcreekfarm.com/
~ Follow Sunny 99.1 and Dana ~
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunny99houston/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sunny99Houston
Dana's IG: https://www.instagram.com/danatyson/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So they were in digital advertising inAustin, Texas, and they said,
this just isn't any fun. Wewant to start a farm. Seven thousand
hens later, you've got to hearmy podcast featuring Sam and his wife Carolyn,
and we always want to thank MattressMac for sponsoring the Dana Tyson podcast.
So we've got two farmers here.And you would never know by looking
(00:21):
at you too, that you wereone time in the corporate world and you
said enough of this already. Soyou left Austin and you came just outside
of Brenham and now you've got howmany hens? What six thousand and eight,
ten thousand, about seven thousand,I think, yeah, And you
have pigs and you have cows,and you've got two little kids, and
(00:44):
you've got doggies. You have completelychanged your life and you're still smiling.
And I know farming is really hard. Yeah, well that's an adventure.
How long have you been doing this? Six and a half years? Okay,
yeah, all right. I haveheard about you all. I know
(01:04):
that you're some of my favorite places. You are the one providing the eggs,
the beef. I mean, youare like super successful, even though
very humble, and I know you'renot going to say that, but what
you've accomplished with what was it?Digital advertising? Background too, coming and
renovating an old farmhouse and becoming farmerswhat what was your thinking and how are
(01:30):
you able to be a success?Well, I don't know how much thinking
went into it. We sometimes it'sbetter that way. We you know,
we were living a life. Wehad a great life in Austin, had
great careers, but I think weboth felt that the life we were living
(01:53):
wasn't really checking all of our boxesin terms of you know, fulfillment and
when you stop and really think about, you know the fact that we have
a finite amount of time on thisearth, you want to really uh make
a dent with the time that youdo have and uh and so I know
personally I wanted to, you know, coming from digital advertising, I wanted
(02:14):
to produce a product that I couldhold in my hands, something that had
some artisanal value and that that Ifelt really added added value to our customers.
And I may not have always feltthat way about, you know,
the digital advertising at all times.So I don't know that was a big
driver for me and Carolyn, whatabout you? You know, I digital
(02:37):
advertising does definitely wasn't checking all myboxes. We had a nice life,
but I've always been drawn to animals, and you know, as a child,
wanted to be the next Jane Goodalland was like always thinking that was
more kind of what I would haveenjoyed doing if I had, you know,
(02:59):
one a different path, and sothis in a way lets me do
that, and it kind of thewhole aspect of our lifestyle right now checks
that box for me, just beingbeing more hands on and more Were you
having this discussion perhaps maybe a Thanksgivingmeal six and a half years ago,
or did you kind of sam thinkabout it on your own and then Carol
(03:22):
and you thought about it and oneday you go, hey, I was
thinking the same thing. How didthis conversation happen? You have men to
go? Yeah, I think Ithink we both at our core felt that
living outside of the city would feelmore natural and and really the conversation started
(03:44):
coming about when we were thinking abouthaving kids and actually had kids that we
thought, man, we really wantto raise the kids in the country,
and you know, we thought,well, well, before they get into
elementary school, we'd like to makethat move. But it was like just
it was just this sort of conceptthat we talked about. It wasn't wait.
We said, by the time theyget to kindergarten, let's make that
(04:06):
move. And then we ended updoing it like six months later, and
we were like, oh, thisis this is a quicker time that we
thought. I love that. Yeah. Well, Carolyn came to me one
day we took we had Ellie.Do we have Dango? Yeah? We
have Dango and Ellie and we hadtook him to Callahan's store in Austin's a
(04:28):
feed store, you know, andthey have goats and chickens you can buy
and stuff. And we took thekids over there one weekend and we came
out and Caroly was like, Okay, I'm ready to go ahead and move.
And of course I got on Zilloand was like, you know,
wow, did you let me askyou this? The best part about what
you're doing? What is like youwake up? We have a boss,
(04:49):
Eddie Martini, my boss boss,and he says, you know, I
never white knuckle it on my wayto work. I love coming to work
every day. So what's the bestpart of you day and what you're doing
compared to the way it used tobe. I love having freedom to work
on different things, and I'm veryI have a very short attention span,
(05:09):
and so the farm allows me tonever have to do the exact same thing
two days in a row. Good. You know, I went from working
in an office and to you know, working with machines, planting, working
with animals, And I think forme, the fun part has been learning
something totally new because we knew nothingabout farming when we started this, and
(05:30):
so it was a little cuckoo inthat sense, because thank God for YouTube,
because I mean I really learned mostof what like how we've modeled the
farm off of YouTube and from afew good books, and there's highs and
lows with that. That's what Iwould say kind of is the good,
Like my highlight of our life outhere too, is like we are constantly
learning, You're constantly trying to dobetter. You're surrounded by things you enjoy
(05:55):
doing, even when they're not funto do. You still the overall is
that you enjoy doing it. Butyeah, we're constantly trying to figure out
different ways to do things better ormore efficiently or just well yeah, there's
because there's there's the farm as thisorganism with animals and meat and the planting
(06:18):
grasses and all these things, andand and and then there's the side of
the farm that it still has tobe a business. And uh, you
know, Carol and I definitely likehave different wheelhouses in that regard. But
I enjoy all of it. ButI'm also an entrepreneurial guy, and so
the challenges that it's presented in termsof Okay, it's one thing to throw
(06:42):
money at a piece of land andproduce beef and eggs, but how do
you do that sustainably and profitably ina way that can support your family is
a totally different question. And that'snot easy, and none of it's easy,
and so I enjoy just that it'sa multifaceted challenge. And let me
just say this, we are neverboard that's perfect. That's perfect, And
(07:02):
you have to find people to buyyour products. So tell me where you
can get the eggs and the beefand the pork and whatever else your farm
is growing and producing. We shipour meats nationwides. You can you can
buy through our website, you canpick up at the farm ordering through the
website. Shirttail Creek Farms Shirttail CreekFarms, No s Shirtail creekfarm dot com.
(07:28):
Yeah, perfect. And then we'vegot stores in Austin called Local Pastures
and that we've opened where you canbuy the products and a lot of other
farm products too. And we'll probablyhave one of those Comedy Houston before long.
But yeah, we have. Wehave you know, different delivery services
farmhouse delivery dot com and that youcan order our products through as well.
(07:49):
So if you listen, if youwant to try, and I know I've
had farm eggs before because I've hadyour eggs before. That yolk is not
yellow. That yolk is like abright orange, and it's because of what
they feed on naturally on your land. Well, it's it's that. And
it's also that we have a custommilled ration that's high in the class of
(08:11):
carotenoids that drive that orange yolk color. So we add things like alfalfa,
americ old paprika to our chicken feet. They're all natural, of course,
and they give a baseline for thatdarker yolk color. But we also plant
high carotenoid forages like turnips and cloverand leafy greens, contrary to what you
(08:31):
might think, actually have a lotof carotenoids. So that's amazing. Well,
I encourage our viewers to check youout, and it's Shirttail Creekfarm dot
com. I was also Carolyn onyour Instagram, so I see what you
guys are doing. You've got somegreat videos up there. You're like,
you know what we would see onHGTV, and yet you're right here in
(08:52):
the Brendam area. I love it. I love it so but you But
the good part is life is neverboring. The bad part is you can
never go on vacation. I'm justgonna take care of your animals happen.
Yeah, and how last, butnot least, how about the kids?
(09:13):
How did they like it? Whathave you? You know? Do you
feel good inside that this choice waswas just an amazing choice for your kids?
Yeah? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. They love they I mean Django
particularly loves the freedom of biking aroundour farm, stomping around our farm the
(09:35):
mud hills when they were like threeand one, I mean they were worse
than the pigs. But like we, I mean where we we were living
in central Austin, which is agreat area, but we realized pretty quickly
we could never let the kids runloose. There's you know, people cutting
through to get to downtown or getto the highway. Uh and uh and
so it was. It was tough. And I grew up in the suburbs
(09:56):
of Houston, riding my bike inthe woods and then playing the creeks,
and there's a lot of undeveloped landaround us, and so I wanted my
kids to have that kind of freedom. Of course, now they've got ten
x that amount of freedom, andthey don't appreciate it like we do,
but they will. And I thinkit was a very good move for the
kids. Yeah, that is excellent. I was watching Chip and Jojo games
(10:16):
and Chip Chip because what they're oldestis now off in college, and Joanne
is like, oh my god,this is so depressing, and Chip's like,
go away, go find yourself,and if you want to come back,
is that the way you two aregoing to be with your kids.
Go away, go find yourself,and if you want to help out on
the farm, come on back whenyou're ready. For sure. Yeah.
(10:37):
Ellie's already told us specifically she wantsto live in a high rise in la
and have a pug, and wehave you never know, that is funny.
And then she'll be back after ayear. You watch, she'll be
back after a year. Well,but I think it's Yeah, in all
(10:58):
seriousness, I think, you know, setting the example from the kids.
They see us working hard, theysee what goes into producing food. They
understand all that, and I thinkthat will add value to their perspective as
they become adults, you know,and they see where their food comes from.
That doesn't happen in the way thatwe live our lives. It's all
freshly packaged at the grocery store andwe never know what happened to make it
(11:20):
get there. So one education you'regiving your kids. And I just wanted
to thank you for coming on.I wanted to hear your story. You're
living my dream and one day,who knows, maybe my husband and I
will have a chat and I'll belike Bob, let's do I don't think
he really wants to work that hard, though, quite friend, I would.
(11:41):
Yeah, you guys so much.It's a delight talking to you,
and we're going to get all yourinformation. Is where can we find you
on Instagram? What was is itjust Shirttail Creek Farm? Yep? Our
Instagram and yeah we're on Twitter asyour Tail Creek Farm as well, all
that stuff so perfect perfect, Well, it's nice to talk with you and
(12:01):
the happiest of holidays. I hopeyou enjoy you do. Thanks a lot,
So they were in digital advertising inAustin, Texas, and they said,
this just isn't any fun. Wewant to start a farm. Seven thousand
hens later, you've got to hearmy podcast featuring Sam and his wife Carolyn,
and we always want to thank MattressMac for sponsoring the Dana Tyson podcast.
So we've got two farmers here.And you would never know by looking
(00:21):
at you too, that you wereone time in the corporate world and you
said enough of this already. Soyou left Austin and you came just outside
of Brenham and now you've got howmany hens? What six thousand and eight,
ten thousand, about seven thousand,I think, yeah, And you
have pigs and you have cows,and you've got two little kids, and
(00:44):
you've got doggies. You have completelychanged your life and you're still smiling.
And I know farming is really hard. Yeah, well that's an adventure.
How long have you been doing this? Six and a half years? Okay,
yeah, all right. I haveheard about you all. I know
(01:04):
that you're some of my favorite places. You are the one providing the eggs,
the beef. I mean, youare like super successful, even though
very humble, and I know you'renot going to say that, but what
you've accomplished with what was it?Digital advertising? Background too, coming and
renovating an old farmhouse and becoming farmerswhat what was your thinking and how are
(01:30):
you able to be a success?Well, I don't know how much thinking
went into it. We sometimes it'sbetter that way. We you know,
we were living a life. Wehad a great life in Austin, had
great careers, but I think weboth felt that the life we were living
(01:53):
wasn't really checking all of our boxesin terms of you know, fulfillment and
when you stop and really think about, you know the fact that we have
a finite amount of time on thisearth, you want to really uh make
a dent with the time that youdo have and uh and so I know
personally I wanted to, you know, coming from digital advertising, I wanted
(02:14):
to produce a product that I couldhold in my hands, something that had
some artisanal value and that that Ifelt really added added value to our customers.
And I may not have always feltthat way about, you know,
the digital advertising at all times.So I don't know that was a big
driver for me and Carolyn, whatabout you? You know, I digital
(02:37):
advertising does definitely wasn't checking all myboxes. We had a nice life,
but I've always been drawn to animals, and you know, as a child,
wanted to be the next Jane Goodalland was like always thinking that was
more kind of what I would haveenjoyed doing if I had, you know,
(02:59):
one a different path, and sothis in a way lets me do
that, and it kind of thewhole aspect of our lifestyle right now checks
that box for me, just beingbeing more hands on and more Were you
having this discussion perhaps maybe a Thanksgivingmeal six and a half years ago,
or did you kind of sam thinkabout it on your own and then Carol
(03:22):
and you thought about it and oneday you go, hey, I was
thinking the same thing. How didthis conversation happen? You have men to
go? Yeah, I think Ithink we both at our core felt that
living outside of the city would feelmore natural and and really the conversation started
(03:44):
coming about when we were thinking abouthaving kids and actually had kids that we
thought, man, we really wantto raise the kids in the country,
and you know, we thought,well, well, before they get into
elementary school, we'd like to makethat move. But it was like just
it was just this sort of conceptthat we talked about. It wasn't wait.
We said, by the time theyget to kindergarten, let's make that
(04:06):
move. And then we ended updoing it like six months later, and
we were like, oh, thisis this is a quicker time that we
thought. I love that. Yeah. Well, Carolyn came to me one
day we took we had Ellie.Do we have Dango? Yeah? We
have Dango and Ellie and we hadtook him to Callahan's store in Austin's a
(04:28):
feed store, you know, andthey have goats and chickens you can buy
and stuff. And we took thekids over there one weekend and we came
out and Caroly was like, Okay, I'm ready to go ahead and move.
And of course I got on Zilloand was like, you know,
wow, did you let me askyou this? The best part about what
you're doing? What is like youwake up? We have a boss,
(04:49):
Eddie Martini, my boss boss,and he says, you know, I
never white knuckle it on my wayto work. I love coming to work
every day. So what's the bestpart of you day and what you're doing
compared to the way it used tobe. I love having freedom to work
on different things, and I'm veryI have a very short attention span,
(05:09):
and so the farm allows me tonever have to do the exact same thing
two days in a row. Good. You know, I went from working
in an office and to you know, working with machines, planting, working
with animals, And I think forme, the fun part has been learning
something totally new because we knew nothingabout farming when we started this, and
(05:30):
so it was a little cuckoo inthat sense, because thank God for YouTube,
because I mean I really learned mostof what like how we've modeled the
farm off of YouTube and from afew good books, and there's highs and
lows with that. That's what Iwould say kind of is the good,
Like my highlight of our life outhere too, is like we are constantly
learning, You're constantly trying to dobetter. You're surrounded by things you enjoy
(05:55):
doing, even when they're not funto do. You still the overall is
that you enjoy doing it. Butyeah, we're constantly trying to figure out
different ways to do things better ormore efficiently or just well yeah, there's
because there's there's the farm as thisorganism with animals and meat and the planting
(06:18):
grasses and all these things, andand and and then there's the side of
the farm that it still has tobe a business. And uh, you
know, Carol and I definitely likehave different wheelhouses in that regard. But
I enjoy all of it. ButI'm also an entrepreneurial guy, and so
the challenges that it's presented in termsof Okay, it's one thing to throw
(06:42):
money at a piece of land andproduce beef and eggs, but how do
you do that sustainably and profitably ina way that can support your family is
a totally different question. And that'snot easy, and none of it's easy,
and so I enjoy just that it'sa multifaceted challenge. And let me
just say this, we are neverboard that's perfect. That's perfect, And
(07:02):
you have to find people to buyyour products. So tell me where you
can get the eggs and the beefand the pork and whatever else your farm
is growing and producing. We shipour meats nationwides. You can you can
buy through our website, you canpick up at the farm ordering through the
website. Shirttail Creek Farms Shirttail CreekFarms, No s Shirtail creekfarm dot com.
(07:28):
Yeah, perfect. And then we'vegot stores in Austin called Local Pastures
and that we've opened where you canbuy the products and a lot of other
farm products too. And we'll probablyhave one of those Comedy Houston before long.
But yeah, we have. Wehave you know, different delivery services
farmhouse delivery dot com and that youcan order our products through as well.
(07:49):
So if you listen, if youwant to try, and I know I've
had farm eggs before because I've hadyour eggs before. That yolk is not
yellow. That yolk is like abright orange, and it's because of what
they feed on naturally on your land. Well, it's it's that. And
it's also that we have a custommilled ration that's high in the class of
(08:11):
carotenoids that drive that orange yolk color. So we add things like alfalfa,
americ old paprika to our chicken feet. They're all natural, of course,
and they give a baseline for thatdarker yolk color. But we also plant
high carotenoid forages like turnips and cloverand leafy greens, contrary to what you
(08:31):
might think, actually have a lotof carotenoids. So that's amazing. Well,
I encourage our viewers to check youout, and it's Shirttail Creekfarm dot
com. I was also Carolyn onyour Instagram, so I see what you
guys are doing. You've got somegreat videos up there. You're like,
you know what we would see onHGTV, and yet you're right here in
(08:52):
the Brendam area. I love it. I love it so but you But
the good part is life is neverboring. The bad part is you can
never go on vacation. I'm justgonna take care of your animals happen.
Yeah, and how last, butnot least, how about the kids?
(09:13):
How did they like it? Whathave you? You know? Do you
feel good inside that this choice waswas just an amazing choice for your kids?
Yeah? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. They love they I mean Django
particularly loves the freedom of biking aroundour farm, stomping around our farm the
(09:35):
mud hills when they were like threeand one, I mean they were worse
than the pigs. But like we, I mean where we we were living
in central Austin, which is agreat area, but we realized pretty quickly
we could never let the kids runloose. There's you know, people cutting
through to get to downtown or getto the highway. Uh and uh and
so it was. It was tough. And I grew up in the suburbs
(09:56):
of Houston, riding my bike inthe woods and then playing the creeks,
and there's a lot of undeveloped landaround us, and so I wanted my
kids to have that kind of freedom. Of course, now they've got ten
x that amount of freedom, andthey don't appreciate it like we do,
but they will. And I thinkit was a very good move for the
kids. Yeah, that is excellent. I was watching Chip and Jojo games
(10:16):
and Chip Chip because what they're oldestis now off in college, and Joanne
is like, oh my god,this is so depressing, and Chip's like,
go away, go find yourself,and if you want to come back,
is that the way you two aregoing to be with your kids.
Go away, go find yourself,and if you want to help out on
the farm, come on back whenyou're ready. For sure. Yeah.
(10:37):
Ellie's already told us specifically she wantsto live in a high rise in la
and have a pug, and wehave you never know, that is funny.
And then she'll be back after ayear. You watch, she'll be
back after a year. Well,but I think it's Yeah, in all
(10:58):
seriousness, I think, you know, setting the example from the kids.
They see us working hard, theysee what goes into producing food. They
understand all that, and I thinkthat will add value to their perspective as
they become adults, you know,and they see where their food comes from.
That doesn't happen in the way thatwe live our lives. It's all
freshly packaged at the grocery store andwe never know what happened to make it
(11:20):
get there. So one education you'regiving your kids. And I just wanted
to thank you for coming on.I wanted to hear your story. You're
living my dream and one day,who knows, maybe my husband and I
will have a chat and I'll belike Bob, let's do I don't think
he really wants to work that hard, though, quite friend, I would.
(11:41):
Yeah, you guys so much.It's a delight talking to you,
and we're going to get all yourinformation. Is where can we find you
on Instagram? What was is itjust Shirttail Creek Farm? Yep? Our
Instagram and yeah we're on Twitter asyour Tail Creek Farm as well, all
that stuff so perfect perfect, Well, it's nice to talk with you and
(12:01):
the happiest of holidays. I hopeyou enjoy you do. Thanks a lot,
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.