Building Dreams: The Journey to Shiner Bluestem

Join us as we dive into the inspirational journey of Ross and Patricia Tieken, the dynamic duo behind Shiner Bluestem. Discover how their vision transformed from a simple furniture store idea into a thriving community hub offering locally crafted goods and delicious homemade treats.

In this episode, Ross and Patricia share their challenges, from the initial doubts before opening Bluestem to the creative evolution of their store. Learn about the unique architectural design inspired by the rolling hills of Shiner Prairie and the intricate balance of sustaining a family farm while running a business.

Explore the importance of community, the joy of creating, and the heartfelt mission to make Shiner Bluestem a welcoming place for everyone. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a lover of local crafts, or simply curious about the life behind a successful small business, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I know the week before we opened Bluestem, you know, Ross called me and just
said, what am I doing? What have I done to our family?
You know, I've forced this building. I've spent three and a half years and probably
no one's even going to come.
It started out as a labor of love and then ended up as just a labor.

(00:20):
I want everyone to be able to buy something from the store. I want We want everyone
to be welcome in our store.
And so trying to be a good business person and also be a good community person
and just be a good person.
My dad and his brother and sister was there having to continuously put money
into the farm, you know, to keep it going.

(00:44):
It was one of the reasons why we developed, you know, Blue Stem.
Artists are different and they have and the beauty that they create.
And so somebody who's creating beauty is in a different realm than I am.
They see the world differently.
They don't see the world like I see it.
I guess, what are the challenges y'all are currently facing?

(01:06):
Music.
Exhaustion. Thank you for watching.
If i'm giving people a basic overview ross like you're an architect you've been
a woodworker for years and you kind of you work both in creative but i'm gonna

(01:28):
call it creative function,
is is basically what you do and patricia you've kind of gone like this whole journey,
journey from homeschool mom, housemaker, then you went into waitressing and,
and then kind of did this journey till now y'all are, you're kind of running Bluestem.

(01:48):
How did you, how did, how did y'all come up with the idea for Bluestem originally?
Originally the store, the Bluestem was going to be a furniture store.
And so we started out with me wanting to build custom furniture and do that full time.

(02:09):
And so we got into the design portion of the building and.
That was basically how it started.
It started as a furniture store and then morphed into what it is today because

(02:30):
we were afraid that Patricia was going to get bored and sitting inside a furniture
store waiting for someone to come in. Which she does often.
You see her just kind of dazing off.
Yes. The next thing you know, she's picking daisies all the way throughout.
She's petting the pigs. You just never know where she ends up.
That's true. That's true.
And so we were, we were, I was concerned that she was going to be bored.

(02:54):
And so she asked if we could, you know, design a commercial kitchen.
And that she, the idea was that she would occasionally bake some cookies or,
you know, bake something.
And, you know, it would be something for people to come and,
you know, enjoy when they came into the store. And then it just kind of went nuts after that.

(03:16):
You know, the once baking once a week became baking, you know, cookies on Wednesday.
You know, casseroles on Wednesday and Thursday, you know, pie day on Friday,
you know, cinnamon rolls and cookies and, you know, breads on Saturday.

(03:37):
And it just kind of morphed into, you know, something totally different. front.
So Patricia, so what are we going to call that? Are we going to just call that,
you know, Patricia's perpetual boredness, you know, calendar is just going to
keep going, you know, her impatience is going to be forever.
I haven't figured out still what I'm going to do when I grow up.

(03:59):
So why add, why keep adding to your, to your load?
Most people like get rid of it and you're just like, Oh, well,
you know, I can always do something.
No, I don't. It's not really like, Like, it didn't really happen like that. When...
When we were, when I was homeschooling the kids, I was working at night,
three nights a week, waiting tables one night, and I did bookkeeping for a restaurant two nights.

(04:24):
And then as the kids got older and older, and I realized they were all,
we sent them all to public high school, I needed to figure out what I wanted to do.
So we, ahead of time, started farming. farming
we've always had this idea of how can
we make this piece of land something that

(04:45):
the two of us and our family can live on and something that
our children will want when we're gone and so we thought of farming one time
the one one thing about ross is that if i say i like this thing i have to be
super careful because he will get it so if i say oh look at these cute large
black hogs They're supposed to be really good meat.

(05:08):
Then we have someone driving from Missouri bringing us two large black hogs or three.
And so we started with three large black hogs. And then we decided that I was going to start.
We were both going to farm for beef and pork.
And I was going to start selling beef and pork. And so our son was at Rice University at the time.

(05:30):
And they had a farmer's market. I got in there. And we started doing that.
Then, Ross started building the building, and that took, like,
three and a half years to build.
For good reason. Oh, yes. It's a little complicated, and Ross,
you know, Ross had some help, but at the last year of the building,

(05:52):
he had to completely stop taking work because there's no way he was ever going to finish it.
And then all of our kids have helped us throughout, and then Marshall helped us.
Too. But then the building went up and we thought it would be very slow.
And so I kept going to farmer's market. When we opened the store,
we were closed Tuesdays and I would be at a farmer's market at Rice University on Tuesday.

(06:19):
And then Saturday he would come in to the store and I would go to downtown in
River Oaks area, Houston, and go to a farmer's market.
And then the store just started like taking off and I had to quit the Tuesday market.
And then he started making bagels once a month.

(06:39):
That became a monster and he couldn't do it by himself really.
And so I stopped going to the farmer's market one Saturday a month.
And then I stopped going to farmer's markets all together because Ross's Saturday
baking day is just very big.
Like this last Saturday, he made like 140 cinnamon rolls and,
you know, tons of bread and cookies.

(07:01):
And so it's just sort of happening.
I'm not willing it into existence.
Before we get too far from it, I do want to talk because like people are coming,
but then also how you designed the outside, which is really interesting.
Unique. Definitely stands out. If you've ever looked at the woodshop,

(07:25):
okay, the woodshop is three tiers, three arched tiers.
And the woodshop was a celebration of the rolling hills of the Shiner Prairie.
And so the basic idea behind Bluestem was that it was going to be a celebration
of the valleys because you can't have hills without valleys.

(07:47):
And so, you know, that's the general, you know, like the swoops of the roof
and the way that they intersect is to emphasize the valleys.
The interesting thing about the building is that it is built and designed using
the golden section. I was going to ask. Okay.

(08:08):
Yeah. So the golden section has a ratio of one to 1.618.
And so each room and all the arches, they're all in proportion to each other.
So the small room is proportional to the next room, proportional to the main room.

(08:30):
The size of the arches, the radius of the arches between the three different
tiers are all proportional. And I use that proportion throughout the entire building.
And so even in the main room where we have that balcony, the height of it is

(08:50):
set using the golden section.
Just everything in there is based off the golden ratio or the golden section.
And so that was part of the driving factor of the way it got laid out.
So at any point when you were building this thing, did you think,
you know what, I'm making my life too hard and I should probably stop? No.

(09:14):
I said it. Yeah, Patricia said it.
It's important to me that buildings beautify the natural landscape, okay?
And so, you know, it's always, you know, something I strive for is to beautify

(09:37):
the landscape, you know, in addition to the landscape, not something that clashes
with it, you know, necessarily.
I had one architect that came up to me about the wood shop, and that was probably
the nicest compliment that he could have given me.
And he said, it just looks like it belongs.
And so, I mean, that was quite a compliment.

(10:00):
You know, as a designer, just to have something that looks like it belongs,
you know, on the rolling hills of the Shiner Prairie was pretty fantastic.
Right. Has anyone ever come to you afterwards and been like,
can you build that for me?
We've had several people come in and ask about, you know, doing design similar,
but I don't think anybody realizes the amount of work that it takes to actually build something.

(10:27):
I was going to say, if you'd ever like done the bid out and like just looked
at the sticker shock of what that actually would be.
Yeah. No. I mean, it's just the number of hours that we spent,
you know, it was just, it would be too much.
Right. Yeah. I mean, for most people.
And for us, you know, it was, it was, it started out as a labor of love and

(10:49):
then ended up as just a labor.
It's just ended up as I've got to get this done, you know?
And, and so that's what that last, you know, that last year was about was,
you know, okay, we've taken, you know, a couple of years to do,
to get to this point. Let's get it complete.
And yeah. I was thinking about the design and it reminded me a lot of some of the,

(11:15):
designs that i've i've seen in dutch and
in swedish architects they like to run with that same ratio and i was just then
i was like it's like it kind of reminds me of some of the stuff that i wouldn't
i would see out in scandinavia and so i guess you just need to get like you
know start advertising like for a scandinavian billionaire,

(11:37):
you can make a home here in shiner and ship it all the way back over yeah yeah.
You talk about like how the, like nothing just happens.
I started when we, well, the first day we opened, I had made these pot pies.
I had made about 40 pot pies and I thought, well, this will last a month.

(11:59):
I made some chicken pot pies, a beef burgundy pie and a pork potato, pork and potato pie.
And they were gone, I think the first day we were open.
And so I, I was surprised.
Did y'all do like a grand opening or? We did kind of. I mean,
we didn't do a lot of advertising.
We just put it on Facebook one day and said, this is the day we're opening.

(12:22):
But we did it maybe a week or two ahead of opening because we just didn't know
if we were ever going to finish because it's just an incredible amount of work.
And so we opened and
we had all this we we sell texas made goods everything
in the stores made in texas and so
we had very little merchandise and then i had

(12:42):
that freezer with those pot pies and the pot pies just
were gone and so i made more pot pies and then they were gone and then i started
making cookies i get very bored if i have to repeat things over and over again
I don't like it yeah and so I started making other things like I started making cookies and then,

(13:06):
people were buying those. And I just came to the realization that it was a very
nice compliment, but people liked what I cooked.
And then I started watching what people were buying, and people are looking
for a unique place to shop.
We've kind of lost a lot of our shopping ability, because when you go from one

(13:26):
store to another store, it kind of looks the same, or you can kind of open your
phone, pull it up on Amazon.
But that's not really what we have in the the store. We have all of these different
contributors from all over the state of Texas.
And it just started growing from there. And now it's amazing.
It's hard for me to keep up.

(13:48):
If I bake it, people buy it. And it really is a compliment.
And I appreciate it. And I learned I learned to cook because we have four kids
and I needed to learn to cook and people like the cooking. So I just keep cooking.

(14:08):
When, when we first started out and Patricia, initially there was not a,
there was not a commercial bakery in the building and the design.
Right. And so Patricia said, can you, can you design in a kitchen?
And, you know, so I, I blew out one wall so we could squeeze everything in there.

(14:31):
And Patricia, you know, came to me, I said, so what are you going to be doing?
And she said, well, if I'm going to cook for people, I'm going to cook this certain way.
And so, you know, she said, we're going to use organic ingredients,
you know, as much as possible. You know, we're going to, you know,
I'm going to, you know, bake this, but I'm not going to bake it, you know, all the time.

(14:54):
You know, she does get bored of doing the same thing over and over again.
You know, me, I can make cinnamon rolls every Saturday and I'm happy to make
them. And, you know, it's fine with me.
Patricia just isn't that way. You know, but, you know, she made a decision early
on that, you know, if she was going to bake food for other people,

(15:18):
she was going to make the absolute best food she could.
She was going to do it right, which meant, you know, more than just,
you know, doing it right, you know, from a, you know, from certain standpoints,
it was the ingredients that we're going to use,
you know, we're going to be just the best that we could find.

(15:38):
And so that's what we've done.
Everything from using our pork and beef for some of the dishes to when we go
and shop, she buys just as much organic stuff as possible.
And it really does make a difference. And so it's been really fantastic.

(16:01):
And people appreciate the effort that she goes through to make meals for them
and to create treats for them because you really can taste it. It really is amazing.
I'm sure there was a bit of growth there when it came to figuring out how to price that.
Doing it right is expensive.

(16:23):
And then making sure you have top ingredients and then making sure that you
actually price it according to both your time and also cost.
What a product like that is, which is in our world, that's a luxury product.
And the look on your face says that there's been like this. They've had a lot of arguments.
Okay, I want to hear them. Let's hear the arguments. No, I mean,

(16:45):
it's just, I want people to be able to buy them.
And I don't want it to be. And sometimes I do have something that's super expensive.
Like I made a Bailey's cheesecake, but I didn't check the price of Bailey's
before I made that cheesecake. cake.
And so I had to charge a lot more.
I think I charged $40 or something per cheesecake, which is hard for me.

(17:07):
I don't like to do that because I just don't like to.
I want everyone to be able to buy something from the store.
And so the way I figured it out is that there's a very big price range of casseroles
because I make a lot of casseroles.
So you can get a casserole that's small that's $12.50 and feeds two or three

(17:30):
people, or you can get one that's $42.
Well, not a small one. A small one's like $20 something. But I try to put a
big price range so that everybody can shop there, but I don't want to leave
people out from what I do.
And so I just want everyone to be able to buy something.

(17:51):
You know, years of probably struggling when we had kids and I don't want to,
I want everyone to be welcome in our store.
I don't want it to feel like, I remember one time Ross was standing in line
at a feed store and somebody said, have you been to Bluestem?
And they didn't know Ross was standing behind them.

(18:12):
And this one person said, oh, I heard it was just really expensive.
And I don't want it to be like that. And we do sell things that cost more when they're made in Texas.
So a bar of soap there costs more than if it was made in China. It just does.
But it's just...

(18:32):
I just want everyone to be able to come to the store.
I just want everyone who comes in to be able to find something of value,
something good, that's also something they can pay for.
It's difficult because post-COVID and during our inflationary times,

(18:54):
certain parts of our raw ingredients have increased exponentially.
It's been incredible. It's like about 200% is what I've been seeing.
Some of it's 400%. It's 400%, yeah.
And so, you know, we look at that and we talk about how it's affecting, you know, our price,

(19:14):
but we don't, we haven't passed that on, you know, completely because,
you know, it just drives things up too quickly.
Yeah, price-wise. But that kind of leaves y'all with... Less.
Yeah, it leaves y'all with the, y'all carrying the burden. People are so amazing.
They come in the store, they buy our food, which is not the biggest,

(19:36):
believe it or not, not the biggest percentage of sales.
Really? Yeah, it's the other things. We could make it. So it was the biggest percentage of sales.
We could hire somebody and we could do all those things.
But, you know, people come in and they buy a cinnamon roll, but they buy something else too.

(19:58):
And so we have raised the prices where we've had to.
With baked goods we don't charge
more for our labor than we did before but
we we have raised prices to try and
match at least most of the ingredient cost but we don't it's not like i pay
myself more per hour i just pay myself whatever i figured out i actually do

(20:22):
figure out the cost of every cookie and the time it takes me to cook it and
that's how i come up with prices.
So I haven't revisited them in a little while.
If I did, I probably would raise the prices some, but we have raised prices.
We just have, you know, some cookies are $2 more a dozen than they were three years ago.

(20:45):
That's a pretty big jump. So. Well, compared to some of the other things, that's not. I know.
We try, we try to be very conscious of, we, of course, Of course,
we're not going to do this and not survive from the income. That's just not, that's not wise.
And so trying to be a good business person and also be a good community person

(21:08):
and just be a good person. So...
Y'all have gathered together quite a few vendors, whether you're talking about
cheese and stuff that are more like kind of more farm to table,
but you also have other artisans and stuff like that that are doing stuff.
Talk to me a little bit about how y'all found those individuals.

(21:30):
When we first opened, it was a lot of people I had met at the farmer's markets.
I spent over 10 years going to farmer's markets in Houston every single week.
Like sometimes three times a week, I went to farmer's markets.
So I got to see a very wide variety of people who were farmers and also people
who made things like sauerkraut or who had honey.

(21:53):
And so when we first opened, we had a lot of those people in that connection.
A lot of it. And we still do have a lot from those farmer's markets that I met.
And then I'm kind of obnoxious in any store I go to.
I just start picking up everything to see where it's made. And if it's made

(22:15):
in Texas, I take a picture of it if I like it.
I also, somebody, I think Nicole, our daughter, taught me what a hashtag was.
So I would spend a lot of time on Instagram and I'd put in like hashtag made
in Texas, which can take you down a very bad odd place.
So you have to be careful. But there's a lot.

(22:35):
Are you telling me you don't like the bikini pictures with the stamp that says
Made in Texas on the back? Correct.
I find those a little disturbing.
But I found a lot of people that way. And then some people have just come in
the store and ask if they can bring things.
And it's a really neat, it's one of the neatest things about the store,

(22:58):
is that since it's all Texas people, and most of them are small makers that
might not have enough for a whole store for themselves,
they bring their things into our store, and they get...
You know, income from that without having to open their own store.
And you end up with a relationship with most of them, not all of them.

(23:21):
Some of them I get through wholesale, you know, sites, but most of them are
people actually know their names, the actual name, not just of their business,
but of the person who's doing it.
And so we end up with really excellent people in the the store.
So Patricia gets to a point where, you know, people come in and say,

(23:44):
you know, can you tell me something about this product?
And she can look at him and say, yes, that's, this is the artist.
This is the city they're from. This is what they do. You know,
this is how we got in contact with them.
You know, she, she has a history of a lot of the people and some of them,
you know, like we have a quilt maker that's, that's, you know, one of my cousins.

(24:07):
And, you know, so it's, It's relationships that have been either been developed
or introduced, you know, through the store.
And it's really, it really is quite spectacular. The number of people that have
come in and say, oh, a friend of a friend told me, you know,
that I might be able to come here.
And, you know, can you look at my stuff and see if it's, you know,

(24:29):
something that y'all want to sell?
And so that's, you know, what we do. And it's worked out really well.
How many of those people do you turn away? I do turn away very, very few people.
If they bring me something that just, it's very difficult for me to say no to people,
but I'm getting better about it because sometimes there's a difference,

(24:52):
I think, between like, I like crochet and we do have crocheted blankets.
But if someone brings me like a crocheted Kleenex cover, that's really nice
if your aunt made it for you.
But it's not sought after when people go shopping.
There's no real market for that. Right. Right. So it's hard for me to tell people

(25:12):
that, getting better at doing that.
I don't say no a whole lot, but I do say no. So I think when I start thinking
about like kind of artisanal vendors.
I start thinking the people that normally are in that type of work can be very unique personalities.
Let's put it that way. You don't have to say names, but have y'all had any where

(25:35):
y'all have just been like, okay, this is, this is, this is getting beyond eccentric.
Like we're going to have to, we're going to have to change how we're,
how we're doing stuff here.
There was this one person, not out this person, but who brought some photography
in and the The photography, they were canvas, but no frames,
and they weren't selling.

(25:56):
And so Ross came in and said, you know, if I frame all these,
I wonder if they'll sell. So he took all of them down.
But they were photographs. They weren't paintings. They weren't like original paintings.
And I realized an original photograph somebody took, it's definitely their property.
I get that. But when you're having it printed and put on canvas,

(26:21):
then we took a little leeway, and Ross framed them, and they started selling.
And Ross had picked all these days, he'd look at a painting,
and if it had a lot of brown in it, he would take a wood that was really brown and would match it.
And one of the ones he did was the Catholic school had torn down their old band

(26:42):
hall, and Ross had gotten a hold of some of that wood. and a lot of it had been
painted, but it looked real rustic, you know, where paint had flecked off.
If you go into our store bathroom, he used that wood all on the inside. It's really neat.
So he thought, oh, maybe somebody local would like this picture of a longhorn
in this frame with this paint. Well, they started selling.

(27:06):
Really fast. Like it went from a year not selling and then four paintings or four photographs.
And so I, that person was on consignment. So I wrote them a check and they were
very happy. They wanted to bring out more.
So they came and visited and were very upset about the frames, like really upset.

(27:26):
So I understood, at first I was like, oh, I'm sorry, you know,
that we framed them and you don't like the frames that we used.
I said, but you know, the other ones sold, but she kept going on about it.
And then finally she said, this one needs to go in the trash.
And Ross is my husband. He makes beautiful things.

(27:47):
And she didn't like the one with the paint and she just kept going on.
And then I was like, you know what? I was very nice, but I was done.
You know, if you get to the point where, you know, you can't,
you know, you can be like ugly about Ross, then I'm not gonna,
I'm not gonna tolerate that.

(28:08):
And you don't have to have your things in our store. And so it is,
it's difficult because I want to be very nice to people, but sometimes they
can be like really possessive of their, of their things.
And I can tell sometimes, like if somebody can't let go of something or they,
they've made a quilt and they put it in a bag and they bring it in and I,

(28:29):
and I take it out of the bag to look at it. And then they immediately put it back in the bag.
I'm like, Ruh-roh, it's going to be out on the bed and it's going to be touched
and picked up and seen by a million people.
Not a million, but... And so I can tell if they just can't let go of their own things.
If it's too much, then I can't handle it. And I would say artists have been our...

(28:56):
Most difficult people to deal with. It's, it's unusual to find an artist that
is also a business person.
And so, you know, you might have someone come in that, that does,
you know, incredible work, but they have, they have no idea how to price it,
you know, and, and if something sells, you know, do,

(29:18):
are you going to get a replacement for it?
Is it going to be, you know, a replacement in a couple of weeks,
or are you going to have to wait six months for the next one to come?
And so, you know, those relationships have been tough because,
and also, you know, artists have a difficult time staying, quote unquote, in business.

(29:41):
You know, so we'll have a particular artist that's supplying something,
and we're going to be selling it, and we're selling it, and then all of a sudden,
that artist, like, drops off the face of the earth, And we'll never hear from them again,
see them again. And so that's difficult.
Yeah, it really is. It's difficult dealing with the artist.

(30:03):
Patricia has a little harder time dealing with them. I have a little easier time dealing with them.
Yeah, just because my background, you know, my sister who lives out in California is an artist.
And so I kind of grew up, you know, with knowing what those,
you know, those people were like, what their attitudes were.

(30:25):
And I have some of the same attitudes myself.
And so it's a lot easier for me to say, no, we're not going to sell that.
Or no, we're not going to carry that in the store. But I think that probably
has a lot to do with you working as an architect. Probably. Because, like...
I think in similar veins, when you're working with a customer for a product,

(30:50):
even though you can put your artistic spin on things and how you think and everything
else, at the end of the day, they're still the ones paying for it.
So as painful as it is, it's like you can throw your heart out and then someone
doodles all over it and then you have to ego swallowing.
There's a lot of that.

(31:12):
Oh, sure. Sure. Absolutely.
So I think I could see you somehow having a better handle.
Well, artists are different and they have, and the beauty that they create,
I can't do that. I don't have that ability.
I, you know, I'm much more practical. I, you know, I can't even draw.

(31:34):
And so somebody who's creating beauty is in a different realm than I am.
And, you know, I'm a shortcut taker.
I'm not like Ross. Ross will go to the 110% of everything he does.
And I'm always trying to pull him, you know, how about 75%? And he doesn't go for it.

(31:59):
So it is better sometimes for him to deal with people who are just,
they see the world differently. They don't see the world like I see it.
And so Ross is better at it.
I want to move over a little bit and I want to talk to y'all a little bit about
something that was it was really interesting to me and we kind of touched on

(32:22):
it when I came out to y'all's y'all's farm to ask y'all to come on the podcast
no they didn't come here voluntarily.
And it was it was kind of surrounding y'all's social media because I think it's
been And it's kind of the flag that y'all put out every time that continually gets y'all business.

(32:43):
And, you know, especially a lot of people poo-poo off social media.
They're like, well, you have to have millions of followers and X number of this.
And y'all have kind of had a little bit of a different approach.
Y'all have mainly stayed on Facebook and Instagram.
Talk to me a little bit about that. It started just on Facebook, I think.
And then we added Instagram. Instagram, and I don't know why it works, but it does.

(33:09):
I post what we have. I post things that are in the store. A lot of times what
I really like to do is post when Ross finishes, like, a project.
I like to put that on there because, you know, they're amazing,
and people like to see them, and those are usually the things that get the most
attention. But everything else,

(33:30):
People respond very well, too. And I know I even struggle with social media
because it, of course, can have some terrible effects on people.
But newspapers, people don't read anymore. I mean, some people do.
But it isn't going to work for what I'm doing.
You're telling me you can't put pies come on Saturday. Yes. Blue Stem and Gonzales

(33:55):
Inquirer, and it's not going to work.
No, we've tried it a few times. and it really doesn't make a difference.
People like to see. I take pictures, put on what I have, and they give me a
call or send me a text, and I hold things for them, and it works out.
And that way people don't have to come out to the store until they want to come out to the store.

(34:17):
And they don't have to come looking to see if I have something.
I try to post because people get disappointed if they come out and I have nothing.
And so this way they know when I have something and I, you know,
I usually post when I sell out and it's been amazing.
It's been amazing. I put a picture on there.

(34:38):
People ask questions. They come out. They get things.
It's been amazing. But she also does more than just posts about the store.
You know, she posts about the farm, about the animals on the farm.
Farm about, you know, a couple of weeks ago, our daughter who teaches ag in

(35:00):
Houston, you know, brought 20 of her ag kids.
And so she does posts about, you know, about life on the farm,
you know, which, you know, for a lot of people is very interesting. Very exotic.
I mean, it's, you know, just things that happen on the farm don't,
you know, always happen in the city.

(35:22):
And so, you know, it's, it's, you know, those, I think it's the combination of those posts.
If it was always just about food or always just about what was for sale in the
store, I think it would get rather boring, but she sprinkles our,
our life, you know, in, in the story.
And so I think it, it makes it a lot more interesting.

(35:44):
And a lot of people just love seeing, you know, some of the posts that she does.
One recently is we had this enormous tractor-trailer rig come down the highway,
and so Patricia made a reel of it, and it just blew up on the Internet.

(36:05):
You know, people watching this rig go by Bluestem, and so it's a little bit of everything.
It's not just the food. It's not just the merchandise.
You know, it's life out on 90A.
That's what it is. Yeah. Life on the farm. You have another podcast right there.

(36:26):
Life on 98.
It's been great. I love that people, I'm interested in people's lives and their
stories and normal people just living normal lives.
And, you know, I try not to be, I try to be honest.
Like you know a lot of people say like there

(36:48):
was an article written about our farm i don't know
five six years ago in a magazine called edible houston
and it was from somebody who met me at the farmer's market and they were doing
a whole issue on women women chefs women farmers on and on so they came out
and they did this one called a little house on the shiner prairie and it was It was a big deal.

(37:12):
It ended up, I think, getting the second most looked at article for the whole
country for Edible Houston that year.
And I was worried afterwards because everybody kept coming up and saying, I want your life.
You know, I want your life. And I was like, no, no, you don't.

(37:33):
You don't. They put some pictures of cows on there and they told you the good
stuff, but it's not easy.
It's very hard. And I'm not a country girl.
And even though I've been there, we're about to be in Shiner 30 years.
And so I've been in the country for 30 years, but I'm still the most...
Afraid of the, you know, animals, the most jittery when we have to load animals.

(38:00):
I'm just, I wasn't born out there. And I do get tired of dirt.
And, you know, the house always has dirt in it, you know, from walking in and
out from being out in the pasture.
And, and so it, I try to be honest with my posts, and sometimes post the rougher
things, but not that so rough that people People get upset with me.

(38:23):
You know, they don't want to hear about animals dying or, you know, accidents happening.
But I do try to be honest. And I think maybe people like that.
I don't I don't really know.
Yeah, it's tough to be like, you know, there's mincemeat pies.
And by the way, Billy got his leg chewed off in the hay baler yesterday.
You're side by side. Mincemeat pie? That's what was left of his leg.

(38:48):
I know it. I know it.
Oh, man. It's a crazy life. It's a crazy life.
Isn't it odd? There is like this huge shift of like, all they want to do is
they want to go out, buy a small 10 acre farm somewhere, live out on the country.

(39:10):
There's a real romanticism to that.
Way of living. Romanticism is a very good word for it, because people come out with a very,
you know, they have a kind of a, what do you call it, a sky,
you know, idea in the sky of what living on a farm is going to be like,

(39:32):
or what raising cattle is going to be like.
And then they buy a couple of cows, and then they find out that it's not exactly
what they have envisioned, or not exactly what they saw on the television show.
Are you telling me you're not laying down with your cows in the middle of the
pasture, singing sweet lullabies to the cow as you're rocking its head side

(39:53):
to side as a baby calf moves in the background, calling your name?
Ross, are you telling me that's not what's happening? That's not what's happening.
There are times where we get to touch noses with the cows and do fun stuff like
that, But there are times where, you know, you wake up at two o'clock in the
morning because you hear a cow,

(40:15):
you know, bellowing and you go, something's not right. Yeah.
Prolapsed uterus or just whatever, you know, lost a calf or a calf,
you know, crawled under a fence, went to the other side, can't get back across.
And the cow is just sitting there just, you know, bellowing away.
You know, swallowed barbed wire. I mean.

(40:36):
Yeah, so it's not all fun and games.
And people find that out very quickly. They really do.
But the grass is always greener. Yeah. You know, I think sometimes,
wouldn't it be nice to live in an apartment with no yard?
Or wouldn't it be nice to have one of those houses where they just,
instead of having a yard, they just put all rocks and just pebbles. There's nothing to mow.

(41:01):
I'm thinking that's pretty good. There's no weeds. There's no thistle.
There's no snakes always going through the grass. That's right. That's right.
I have this one little spot in the front yard in which I try to keep plants. I try really hard.
And chickens, if they find a way in there, they eat all my plants.
And then I try to block out the chickens.

(41:23):
And then now we have piglets that get out of the fence. And then they come and
eat my plants. And that's essentially my life.
It's just trying to get the animals to stop eating the things they're not supposed to.
You should just have Ross make you like one of those raised platforms.
Kind of like you do for bears. You know, about 16 feet in the air,

(41:44):
suspended on two ropes with like four poles, skinned bark.
And you just have a ladder. You can go up and like, this is Patricia's safety
spot. This is her little hidey place.
All he has to do is keep the crows away and you'll be fine. We'll put some chicken
wire up there. You'll be fine. I'll put that on the list.

(42:04):
Oh man. Fish's hideout. Tricia needs a hideout.
Ross takes so much more naturally to the farm and to most things,
but the farm especially.
You know, we'll load cattle to take to processing and I will be just so stressed
out from the whole loading process.
And I'll be worried about the drive that we have to take and,

(42:27):
you know, making sure we're all safe.
And Ross will be in the back, you know, petting the animal, saying thank you to the animal.
You know, it's completely, we're, we're very different.
We're very different. That's a good thing. And y'all have kind of made a concerted
effort, not just for Aaron, but kind of for all your kids.
This is a place where like the generations will kind of continue.

(42:50):
So I'm, I'm kind of interesting because like succession planning is not the easiest thing to do.
And yet y'all have kind of had that in mind for a while. So can you talk to
me a little bit about that process and like what obstacles kind of come in y'all's
way and how y'all navigate?
I would say that it's always been forefront in our mind just because the farm

(43:16):
used to be, when my grandfather purchased the farm, it was 212 acres.
And then when my father, his brother and his sister, when my grandfather passed
away, you know, they basically split the farm into thirds.
And so each of them sold off, you know, their portion, you know, of the farm.

(43:37):
And so we didn't want that to happen, but we wanted the farm to stay, you know, in the family.
And so our efforts have been to improve the farm financially in such a way that it doesn't.
It doesn't cost, it won't cost the kids anything to keep the farm, okay?

(44:03):
So that was always the driving factor with my dad and his brother and sister
was they were having to continuously put money into the farm,
you know, to keep it going.
And so we're doing things to make it so that the farm is producing enough income

(44:24):
to where it's sustainable.
And so the pigs came in to help that with the farmer's markets.
It was one of the reasons why we developed Blue Stem, was,
you know, to just keep on adding value to the farm to where either the kids

(44:46):
could ultimately rent those places out for income or they could take them over themselves,
you know, for income and keep the farm, you know, in operation.
It's nearly impossible to make a 97-acre piece of land sustainable.
It is very small. But it means something to our family.

(45:10):
And Ross's mom is still living and it means something to her.
And it just means it means something to our entire family. And so to make it
so that it'll be hard for the kids to let go,
not just because of the memories that they've had on the farm,
but because it will hurt their pocketbooks, too, if they let it go.

(45:33):
Maybe it'll help them for a little bit.
But if the four of them share that piece of property, that they can get income
from it, that would be incredible.
Well, I mean, right now you have, you know, woodwork, blacksmith,
all you need is leather and textile.
And then you have like a whole ecosystem kind of going on.

(45:53):
We're working on it. We have a pretty big project coming. Yeah,
so the next project is a barniminium, which will be built directly over the
barn that my grandfather built.
We'll basically tear it down to its bones and build an operating barn on the
lower structure, on the lower part. It's a two-story building.

(46:17):
The lower part of the building will remain a quote-unquote working traditional barn.
Barn is that the upper part, which is going to be a gambrel style barn,
will have rooms in it to be rent out for a barnominium.
And so that, that is, you know, one of the, one of the projects that's,

(46:39):
that's coming up, the next project that's coming up and then the last project. Nope.
I love it. No.
Yeah, years ago, I had written a paper when I was on the Shiner Main Street

(47:02):
Committee about developing an artist community,
you know, in the city of Shiner, you know, using some of the old empty structures that were in the city.
And that never came to fruition, but slowly we've been turning the farm into that vision.
And, you know, Aaron has picked up that yoke, I guess.

(47:28):
And, you know, so, you know, there are visions to have, you know,
the next thing he'd like to add would be a glass blowing and pottery out there.
We've, we've, for whatever reason, and it's kind of strange,
you know, we're right next to Yoakum, but we, we haven't been able to actually

(47:48):
market or sell leather goods very well for whatever reason.
And I'm not sure why that is. There are projects even beyond that,
that are coming down the pike that I don't want to quite guess yet because,
you know, those are, those are They're long-term projects.
You know, I'm 58 years old. And, you know, so for me to be looking down the road,

(48:13):
you know, I always try to look down the road 10 to 12 years and go,
you know, okay, what can I get done, you know, in the next 10 to 12 years?
Well, in 12 years, I'm going to be 70. And so I'm sitting there going,
what construction projects can I be doing when I'm 70 years old?
And so it's it's you know it's

(48:36):
really at the same time that i'm
saying please i'm almost 70 at that point yeah yeah and so you know i'm always
i'm always the one that's that's looking you know as far down the road as i
can you know planning these projects you know i I sit in my office,

(48:56):
draw things up on AutoCAD, just looking at, okay, how can I do this? How can I do that?
How can I build this? How can I build that?
It'll be different. Just the whole multiplex. Oh, it's gonna be interesting.
By the time it's all said and done, it's gonna be interesting.

(49:19):
He likes to torture me because I just want it all to end and I want to travel
some. I want to do some things like that.
But even this last Saturday, we're exhausted because we stay up a little too late Friday.
But we try to go to bed by 9 on Friday because we get up at 3 on Saturday,

(49:39):
3 or 4 in that range to go bake.
And so then we're there till 5.30 p.m. Sometimes we get to take naps, but sometimes we don't.
And so I'm a mess Saturday night.
Like, I'm known to just ramble into sleep saying who knows what.
But as we were driving away, he's like, just 14 more years. He just tortures me.

(50:08):
He thinks he's going to convince me to work till I'm 70. It's not going to work.
In my mind i was i was imagining myself working
till i was 72 you know and and
and so it just i i don't
know why but it always seemed like just the magic number to me that was that

(50:30):
was that was the right one yeah and so you know it makes him happy he's very
happy when he works yeah so i just that's that's what i said i just i keep on
looking at as just you know about this next project?
How many years is it going to take me to complete this project?
Okay. Once that one's completed, how long is it going to take me to do the next one? And so on.

(50:52):
And so I told the kids, you know, I don't know, six or eight months ago,
I told them, I've got four major projects left in me and, you know, physically left in me.
And so, you know, they know what I want to do and, you know,
we'll see if we, you know, I'll see how, how close I can get.

(51:14):
And it's going to be interesting.
And, you know, architecturally, they're going to be just, just really fantastic.
I mean, they really are. They're just going to be interesting buildings.
Interesting to look at, and, and they're going to be a lot of fun.
So I have two questions off of this, right? Which is number one,

(51:34):
because y'all have been been working together for so long, which is husband
and wife duos tend to either be wonderful,
or they tend to be the hell on earth.
One of the two. What has been y'all's conflict resolution systems off of that?
And then because y'all are wanting to bring more of your kids into this whole

(51:58):
project, what has been kind of like y'all's planning for...
Conflict resolution and kind of
the future and how you maintain order and individuality at the same time?
Conflict resolution between the two of us. To be really honest, it's been wonderful.
Like I, we've been, I mean, when I was homeschooling, he was building cabinets,

(52:22):
and sometimes after the kids. On the property. On the property.
He was there in and out all day long. And then sometimes the kids would be working.
We'd take a day off of school to to sand cabinets, stain cabinets, deliver cabinets.
And we've always worked, all six of us, together extremely well.

(52:43):
I don't know why, but we all have certainly lots of fights and arguments.
But it has been wonderful.
We've had to learn to work around certain things.
Ross has already worked out an entire project in his head before he ever mentions the project.
So that's hard for me because I need some time, you know?

(53:06):
Heidi's laughing in the corner because she looked over at me and she's like,
we're both looking at each other because that's what I do.
I literally will sit there and be quiet for days, maybe a couple months.
Maybe years. Yeah, and I'll have worked out every detail and I'll be like, it's time.
And Heidi goes, well, what about? And I'm like, just mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.
It's already worked out.

(53:27):
It's all worked out. Yeah, I need some time.
Ross has learned to at least inform me of things he might be thinking about.
Oh, okay. I'm going to write that down. Yes. Ways to avoid height. Yes. Yes.
So, you know, that helps a lot.
Men and women are very different and they think differently.

(53:50):
And the faster we accept that and try to work around that and the better it is.
But as far as the kids go, we're trying to be like Aaron.
We're bringing Aaron in on decisions.
There are times when I say, no, I'm not going to do that.
Aaron would like to have 4,000 pigs on the farm and I would like to have two.

(54:14):
And so right now, I'm winning.
We have a smaller, we're reducing the size of our pig herd. But as...
We get older, I hope that we will be more welcoming to our kids' ideas and more.
And we are like, you know, there are several of the kids, all the kids help, all the kids help.

(54:39):
When we built Bluestem, Ross, our son, and Rachel, his wife, helped pick the name.
Rachel designed the Bluestem logo, painted the front door with the logo.
She and he have been absolutely integral in the ideas about the store and the Texas-made part.

(55:00):
And, you know, I ask Ross's advice all of the time, little Ross.
Nicole helped build. Abby spent an entire summer off of college building that roof with Ross.
They spent every day in the massive heat building that roof,
and it took an entire summer.
Aaron helped with the build. And they're very helpful people.

(55:24):
We get along most of the time. You know, we're pretty good. I think conflict
resolution is probably the fact that we're pretty honest with our kids.
If our kids can't sing and they say, I want to sing a solo, chances are there's
going to be somebody that says, you can't sing.
I love you, but don't do it.
And so we're pretty good about when there

(55:46):
was one of Ross's friends used to call it
like the dinner shaming and we're not mean but there's
an honesty there's a lot of honesty in the in the house both toward the kids
and toward the parents the kids will tell us when we're wrong and when we're
and I think we've all learned to do it nicely but to understand everybody's

(56:06):
strengths and weaknesses the weaknesses We all pick on, but not in a mean way.
So we seem to do all right for a family of six people.
That doesn't mean we don't have fights. We have big ones, but most of the time
we get along and we figure it out.
I think we work off of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

(56:29):
You know, we recognize that Ross has, you know, very specific strengths,
and we, you know, utilize those.
You know, Nicole is, you know, very different from Ross.
Abby is very different from the other two, and Aaron's totally different from the rest of them.

(56:51):
You'll have four very unique children. Yes, they are. Yes, they are.
They are each very much individual. Yes, they are.
You know, one time we did that personality test and there's 12 or 14 personalities and we each have...
No one has a copy. No one has an overlap. And so they're four very different people.

(57:13):
And Patricia and I are, you mentioned conflict resolution.
We do sit down and talk about things.
There are certain decisions that I'd leave 100% up to Patricia.
She literally does run the store.
She does the ordering. She does the inventory. She does all of that stuff.

(57:37):
And so I really stay out of that realm of the merchandise, you know, part of the store.
And then, you know, what she cooks is what she cooks because she wants to cook.
Look, you know, I come in on Saturday.
I always tell people, you know, I'm a part-time employee.
I just come in on Saturday and do my thing, you know, because really Patricia

(58:01):
is responsible for the store.
She really is. And so those types of decisions, sometimes she won't even,
you know, mention, you know, how much she's spending on, you know,
like ordering jewelry from a certain vendor.
Her because she knows that I would just blow my top, you know,

(58:22):
so she's... That's conflict resolution.
So she just doesn't say anything. Yeah, it's like... Just do what you want.
Yeah. And so... Can we have that kind of relationship?
I just do what I want and no one blows their top. Yeah, it's,

(58:42):
you know, sometimes... I think it's just a matter of trust at this point.
Yes, it is. Trust me. Yeah. And I trust him.
Like, I know. Like, if it's going to, Ross is going to do it the hard way,
and it's going to be the better way.
And it's going to turn out. So just let him do it.
But I do put my foot down. They know that I have my limits to what I can handle.

(59:04):
I'm just, I just have limits to what a project is going to do to us,
you know, and how hard it is.
And it's, I hope I'm not making it sound like it's all easy. It's not.
I know the week before we opened Bluestem, you know, Ross called me and just
said, what am I doing? What have I done to our family?

(59:26):
You know, I've forced this building. I've spent three and a half years and probably
no one's even going to come.
And, you know, and then I have to take responsibility.
The spot of saying, it's going to be great. Even though I might be thinking,
I think you're crazy too.
But it works out. And so it's not, it's not easy.

(59:49):
You know, Ross doesn't do things. Ross isn't a little thing person. He does big things.
And that's just the way he is. His mind thinks big.
Everything has vision and and
long-term thoughts you
know and i'm i'm just like right now
right now i need that right now take me to the beach or i'm

(01:00:11):
gonna you know fall apart you know that's that's how we are so it works out
we lucked out we met each other in high school and it's been a good it's been
a good thing been a good run so what are the challenges that you are i guess
what What are the challenges y'all are currently facing? Exhaustion.

(01:00:32):
It is hard to stand for me.
This is my challenges. Ross will have totally different challenges.
But I am 56 years old, and I stand for 10 to 12 hours a day.
And it's been good for me. The first year was almost impossible for me to do it.
Standing takes a whole other set of muscles that took a while to kick in.

(01:00:57):
So, you know, not wearing myself completely out, but we sleep like babies and
we sleep at least eight hours a night.
We are most people say when you're 45, you can kiss sleeping goodbye,
but that's not how it is for us. We are very tired. It's like work harder and you'll sleep better.

(01:01:17):
Yes, work hard, work really physically hard.
So exhaustion is probably my number one.
Just trying to keep up and not be exhausted all the time.
So that's my challenge. And keeping Ross from building 30,000 things.
My challenge, to be honest with you, is it is a realization that I'm running out of time.

(01:01:42):
I'm 58 years old. I have all these ideas in my mind of things that I want to
do and accomplish. and I just see myself, you know, running out of time.
And I'm about to, in just a couple weeks, have my next birthday.

(01:02:03):
You know, I'll be 59 years old.
It was a realization that, you know, I start qualifying for the senior citizens
discounts at certain things
and realizing that, you know, my grandfather passed away, you know, in his 60s.

(01:02:24):
My dad passed away in his 60s.
You know, I've tried to make better health decisions, but at the same time,
I realized that, you know, I'm running out of time.
And, you know, so that's a big challenge for me, you know, just mentally for
me, you know, waking up in the morning saying to myself, what can I get done today?

(01:02:47):
Putting my head down every night, thanking God for the work that I was able
to get accomplished that day.
We pray every night. And part of that prayer, you know, is, you know,
thank you for what I was able to do today and get accomplished today.
So when I get sick and stuff, it really picks me off because it's days that

(01:03:09):
I don't get to go out and do, you know, stuff that I know needs to be done or that I want to get done.
You know, as far as other challenges, you know, you know, a lot of it,
a lot of it has to do with, with, you know, of course the current,
you know, cost of things, you know, it's, it's hard to see our costs,

(01:03:32):
you know, constantly increasing because it, you know, it just makes things,
farther and farther out of reach.
And you have to wait longer and longer before you can get to the point where
you can afford that next piece of equipment, that next piece of wood, everything like that.

(01:03:55):
So that is a challenge that we do have to think about. And,
So for me, that's the biggest thing. I am in exhaustion.
We look at life very differently. Simple problems. You know,
because Ross is exhausted too, but that's just not how he, he just, he just keeps going.

(01:04:15):
And, you know, he focuses on something else. And so that's what makes him who he is.
One side, basically what you're working on is figuring out sustainability.
The other one's like, I need to speed up because I'm running out of time.
Like screw sustainability, burn the candles both ends. I got stuff to do. Yes.
It's like, it's like I was, I was, we went to the service today,

(01:04:38):
memorial service today, and I was talking to an old friend of ours.
And, you know, we go on vacation.
But when we go on vacation, we go 100% on vacation.
I mean, we're there, you know, we forget about everything that we do.
But when we're on vacation, we work really hard to have fun.

(01:04:59):
And so by the time we get back off of vacation, we're pretty exhausted.
I know y'all enjoy all this, but when it comes down to exhaustion and it comes
down to fulfilling vision, why do you keep doing that?
I keep doing the farm because I want the farm to stay in the family.

(01:05:20):
From an architectural standpoint, I'd like to add beauty to the world.
And we could have thrown up a metal building and slapped bluestem on the side,

(01:05:41):
and maybe it would be just as successful as it is today.
Day, but the number of people that have actually, you know, driven by Blue Stem
and the wife or the husband says, stop, turn around, let's go check out that building.

(01:06:04):
Because, and for the people that stop and they just want to come and see the building.
It just blows me away, you know, that people actually stop because they saw
something that they want to, you know, they want to explore,

(01:06:24):
you know, for, you know, just other aspects of it.
But those are my two, you know, big driving, you know, factors is the farm,
the architecture, and then, you know, my family.
You know, I want to build something and have something for the kids that they

(01:06:44):
can all enjoy, you know, together.
Other, you know, whether it's them or their children,
you know, to have a place, you know, that they can call,
you know, that they can go, this is our home and know that,
you know, it's theirs and that they can keep it and hold on to it and that no

(01:07:09):
one can take it away from them is important to me.
You know, that they have that anchor in their lives where they just always know
this is our home. This is where we belong.
And so that's what drives me. It's a tough question.
Part of the practical side is that we need an income.

(01:07:31):
And this is my job. I'm lucky that I get to do a job that I like. I like to cook.
One of the reasons I don't repeatedly cook the same things over and over every
week is because that would make me crazy and it would rob me of the joy part of working.

(01:07:52):
But the truth is, it's a job. I do it every day because I need to do it every day.
And I think that that's the reason most people work, or at least a lot of people
work, because it puts food on the table and they keep doing it because they
have to feed their family.
And that's part of why I do it. Part of the reason I do it is people are very nice.

(01:08:17):
And they say, thank you so much. I can't tell you how many people say,
thank you for cooking for us.
That is an amazing gift that I didn't realize I would get from people.
But how many people say, thank you. Thank you for cooking for me.
Thank you for making these cookies.
Thank you for doing this. That is, I don't have Ross's talents and to be able

(01:08:42):
to do something so simple and yet makes people happy.
That's just, that's a, an amazing gift.
I think you set yourself short there. There is a certain amount of, I tell Patricia, I said,
There is an honor in making food for people.

(01:09:05):
There's responsibility, of course, keeping things clean, wiping things down,
doing all those mechanical things.
But there's truly an honor of someone trusting you to prepare their food for you or for them.
And them taking that home and feeding, you know, themselves,

(01:09:30):
their husband, their children, you know, there is honor in that.
And so, you know, Patricia, to me, has a very, you know, honorable job and the
food that she prepares and the things that she makes.
It's really one of those warm, fuzzy feelings for me that people come in and

(01:09:51):
trust us to give them nutritional,
very, very well-made food.
And like I said, there's just a lot of honor in that. I love cooking.
And that's mostly why I do it. I get the return when somebody buys something and they liked it.

(01:10:15):
I'm getting something amazing from that. And I think it probably has to do with
just the general personality of me or even not all women, but most women do like to be,
to do things for other people. That's why women shop.
It's not even half the time for themselves. They like to buy gifts for people.

(01:10:37):
They like to give a gift to their teachers or their friends or whatever.
They like to buy gifts for people. That's just the way they are.
But I spent all those years doing what I thought was the most important thing
in my whole life, which was raising a family.
And to me, being able to just cook for people, if it makes them happy,
you know, that's just icing on the cake.

(01:10:58):
Life has to be fun for me or I can't do it. Now, if people want to find out
more about Bluestem, where do they go?
Everything we have is actually available online. Oh, nice. And we do ship,
but that's at shinerbluestem.com.
But everything's under Shiner Bluestem. There is a big company called Bluestem,
which is why we don't have it as just bluestem.com because there's some giant

(01:11:19):
manufacturing business called Bluestem.
So it's Shiner Bluestem. So Shiner Bluestem on Facebook, Shiner Bluestem on
Instagram, and shinerbluestem.com on the internet.
Guys, thank you all so much for coming in. Thanks for inviting us. Thank you.
Music.