All Episodes

July 14, 2025 74 mins

Reconnecting with the land doesn't mean you have to do it all at once. Dirk Tanner of Tanner Farmstead shares his practical wisdom on finding balance in the homesteading journey.

"I think there's valuable skills that we've lost in today's day and age that our grandparents had," Dirk reflects early in our conversation. His journey from suburban upbringing to homesteader wasn't motivated by apocalyptic concerns, but rather a desire to reclaim connection with food production and traditional knowledge.

What makes Dirk's perspective so refreshing is his balanced approach. Rather than promoting complete self-sufficiency (which he acknowledges is nearly impossible), he advocates starting with manageable projects that bring joy. A garden and some chickens provide the perfect entry point for most people. From there, Dirk offers counterintuitive wisdom about prioritizing ruminant animals like sheep that convert grass into meat efficiently, rather than the grain-dependent chickens and pigs that many homesteaders focus on first.

Throughout our conversation, Dirk shares practical insights on everything from water systems (rainwater collection may be more practical than expensive well drilling), to food preservation strategies (focusing on naturally storage-friendly crops), to the honor system farm stand he once operated. His experience scaling back from commercial farming to homesteading highlights an important reality: sometimes less truly is more.

Beyond the practical aspects, Dirk speaks eloquently about how homesteading has connected him to the cycles of life and death, deepened his faith, and created opportunities for meaningful community. His ultimate goal isn't just self-sufficiency, but creating lasting memories with his family and teaching his children to be connected to reality in ways that modern convenience often obscures.

Whether you're a seasoned homesteader or just curious about growing your first tomato, Dirk's approachable wisdom offers valuable perspective on slowing down and rewilding your life, one small step at a time. Check out Tanner Farmstead across social media platforms for more homesteading content and consulting services!


Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tannerfarmstead/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tannerfarmstead/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tannerfarmstead

Tanner Farmstead Store: https://tannerfarmsteadacademy.thinkific.com/

_______________________

What is the Natural Obsession Podcast all about?

Growing up, we all had those moments in nature that stuck with us—whether it was a quiet walk in the woods or a grand adventure. On Natural Obsession, it’s our desire to bring those moments to life. As we talk to people from all walks of life we will learn how they fell in love with the outdoors, the different ways they enjoy it today, and explore how we can work together to ensure these spaces are around for years to come. It’s all about sharing memories from the outdoors and ensuring future generations can make their own.

To find out more about Natural Obsession and hosts, Daniel Emison and TJ Virden, visit our website at https://www.natob.co/.

If you have questions about episodes or have guest recommendations please email us at info@natob.co.

Follow us on social media to keep up with upcoming guests and episode info:


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dirk (00:03):
I think there's valuable skills that we've lost in
today's day and age that ourgrandparents had.
We live in a different time.
Food is so systematized, it'sso corporate and it's so big.
I think there is somethingempowering about growing your
own tomato killing or harvestingyour own deer to raising your
own chickens for eggs.
People think like I've got todo it all.
It's like you can't do it all.

(00:23):
I'm sorry.

Daniel (00:29):
Just start with some things that you want to do and
just enjoy it.
Welcome to season two ofNatural Obsession.
This season, we're leaning intosomething that feels more
urgent and more hopeful thanever.
Live slow, rewild.

TJ (00:38):
It's about restoring what's been lost, not just in the land,
but in ourselves.

Daniel (00:42):
We'll talk with people who are living differently
building organic soil andgrowing food with care,
protecting dark skies,stewarding homesteads and living
in rhythm with bees, herbs andnatural remedies.
And those are just a few.

TJ (00:53):
These aren't perfect stories .
They're real ones Because toomuch is being lost wild places,
native species and ourconnection to the land.

Daniel (01:03):
If you've been feeling that too, come with us.

TJ (01:06):
Let's live slow, rewild.
Hello and welcome to NaturalObsession.
This is the first episode ofSeason 2, and today we're joined
by Dirk Tanner of TannerFarmstead.
How are you doing, sir?

Dirk (01:17):
Man, I'm doing great.
Glad to be here with you allExcited about it.
Glad to have you.

TJ (01:22):
Yes, sir, why don't you start off by telling us just a
little about yourself and whatyou do, so we can get acquainted
with you?

Dirk (01:27):
yeah, 100.
So, um, I run a small homestead.
It was originally a market farmand I had a diversity of
animals and really focused heavyon vegetable sales.
We had a farm stand and allthat, but recently kind of shut
that down, moved more towardsjust self-sufficiency and
homesteading.
I run a YouTube channel that Istarted about five years ago

(01:50):
during COVID, just really tryingto educate people about how to
grow and produce their own food.
It's just a big passion of mineand I've just stuck to that for
the past five years and it'scontinued to grow and still is,
and, yeah, I really enjoy it.
So that's, that's a verysummarized background of what I

(02:11):
do day to day.

Daniel (02:11):
Yeah, sure, we'll dig into it a little more here in a
second.

TJ (02:14):
Yeah, so what would your title be if you had to give
yourself like a job?
That's tough.

Dirk (02:18):
Cause I, I, I actually do like I have three different
businesses.
So it's people like what do youdo?
It's like everything.
Four different things actually,so every day is different.
I have to put on different hats, which I enjoy because I like a
diversity in my work.
So, yeah, but this is thepassion, this is yeah, this is
definitely 100 percent thepassion.

TJ (02:39):
So yeah, so were you raised around here in Arkansas.

Dirk (02:43):
Yep, so I'm originally from Little Rock and people
always ask like, did you grow upon a farm?
And I think it's the commonstory within homesteaders.
There are people that havestarted homesteading.
Most of them didn't.
They grew up in the suburbs andthat's the way I grew up, like.
I grew up riding my bike in thesuburbs and didn't grow up
around a garden, riding my bikeand in the suburbs and didn't

(03:06):
grow up around a garden.
But I will say the one thing Ido recall.
My grandparents have about 150acres in south arkansas and
magnolia.
They've been there their wholelives and we spent a lot of time
going down there.
In the summers my parents wouldsend us down there for a couple
weeks and they'd go, you know,go on vacation, send us down
there to hang out with thegrandparents, which was a blast
because you know, as a boy, 150acres, it's like man, that's

(03:26):
like the whole world to explore.
I mean, even you know, afive-year-old on 10 acres, you
feel like you know, yeah,endless possibilities.
But I do remember, um, going outto my grandmother's garden
picking blackberries and, um,you know, just kind of getting a
dose of like man man, because Iwas the grandkid there was,
there was four of us and I wasalways the one that wanted to

(03:50):
stay out there because, man, Ijust and y'all probably relate
with this, but I just alwaysconnected with, with nature.
There was just something aboutit that drew me in.
My grandparents had a bunch ofhorses, so I don't know, man, it
just there was something,something about it, man, that
just captured my heart.
That's where I kind of began torealize, like, man, I, I love

(04:11):
this, I want to own some landone day, and that that's that
was always a dream, um, and nowhere we are, have have some land
.
I'd love more one day but we'llget there.

TJ (04:20):
I think it's like guns or you know, whatever guys collect.
It's like how much more landyou need?
Just a little more, you know.

Daniel (04:26):
Yeah, always similar.
I'm the same way.

TJ (04:29):
I could always use just a little more.
Well, that's really cool.
So I guess that was when youactually felt that first tug
towards that different way ofliving.

Dirk (04:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause I mean you don't get that mean in
the suburbs, like we didn't havea garden or anything.
But my mom was always very, Iwant to say my parents were
pretty holistic, you know, theywere, you know, shoving green
algae, uh, you know, supplementpills, down our throats as
little kids.
And yeah, my mom always was,you know, constantly cooking.

(04:59):
She didn't.
She made everything fromscratch.
Um, like we were gonna havecookies, she didn't buy the
pre-made cookies at the store.
It was like no, I'm going tomake them from flour and sugar
and real butter and yeah it'sawesome.
So I kind of grew up that way,Um and so, uh, I think it was
always health and all that waskind of always something that I
grew more and more passionateabout and my when I was in high

(05:20):
school and that really startedthe journey even more into not
to derail us into health, but Ithink a lot of people get into
homesetting for health purposesas well.

TJ (05:30):
Yeah, I think that's part of you know, definitely part of
what we're wanting to get out ofthis as well.

Daniel (05:34):
Yeah, we have one episode on health and we we're
going to touch that as we goalong, you know, as we go.
But I think it's important, Ithink they go hand in hand.
So was your dad?
Was it a health?

Dirk (05:46):
issue.
Yeah, so he passed frompancreatic cancer.
Now I will say I mean, my dadwas a bit older, so my mom was
15 years younger than him, hewas born in 47, and he smoked
his whole life, which a lot ofthat generation did, unless they
quit, and he just he nevercould, he never could beat the

(06:07):
habit he would work out and, andyou know, try to eat healthier.
And obviously my mom was doingall the cooking, so he was
eating what she cooked, but thatwas just something he can never
.
He never could kick man.

Daniel (06:18):
And.

Dirk (06:18):
I think it just well, a hundred percent.
That was part of it.
I mean, that's a very, verycommon cancer, for smokers is
pancreatic and it's pretty mucha death sentence.

TJ (06:26):
Yeah, so is that one of the reasons that you're trying to
eat healthy and you feel likethat?

Dirk (06:31):
Yeah, that was part of that I got into.
It is when I got into college Ijust really started researching
more and more health and andnutrition and and, uh, that was
a.
That was definitely acompelling factor, even though I
knew a lot of it was from, youknow, smoking.

TJ (06:45):
Yeah, Well, that's.
I mean, it's everything that wedo from what we're learning
these days.

Dirk (06:48):
So totally, I mean it's, it's a factor.

Daniel (06:50):
Yeah, yeah, the more things that we can do to
decrease the odds.
I think that's kind of we'renot there.

TJ (07:02):
We say that all the time.
We're not there, but anythingthat we can do to get there, get
closer to the goal you know?

Daniel (07:07):
Yeah, you were talking about your grandparents, were
they considered homesteaders?
I?

Dirk (07:12):
would say they weren't hardcore.
Now they were growing up, Ithink, because my mom you know
she drank raw milk and you knowhe went out there every morning
milked cow and um, so I thinkyou know, back in the 60s I
would probably say but, but Ithink that was all more normal
in the 60s.
But granted, at the same timemy mom was saying that the other
day when she would have friendsat school be like y'all drink

(07:34):
it straight straight from thecow, like you don't.
You don't warm it up or patchyou're gonna die she was like no
, she's like we shake it up sothe cream goes to the top and we
drink it and, um, so yeah, Ithink, I think, uh, being around
it, being around that with mygrandparents and bass fishing on
their pond and deer hunting,and all that, I just that's what

(07:55):
just exposed me to a lot of ityeah, so you had talked about
you wear, you know, multiplehats.

Daniel (08:00):
Um, when did you kind of realize like you wanted to go
more homesteading and lessmodernized?
I guess some of your other hatsare you know, you know, normal
day jobs probably so.

Dirk (08:12):
Yeah, so when I was lived in Colorado um, so, originally
from Arkansas, but I moved outthere to work for a Christian
college ministry that I was onstaff with, where I had
graduated from college atArkansas State.
So we moved out there to expanda team of us and was there for
about four years and throughthat process I really started to

(08:35):
get exposed to urban farming.
I remember reading a book, likestumbling upon some YouTube
videos, and that was the firsttime that I kind of got into
like, wow, you could, you canrun an urban farm and be
profitable, and, um, and that'swhere I, that's where the
journey really began for me um,into the homesteading gardening

(08:56):
world.
It originally started with withurban farming just growing
vegetables on and with intensityand very small urban plots so
was that like raised bed kind ofgardening, or what was the?

TJ (09:09):
what did it look like?

Dirk (09:09):
not raised beds, it's just , you know, your typical market
gardening beds are 30 incheswide.
You know 25 or 50 feet long, um, and you're growing highly
profitable fast growing crops.
So you're growing a ton ofspring mix for market gardener.
For market gardeners, that is,uh, that's the moneymaker.
You got to grow those fastcrops.
You can turn and burn grows in30 days, flip the bed and just

(09:33):
turn it out and grow that yearround.
So that's ultimately how Istarted getting into it, um, and
then it just progressed fromthere.

TJ (09:41):
Yeah, and so then you moved back to Arkansas at some point.

Dirk (09:44):
Yeah, and so then you moved back to Arkansas at some
point.
Yeah, moved back to Arkansas,bought a little town home right
next to my brother in North HoodRock and tiny backyard and
built some raised beds and keptgrowing food.
And it was just like I was likewe've got to get out on some
land, like there's so much Iwant to do.

TJ (10:01):
Yeah.

Dirk (10:01):
And that's when we bought bought the place we're currently
at here in Greenbrier.
Yeah, like there's so much.
I want to do yeah, and that'swhen we bought bought the place
we're currently at here inGreenbrier.

TJ (10:07):
Yeah Well, tell us a little bit about that and you know why
you consider it a homestead.
I mean, you know what all didyou guys do when you got started
out there.
Yes, Such.

Dirk (10:13):
So when we first started, I was obviously just going to
get the garden establishedbecause, just so, there's so
many things on a homestead,there's so many projects that
just take time to establish, toget going, to build out.
So it's just, I always tellpeople you can't do everything
all at once.
I mean, I know you'll get that.

(10:34):
You own 250 acres.
You can't tackle every projectat once.
So I started with the gardensand then started with the
chickens, and I think for mostpeople that's just, yeah, it's a
great stopping place.
To be honest, I don't thinkeveryone's cut out to to do it
all, yeah, um, but started withthose two, um, and then just
experimenting with rotatingthose chickens around with

(10:56):
electric netting, um, you couldcall it rotational grazing, but
chickens don't really graze,they're more foragers, um, and
so as I started doing that, Iwas like man, I want to get more
animals.
So I got sheep that's a wholeother conversation and then just
planting out differentpollinator I call it a perennial

(11:17):
permaculture.
Swell, okay, without going intothis, without nerding out on it
, no, go ahead.
Permaculture is kind of a way ofseeing the way you design
properties to mimic nature, um,and so there's a lot of systems,
though, that you can stillcreate.
Um and so a permaculture swell.
We've got a lot of like native,native perennial species

(11:37):
planted on it, flowering speciesnear the garden.
But that swell not only, ithelps with water runoff and
erosion.
Yeah, we got figs planted onthat, um got a bunch of
blackberries, and then we've gotour traditional garden rose and
all that just all these timestake.
I mean, all this stuff takes along time to build out.
Yeah, um, and experimentation.

(11:57):
Yeah, how do you create compostwith the chickens?
How do you do a deep beddingsystem with the chickens to make
compost?
There's so much experimentationyou have to do.
It's part of the learningprocess, which that's what makes
it so much fun.

Daniel (12:11):
Did you jump all in on this, or did you just dip your
toes in with the chickens andthe garden?

Dirk (12:18):
Dip my toes in.
I wouldn't say a pro gardener,but I had been gardening for a
few years, so I just kind ofstarted there, then got the
chickens and then it justprogressed from there.
Yeah, um, I will say, justhaving a garden and chickens is
is pretty simple, like I thinkfor most people it's like it's
attainable if they're just likehey, I want to like start doing

(12:40):
this, but I don't.
I don't want to like have to bemoving large livestock and all
that it's like, okay, get somechickens for eggs and grow a
garden.
There's a ton you can do just inin those yeah, and that'll keep
you busy, so yeah yeah, that'skind of.

Daniel (12:54):
You know, the vision sounds nice to me to do all this
stuff, but I just kind of inthe back of my mind, no, I don't
know if I could just stay likeI couldn't go anywhere.
I I think if I did everything Ireally wanted to do.
So it's just like got to pullthe reins back a little bit and
figure out like where will mystopping point be with this?

Dirk (13:13):
Yeah, I mean I always tell people less is more and I truly
believe that.
Just because it's like, hey,how can you, even with even with
space Like there's so muchunderutilized space even on our
small acreage, that it's like Iwould like more.
Not necessarily pasture I wouldlove, because all we have right
now is just a bunch of pasture,which is fantastic, but I don't

(13:34):
have any woods.
Like there's a lot I could dowithin woods with animals, with
mushrooms, I mean the list goeson.
And I just woods, just they'rebeautiful and so um, but I do
think the same time it's likehey, yeah, you can't, you can't
do everything, and I thinkpeople get into it with this
very fairy tale lens yeah, rosegold glasses which can be

(13:56):
anything for that matter, um,and begin to realize like, hey,
there's like it's not alwayssunshine and rainbows.
Um, there's times where youdon't want to do this, you don't
want to move those animals.
It's 100 degrees and humid, andit's just like it's the last
thing I want to do.

Daniel (14:12):
Yeah we have talked about this a little bit like so
that's why it's nice to have youand you know rabbit ridge, and
so you have all these peoplethat have their thing they're
doing.
So if you could get everybody,you know you can pick from here
and here and you've kind of gotit and we love supporting that
kind of thing because, like yousaid, not everybody has the
capacity to to do all of it.

Dirk (14:32):
So for the time.
Yeah, I mean, if you were like,I want to raise, I want to
raise my own beef and andchickens and pigs and lamb yeah,
if you were gonna raise sheepand I want, uh, eggs and I want
a dairy cow for I'm like have atit, but that's, that's gonna be
more than a full-time job likeyeah, I mean, if you're retired
and you've got the energy andtime, okay, I get it, but for

(14:54):
most people that's not gonnahappen.

TJ (14:55):
Yeah I guess we should ask how did the wife feel about this
the whole time?

Dirk (15:00):
no, it's a great question.
Um, she is ultra supportive andwas all on board.
Um, I would say my wife's notas like, not as passionate about
it as me.
She is, because she gets, tolike, reap the fruit of a lot of
it yeah, um, but she was alwayssupportive, like she loves us
being out on land and I'm I'mgrateful because, like I'll just

(15:21):
be honest with some women back,I'm not living out in the
country, like yeah I want to bein the suburbs, not I don't want
bugs, snakes or anything to dowith any of that.
She's always been on board withit, so I'm super grateful for it
.

TJ (15:33):
That makes it easier when you get.
Oh my gosh, my wife is allabout moving to the 250 acres,
which is an hour and 20 minutesfrom here.

Daniel (15:39):
So so we gotta slow that down, we gotta but we're not
there yet.

Dirk (15:46):
One day soon that would be pretty sweet to live on live on
that?

TJ (15:49):
I think so.
So I was watching one of yourepisodes I think it was on
youtube where you were talkingabout you know, the homesteading
thing and where you were like,if I had to start all over, I
would go out and the first thingI would do was worry about my
meat animals and, specifically,ruminants.

Dirk (16:06):
So explain to me why you think that is maybe your process
, by which one you would select,and why well, you have to back
up because if we, if we, if webegin to ask the question okay,
within the homestead spaceyou've got like your normal,
like homestead people that arejust like, hey, I just like I
want to grow some food for myfamily, I want to produce some
of my own meat, and I think thatlike that's, I'm going to say

(16:30):
that's like 80% of homesteaders.
The other 20% are like yourhardcore preppers and I kind of
view those.
They're similar niches but atthe same time they're not.
But I would say 20% of thepeople in the homestead space
are.
Are those those like theworld's going to end If crap
hits the fan?
What am I going to do to feedmy family?

(16:51):
And I think every homesteaderkind of has that question in the
back of their mind and in a way, they do want to be
self-sufficient to an extent.
But I think at the same time,it's like I don't care how like
bulletproof you think yourhomestead is, you're not.
You're not a hundred percentself-sufficient.
So to to answer the question, Ibegan to ask okay, what are the

(17:17):
?
How can I make the best use ofthis pasture that I have?
Okay, and how can I convertthis grass and I'm growing to to
to meet to feed my family?
Cause and I don't want to saythe problem with chickens and
pigs, for example, but I don'twant to say it's a problem but
the problem with those animalsis they require heavy grain
input.
Um, however, with ruminants,depending upon the animal, like

(17:40):
I know, it's tough and it takesa lot of time to to a grass fed,
grass finish, grass-finishedcow on pasture.
It can take time and you need areally good forage.
But, okay, I can take thisgrass and convert it to meat and
feed my family.
That system makes a lot ofsense to me.
Versus, hey, this chicken thatI need a ton of grain input that

(18:03):
has to be hauled in and shippedin and purchased.
You get where I'm going with it.
So, with that being said, Ithink for smaller acreage,
people look past sheep a lot.
I think it's one of the mostunderlooked and underrated
homestead animal Because you canhandle it.
It's a small animal, you don'tneed tons of equipment.

(18:25):
They're not going to trample akid, um, so they're relatively
safe for kids to be around andit's a pretty quick turn time.
Um, from the moment that thatyou or that that a user's to
female sheep right once shegives birth that lamb, I've got
meat in my freezer in eight,nine months really yeah, that's
versus a cow versus a cow.

(18:46):
You got to finish out on any,and especially if you're not
finishing the grain.
It's like man, you're talkingto a three, four year process.

TJ (18:53):
Yeah, long time.
So it's cheap what you havethen personally, yeah, so I'm
passionate.

Dirk (18:59):
I love the sheep.

TJ (19:01):
I've heard a lot of people say that they're.

Dirk (19:03):
I mean they're a lot of fun.
I mean, you, you've got toobviously try lambs from
somewhere and be okay with thetaste of it.
But you know, I think it'spretty mild and especially if
you're growing a meat sheep,they're much more mild than, for
example, like a wool sheep thatare that are bred and raised
for wool.
Yeah, or if you, or if you'rebutchering an older sheep that's

(19:25):
no longer considered a lamb,then yeah, it's not going to be.
It's going to be a strongertaste.
Yeah, have you tried goats atall?
I have not yeah, no, but I'm,but I'm interested in it.
Yeah, goats are just a littlemore wild.
They're hard to contain yeah,I've heard that too.
They are escape artists andsheep are just some man.
They're so much easier tohandle.
Um, they're not escape artists.

(19:46):
I mean you, there are some consto sheep, but but yeah, so I
think that that's where it waslike hey, no way, nobody's
surviving on lettuce in a garden, but we can survive on meat, if
that's all we had, yeah um, howmany sheep per acre can you
grow?

TJ (20:02):
I know cow's supposed to be like mama, baby cow for two
acres or something like that.

Dirk (20:06):
Yeah, you could put.
Well, for example, at our placewe rotationally graze, move
them every five days in paddockswith electric fencing and I
think we could support, as longas we're not in a drought I
think we could support 12 adultsheep and that's on two and a
half acres.

(20:27):
Potentially more.
I haven't pushed the boundaries, it's hard for me to say, and
that's on pretty poor pasture.

TJ (20:33):
Yeah, and what kind of poundage of meat are you getting
out of that when you'reprocessing one that's of age?

Dirk (20:40):
So most people say you're going to get about whatever that
weighs.
You're going to end up withabout half that meat.
So that is the thing.
If you get a lamb to, let's say, 100 pounds, you butcher it 100
, you're going to end up with,let's just say, 50 pounds.
Maybe let's just say a littleless.
But the reality is, if you gotfive to eight ewes and they

(21:03):
breed every year and throw lambsand let's say you get, let's
say, a couple of those thirdtwins, I mean you're looking at,
looking at a good amount ofmeat yeah, yeah, I think that's
a lot of meat actually, yeah,yeah especially if you're not
trying to market a lot of it.

TJ (21:18):
You're just trying to be self-sufficient.
That's plenty.

Dirk (21:20):
I would think, for a homestead 100, and if you didn't
want to butcher them, all youcould, you could sell off a
couple of people that arewanting to get into it.

TJ (21:26):
You get into bartering a lot with other people with the
stuff you're growing, I don'tyeah, most of the time if I just
.

Dirk (21:31):
I like blessing people with stuff.

TJ (21:37):
So it's just like hey, I got , I got some eggs, or I got this
or that.
You know, I have the 250 acresand last year we killed six deer
, eight hogs off of that land.
And it's fed our family prettywell.
What's your view on that?
You know, just saying I'mhomesteading my two 50.
Do I even need to worry aboutmeat at that point If I've got
like all this running aroundfree that I'm?

Dirk (21:58):
not having to take care of .
It's a great question, cause atthe at the same time, it's like
, yeah, you don't, you don'thave all the labor and time into
, into caring for those animals.
If, if it's like, hey, I'm, Ican go out and and and kill what
I what I need, then I'm allabout it yeah, um, don't even
mess with that, find something,it's just like hey, I don't you
know.

(22:18):
I think that there's enjoyment.
I love the connection, andobviously, too, you can butcher
a lamb on on side, just like youdo a deer.
Yeah, um, I think there's justsomething about it that is a
little bit different fromhunting yeah is because you
stewarded and had to care forthis animal and, in a way, you
gotta you can get a littleconnected to them.

(22:39):
Yeah, um, and then it's like,hey, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go
cut their throat, bleed them out, butcher them and eat them.
Um, I mean it's like, hey, I'mgoing to go, I'm going to go cut
their throat, bleed them outand butcher them and eat them.
Um, I mean, it's, there'ssomething, there's something
really primal about, you know,killing an animal with your bare
hands.
Um, that is uh, sobering, Iguess, so to speak, and I think
that's the other part of it thatI love about it.

(23:00):
It's just, I always envisionedI, I wanted my kids, kids to be
connected to reality, and Ithink you get that in hunting as
well hunting and fishing, andall that is is is that piece.

TJ (23:11):
Yeah, we get a little bit more of that just because we'll
see them on camera and we'llkind of name which deer we got
out there and that kind of stuff.
But it's still not like havinghands-on every day taking the
feed out there to it and youknow, you know, taking care of,
taking care of it.

Daniel (23:24):
Yeah, I do wonder how that.
You know my, my three girls arelike animal lovers, so we grew
up on a farm like me personally,growing up on a farm, hunting,
you know, chickens like itwasn't really a thing.
I mean, it wasn't a big deal ifyou killed a chicken to eat it,
or a deer or whatever.
But man, if I can't see themraising sheep, and then, like

(23:46):
you know what, lucy gotta go, wegotta eat lucy, like, I think
it's a good, a good, a goodthing for him to do, but I just
I don't know how I'd everapproach that I might have to
trade my lambs and eat somebodyelse's lambs or something.

Dirk (23:56):
Yeah, it's tough man, you could just like golly, but I I
think that part is importantbecause it's like, hey, you know
, this is the reality for thosepeople, that for those of us
that eat meat, it's like itdoesn't just show up on the
shelf, it's like there was ananimal that was raised and there
was an animal that washarvested and killed to give us

(24:17):
life and nourishment.

TJ (24:18):
Yeah, I think that teaches you respect for a lot of other
things in life too.

Daniel (24:22):
Exactly.

TJ (24:25):
You know, when you see a life that you've cared for and
close to being taken, it's a,it's a thing hunting, hunting or
growing, whatever you're doingwell, and you get that in the.

Dirk (24:33):
You know joel salatin, he's a, he's like the godfather
of homesteading farm or you knowreturning to farming, and he
always talks about how you knowveganism and he calls it the
urban, an urban disease, becausehe's just like man.
You don't understand how howthings work and that's why not,

(24:56):
because the crazy part is, is Iactually?
I actually, about seven yearsago, was a, was a vegan oh yeah,
when I first got into justhealth.
There's a lot of things that ledme along that journey and so I
was like a hardcore, likevegetable just smashing
vegetables.
Yeah and uh, I wasn't anti-meadbecause of like, oh, you don't

(25:16):
want to kill the animal.
It was more, at the time Ihadn't seen a system to where it
made sense.
I had just seen conventionalfactory farming and it was like
I don't want to eat that yeah, Iget that um, and so I had a
long.
I had a very quick transitionout of that um as I began to
just study and do my ownresearch and all that.
But it's always funny becauseJoel says that and it's like

(25:37):
makes sense.

TJ (25:38):
I haven't heard that but that's probably good.

Daniel (25:40):
I had a similar journey, so I did the whole food
plant-based for about a year.

Dirk (25:45):
That's what I always called it, yeah.

Daniel (25:47):
Because I read the China study and all these things.
And I'm like on board for thisthing Me too and for about a
year, you know, I thought I wasdoing good.
I'm not in it for any kind of,like you know, spiritual reason
or I'm just trying to be healthyand try to find and there's so
much misinformation out there,you got to dig through a ton of
it to ever get there.
So I did that for about a year.
I started having ringing in myears, my feet started tingling,

(26:09):
like like okay, change somethingelse.
I went full carnivore.
So now I'm back to where youknow grandma and grandpa eat,
you know, three meals a day meat, some vegetables, fruit, like
just you know, just.
But it's funny that you kind ofhad the same kind of Dude.

Dirk (26:24):
It's wild, Because you would have told me five years
ago.
It's like what I do now.
It's like man I eat a lot ofmeat.

Daniel (26:30):
Yeah, you got to, it's so nutrient dense.

Dirk (26:37):
It's incredible, there's not a way around it, and that's
the thing.
That's the thing about goingback to the whole ruminant
conversation is like, man, youknow, red meat has been
demonized for years.
And it's like, okay, you'retelling me, don't eat this
animal that eats an insaneamount of biodiversity and
forage and converts thisincredible, all of this
beautiful green forage into meat.

(26:59):
But yet the the chicken thatwas that was, uh, convention
raised in a chicken house, onlyfed grain.
You know, yeah, it didn't seethe light of day, but I need to
eat that because that's healthy.
You're like, come on, man, like, yeah, it't make sense.

Daniel (27:15):
And the studies are always skewed.
They don't take the meat out byitself.
They have a normal, standardAmerican diet.
It's causing these.
Well, how about all this otherprocessed stuff and you separate
those out?
Then you're probably good.

Dirk (27:28):
Well, and you get that within the whole food
plant-based realm, because therewere you can call them that
that were and still are thatreally promote a whole food
plant-based diet and have beenfor years.
But it's like man I get whereyou're coming from, but I just
like meat.

TJ (27:47):
I don't have a reason to just like it.

Daniel (27:49):
I feel great yeah, when I'm eating, when I'm eating lots
of, lots of good meat man, Ifeel like a champ yeah everybody
do their own thing, but I'vetried it all and I feel like I'm
back to where I need to be backto reality, yeah yeah, we've
talked about like the closer youget to the way I mean to it,
coming fresh off the land, likeyou're saying, eating the
grasses and the biodiversitythere.

TJ (28:10):
Um, you know, the plants that you're growing in your
garden that are not, they'recoming from good, nutrient-rich
soil, yeah, and that kind ofthing.
The more you get closer to thatkind of stuff, you know, the
healthier we're going to be, theless we have to worry about
things like cancers and diabetesand alzheimer's and you know
just all the different stuffthat we battle today well, and
even with that going into, youknow, it's like I, if you don't

(28:32):
have time to go to raise mead,raise meat chickens, which we
don't really marry to raise meatchickens anymore, because we
only chicken, just eat beef andruminants.

Dirk (28:43):
But, um, regardless of that, it's like if you don't
have time to raise some meatchickens for your family or, or,
uh, or sheep or cattle, what'slike getting a deer hunting?
Yeah, go kill you a deer or twoor three yeah there you go,
you've got.

TJ (28:57):
You've got another ruminant animal that ate a ton of of
diversity of forage and it'sincredibly healthy, yeah I was
talking to a buddy, uh, lastnight who was like I'm getting
off pork, I'm not having anymore pork.
I was like man, you know it'sfine if you want to do that and
you know that's your choice, butlike, maybe you should just
consider pork that's raisedcorrectly, right?
Yeah?
Yeah, it's not pork's not foreverybody, you know, but go to

(29:20):
rabbit ridge, like we've talkedabout, and get some of theirs.
It's a.
It's a whole different 100thing, as we've learned recently
yeah, it's, good stuff, manthey're baking.
It's amazing.
Chorizo is my thing.
So do you do like any hunting,fishing, trapping, foraging,
that kind of stuff or are youjust pretty much there on your
property?

Dirk (29:40):
Yeah, so I did a lot of deer hunting, duck hunting,
fishing high school college.
I don't fish near as much as Iused to because I got rid of my
boat when I moved to Colorado,so I'd love to get a lot more
back into it.
Aside from fishing, I'll deerhunt when it's convenient if

(30:03):
I've got a place to go nearby.
But the problem is I used todeer hunt down in South Arkansas
a ton.
It's just like man Just walkingback and forth.
It's just too far now for me todrive down there to go deer
hunting.
But, yeah, it's just too farnow for me to drive down there
to go deer hunting.
But if I had land beside me ormy own property our property's
just not big enough to deer huntthen I would deer hunt a lot

(30:24):
more.
Yeah, but it's just, it's gotto be convenient.

Daniel (30:28):
Yeah At the moment.
Otherwise it's a ton of timetravel.
You know you got several thingsgoing on.
It's hard to get it all in.
No, it sure is, man.
So when y'all slaughter youranimals and stuff you have
excess meat.
Do you can any of that meat, orany of that, preserve it anyway
?

Dirk (30:45):
So we won't do any canning , just freezing, just put it in
the freezer.
Now, obviously, if you want togo back to the old prepper
conversation, if the gridcollapses and all that, then
yeah, then we're all gone anyway.
Yeah, we've all got biggerproblems at that point.
So I mean the fact that myfreezer doesn't have electricity

(31:05):
to keep the meat cold.
Yeah, we've got a little,everybody's got more problems if
that happens.
Um, so now just, we'll justbutcher and put in the freezer
and you're butchering yourselfmost of the time on the sheep,
the chickens Okay, the sheep,we'll get them processing, yeah,
okay, I'm thinking about thefuture trying to.
There's some classes.
There's a guy in Oklahoma,farmstead Meatsmith, that

(31:27):
teaches butchery and it's reallykind of actually a cool process
, really interesting.
He kind of takes the, just the,he kind of makes it just a
journey of the butcheringprocess and they'll take all the
organs and the first nightyou'll eat organs.

(31:48):
And he makes it like amulti-day process of butchering
the animal and preserving.
It's fascinating.
I'd love to go on his classes.
They're like 500 bucks, butit's like like three, three days
, no that ain't bad.

TJ (32:04):
No, three days, it's not bad you're a relatively small group
.

Dirk (32:05):
Yeah, I think it's 500, maybe 750 I can't remember.

TJ (32:07):
That's a whole um, it's a whole nother homesteading skill,
I feel like it's butchering.

Dirk (32:10):
That's an art, if you do it right, and that dude isn't.
He's a yeah, he's an artist atit, um I've got to where we even
take our deer.

TJ (32:18):
You know it's so cheap these days I think we pay a hundred
dollars per and when you thinkabout the time that it takes a
guy like me, who doesn't do itevery day, to butcher and
butcher it right, versus a guywho can have it done, I think my
butcher said he's literallydown to like five, ten minutes
to debone and process the wholeone.
It's crazy you know I just it'sbetter off for him to do it.

Dirk (32:38):
Yeah, and I get the argument.
I'm like, well, we need to alldo it and I'm just like dude, I
get that, but like we, we, welive in a modern world still,
like we're not just all sittinghere on farms and all we do.
It's like I, I'm a human andI'm in a modern world.
I'm trying to live as close tothe land as possible, but like

(32:59):
I'm limited on my time and Ican't yeah, I can't spend 10
hours a whole day trying tobutcher this animal when is that
the best use of your time tobutcher an animal, like when you
could be doing a lot of otherthings you know?

TJ (33:10):
yeah, completely I have enough confidence that I can do
it myself easily.
I just can't do it as quicklyand proficiently, and so if it
comes down to it and I got to doit, then I've done it enough
times that we can make it happen, oh for sure.
But if I got the choice ofsending it to somebody else
who's going to do it cheap andquick and right, I'll send it.

Dirk (33:30):
No, I get it, the one part when I went out and not to get
into deer hunting, but the onepart when I went out and not to
get into deer hunting.
But my always favorite partwould be it wasn't always my
favorite part, but it was justpart of the experiences After I
killed that deer, gutting it outin the field, and there's just
something about it.
You just killed this animal andI'm literally pulling, got my

(33:56):
arm deep into their, you knowstomach cavity pulling guts out.
It's I don't know man.
There's just somethingsomething special.

TJ (34:04):
It's like you said it makes you appreciate it, it does.

Dirk (34:06):
You know it, sure does.

Daniel (34:08):
Yeah, are you on city water out there?
Are you on?
Well?

Dirk (34:12):
Yeah, still on city, we've got the well, that project's
partially done.
Yeah, are out there.
Do you own?
Well, or yeah, still on city,we've got the will that
project's partially done.

TJ (34:26):
Yeah, um, you know I've learned a lot from that because
it really drilling a well and Idon't know if y'all drilled a.

Dirk (34:29):
Well, I haven't.
I've talked to some people whohave, but it is a.
I mean it's kind of a gamble,um, and even, especially if you
get up there and you're leslie,I mean gosh man, you can spend a
small fortune, I bet, justdrilling the hole, um, and hopes
that you're gonna getsufficient water.
I mean, we're getting like acouple gallons a minute and
maybe.
But every time he, every timethe, the welder, put a piece of

(34:49):
the you know, I think it's 20foot section at a time, and
every time they, they putanother 20 foot on a pipe on
there, you're like, well, thatwas another, you know, six
hundred dollars is that how theymeasure it?
yeah, because I think each pieceof pipe is 20 foot wow, and
then you're paying.
You're paying per foot,whatever their price is for
drilling.
I think it's probably 45, 50bucks a foot now.
Um, so when I got it, it was, Ithink we did, we, we'd got it

(35:14):
like 35.
And even when they got therelike it was, I think we did, we,
we we'd gotten to like 35.
And even when they got there,like what price did we tell you,
cause we've gone up like 45.

Daniel (35:20):
I was like you told me, yeah, it was like $25.

Dirk (35:23):
And they're like okay, and but, yeah, every time they run
a piece of that pop, I was like,oh my gosh, and they're like
you want to keep going.
And I'm yeah, I do one more.
And so, yeah, we've got anunfinished.
Well, we've got the hole in theground that's capped, okay, but

(35:44):
because we're only getting twogallons a minute, we've got to
have a storage tank and we justthat's another expense and that
storage tank has to be enclosedand keep it from freezing and
well, pump, and the list goes on, yeah.

TJ (35:57):
So what was?
Your reason for getting thewell water.

Dirk (36:00):
So when we started, so originally we were moving on
this property.
I was always kind of passionateabout how can we commercially
farm and make money doing it?
And so when we in 20, after twoyears being on the property, we
converted over to commerciallyfarming.
So we started our market farm.

(36:22):
We basically just had ourmarket farm and we sold and we
had like 70 chickens, we dideggs and vegetables and we did
do some meat chickens as well,but that was kind of more just
friends and family type deal andwe raised those and we invited
everybody over and did abutchering party.
It was a blast.
That is one thing I love aboutchickens is getting people
involved, them coming over andbutchering chickens.

(36:45):
It's just, it's just kind offun for people to learn.
Yeah, so anyways, converted itover to commercial farm.
We start we opened up a, youknow, an honor system farm store
on our property.
People could, you know, had afridge freezer and we'd carried
other farmers meats GrabberRidge was one of them Carry
different people's meats andgoods in there and then
obviously we sold our eggs andvegetables and all that.

(37:07):
So that's originally why we gotwe drilled the well, because
running a market farm growingvegetables requires a lot of
water.
My farm mentor at the time waslike you've got to drill a well,
especially if you're wanting todouble or triple the size of
your farm, and looking back onthat, you know it was a good
learning lesson.

(37:28):
I probably, looking back, Ishould have not drilled the well
just because I've got a $7,000hole in the ground and I need
another probably $10 tenthousand to finish the project
and, to be quite honest, I'mprobably not going to complete
it anytime soon because it'sjust a lot of money yeah um, no,
I could, but it's just it.

(37:52):
Now that we're, now that we'veshut the farm down, we're back
just a homestead, like my.
Water building.
It costs a lot.
Now, obviously, we're dependenton city water.

TJ (38:01):
And you plan on being that way for the foreseeable future?

Dirk (38:03):
The problem.
I don't want to say the problem.
The reason I'm not going tocomplete it anytime soon is I
don't think we'll be on thisproperty forever.
Yeah, I don't see this as along-term property.
Once we have our next childgive it three to five years I
think we'll sell this place andbuy a different one.
Yeah, so that's partly why I'mnot gonna, because I'm not gonna
get that money back.
Yeah, if I sink another 10grand into the well project,

(38:25):
it's, it's gonna be sunk, sunkmoney.

TJ (38:27):
That's cool.
It gives us a good idea, youknow, of what entry costs might
be like for something like that.
I had the guy actually asked metoday about the podcast and I
told him what we were doing.
He was like man, I really wantto know, like what the cost is,
because he's thinking aboutdoing that same thing.
He's.
He's in more like of a riverbottom area so it might be a
little bit easier for him to getwater.
But I you know where I'm at inleslie.

(38:48):
I'm on the border of stonecounty and the name says it all,
yeah I mean you could, yeah,you could.

Dirk (38:53):
I mean I remember talking to the well drillers that
drilled our place are actuallyout of clinton, yeah, and I mean
man, he he's told me, he wastelling me some stories like
they've drilled to 500 feet nowater.
Yeah, so you've literally got Imean you're talking, you know
people up.
And then he said up innorthwest arkansas too, he said
people, I mean people easily geta hundred thousand000 into a

(39:15):
well, wow.

Daniel (39:17):
Which is absolutely blows my mind.
Yeah, and at what point does itnot make sense to do that?
Like wow, you could do citywater for a long time.

Dirk (39:23):
Dude, you could create a lot of rainwater catchment
systems and that's where I wouldgo back.
If I had to go back and I'mtrying to be self-sufficient I
would rather invest the moneyefficient, I would.
I would rather invest the moneyand and I would do actual, in
the ground, concrete rainwatercisterns.
Yeah, if I had to designsomething, I I don't know if I

(39:44):
would gamble on a.
Well, and there's a, andthere's a lot of examples, um,
of people that have done it,that have rainwater catchment
systems and they are, they'reconcrete cisterns and actually
dug and buried in the groundalmost like a septic tank, and,
yeah, they've got pumps thatcome out of there and filter it
and they've they're.

TJ (40:02):
You know, in our type of climate, I think it makes sense
especially this year, oh my goshI don't know how many gallons
you could have caught out therethis year absolutely so do you
utilize any of that now,rainwater or anything?

Dirk (40:14):
just for our like our chicken coop has a little rain
rainwater catchment tank on it.
But if yeah, if money wasn't afactor, yeah, I'd have a.
I would be pretty ultra, ultraself-sufficient with a rainwater
catchment, because that's thething, it's like you just got.

TJ (40:29):
You've got to spend a lot of money yeah I think it goes back
to what you said earlier too islike well, am I prepping for
something to happen?
Because then I can understandthe well thought.
Yeah, you know, I've got my ownwater that I'm collecting on my
own property because we don'tknow what's going to happen.
If you're not fearful of youknow some event that's going to
happen, then I may not be thebest choice just to go ahead and

(40:50):
do that yeah, and I meanthere's ways too.

Dirk (40:52):
It's like if you got've got 250 acres, I'm willing to
bet you've got some springs andstreams on that property that
it's like, hey, I've got access,I've just got to find a way to
either pump that water to a setlocation where I can store it,
you know, high up on thelandscape.
And that's something that'sfascinating to me and that's why
I am pretty passionate aboutpermaculture, because it's just,

(41:13):
it is a, it's a very.
It makes sense from a designstandpoint.
So, for example, if, like youwant, if I want, pressurized
water, where do I want to storethat water?
I want, I want it all high onthe landscape at the highest
elevation.
But you got to obviously find away to pump it and get it up

(41:34):
there.
But you can like, for example,if you are off grid and you have
solar well, when's the peaktime, you're gonna have the most
energy to pump water if, ifthat pumps electric, okay, I'll
do it in the peak of the day.
Pump water the highest part ofthe landscape.
You got pressurized water.
You know if I'm pumping thatfrom a stream or a spring or
whatever yeah um, but yeah, it'sa, it's all fascinating stuff.

TJ (41:52):
Yeah, I know, on 60 highway 66, where my land is at, you can
go by a particular place andthere's like an aquifer that
they've stuck a piece of pvcpipe into and it spring, winter,
fall, summer is spitting out astream and you'll see guys
backed up there with a pickuptruck and those big 100 gallon
um catch tanks back there andcatching the water and taking it

(42:13):
to the property.
So there's, there's alwaysother options, you know.
A hundred percent, and I've gotcity water out there, so it's
like it's not a big thing.
I would like to have a well atsome point, but maybe, after
hearing those numbers, I mayconsider that.

Dirk (42:28):
Well, yeah, again, it's like you can for the same cost,
if not potentially a lot cheaper.
It's like I can catch rainwaterand then I've got a really like
what a cool thing to be able totalk about and show people.
Yeah, here's my rainwater.

Daniel (42:39):
Concrete cisterns in the ground you know like yeah, um,
anyways no, I think that's coolyeah, I'd be curious how do you
keep all the water clean and allthat in the cisterns and stuff?

Dirk (42:50):
I wonder like yeah, so there's uh, within a lot of
systems they have first flushsystems.
So that first round obviouslyit's going to be the dirtiest
that's getting that'll beactually flushed out and won't
go into the tank.
Um, but the biggest factor isyou don't want light reaching it
and that's why in grounds thebest now they do make you you've

(43:12):
probably seen them.
They make the black tanks thatsit on top of the ground that
are a,000, 2,000, 3,000 gallons.
But the problem is obviouslysomeone could shoot that.
You've got a hole in a tank andobviously in the ground you've
got no light.
You've also got the temperaturethere keeping that water cooler
, but you're still going to haveto filter.

TJ (43:33):
I would assume you're using most of that water anyway for
things like watering your gardenand washing your hands, and not
necessarily for drinking.

Dirk (43:42):
No, but I mean you could easily set up a pump system A
lot of people do to where itsupplies their whole house with
water.
Yeah, but yeah, it's going tohave to go through some type of
filtration system.

TJ (43:52):
So for water retention and stuff, are you planning any kind
of like native species?
I know you talked about the,the swell or whatever you said
you had out there.
Are you doing native species?

Dirk (44:01):
I've only done one swell, yeah, um and so and on that I'm
kind of trying to make it moreof a a good guy habitat, for you
know, I don't want to call thempredator species, but species
that are going to help me combatthe bad pests in the garden,
and it's just beautiful, man.

(44:21):
I mean, that's what I love,mostly about it too.
But most of what I have plantedon that are all like flowering
type species.
Yaro, you've got I'm drawing ablank I've got probably six or
seven.
I originally planted more butsome of them didn't germinate.
But, man, in the spring it'sjust gorgeous.
You've got all the differentpollinators out there.

(44:44):
I mean it's just buzzing around.
Yeah, it's probably one of myfavorite things to look at Just
go out there and just beconnected to nature man.

TJ (44:52):
Yeah, so are you noticing that that's taking a lot of the
pressure off the garden as faras insects, when you have those
kind of species that close by?

Dirk (44:58):
it's tough to say right now.
Yeah, um, I kind of have somedifferent planting strategies
for avoiding, because if I dospray a pesticide, it's going to
be an organic one.
Now, it's still going to killsome of the good guys.
So I try to not have to do anyof that, and a lot of that comes
down to timing and not to divetoo deep in the gardening thing.

(45:20):
But if you want to time yourplantings, especially some of
those plants that tend to have alot of pest pressure, for
example, squash squash yeah, wewere watching your video, you
did earlier squash bug, so I'veexperimented a lot with that and
have you seen crazy results?
If you're just because, again,it's, it's essentially just like
you're trying to avoid rushhour, um, and that's essentially

(45:41):
the concept that you, that youapproach with it.
Um, because, yeah, they'll getthings get wiped out in the
spring.
Man, all the, all the the bugscome out and and devour things.

TJ (45:51):
Um, but healthy soil, healthy plants, can defend
themselves pretty well, um, andthat's why you see unhealthier
or plants growing that don'tdon't look healthy and poor soil
generally get attacked firstyeah, um so, once you've grown
all that stuff, let's talk alittle bit about, like, your
food storage system for, likewhat you're doing with the, the

(46:12):
plants that are coming out ofthe garden and stuff once
they're done, how do you keep upwith that?

Dirk (46:16):
yeah, so the biggest.
You know, most peopleautomatically think of canning
um, and I'm all about it, butyou want to talk about some work
yeah it's.
It's a whole nother ball game ofa lot of work for what.
I got a 12 ounce jar pickleshere and it's like that's a lot
of work for that 12 ounce jarpickles.
Um, and that's why I've alwayssaid I'm like, hey, if I had to

(46:37):
put focus on something, if I hadto restart my homestead, I
would start with okay meat withruminants, specifically, and
fruit, because I can.
I can thrive on both of thoseum and the input costs they're
the input labor for those two,for the return I'm getting is is

(46:59):
much greater compared to, forthe most part, the labor
involved in the garden, theweeding and the planting, for
the actual calorie and vitaminand mineral input that I get
from those plants in the gardenare great.
So, with that being said,there's certain crops I don't
grow because they're not goingto store.

(47:20):
So I like to focus a lot oncrops that are long-term storage
crops that don't involve amassive curing and preserving
process, like sweet potatoes,potatoes, winter squash which
the things that would fall inwinter squash would be acorn
squash, butternut squash.
There's a million wintersquashes got that really hard

(47:40):
outer shell and they storeincredibly well.
Spaghetti squash they'll storefor months and months and you
don't really.
There's not really a curingprocess for the most part how do
you do that?

TJ (47:49):
like what?
What processes do you gothrough?
Because I know my grandpa usedto plant potatoes and all that
kind of stuff.
What does that look like?

Dirk (47:55):
they're gonna have a little bit more of a curing
process and the tough part aboutit is you really do need a, I
think, a root cell, a true rootcellar with to actually keep
regular potatoes they want humidand cool, and it's like it's
hard for me to create that typeof environment.
So, potatoes a little bittougher, um.
Sweet potatoes a little biteasier.
Winter squash ultra easy, um,and then you get your onions and

(48:19):
your garlic, all that.
You know there's a little bitof curing process in those, but
it's just put them in a dryplace and let the tops dry out
and snip the tops and they storethem incredibly well really.
Um, so a lot of those, thosetypes of crops I like to, I like
to focus on because they'rejust easier, um, less of a crazy
storage process compared tolike, if you're wanting to, can,

(48:41):
tomatoes and cucumbers, and thelist goes on, yeah, and there's
people who've gotten intofreeze drying and all that kind
of stuff.
I don't have freeze dryer, Idon't mess with it.
Yeah, um, I've got a greenhouseso I can pretty much have those
types of crops through december.
Um, so from may to december Ican have tomatoes and cucumbers
and all that yeah, that makes alot of sense too.
So the other months I'm justlike if I want to can some

(49:03):
pickles, great.
Or if you want to freeze drysomething, I just I don't have
one.

TJ (49:07):
Yeah um, so did I read anything on the website about
you?
You know how to create rootsellers, or you've got classes
on that so I've, yeah, so I've.

Dirk (49:17):
I went through a permaculture design class out of
illinois.
That's where I kind of reallygot passionate about
permaculture and, um, I wouldn'tsay I'm proficient.
Yeah, how to design one, butbut the pro I mean not the
problem.
The issue is we do.
We live in a human, hot, humanenvironment and the difficult
part is you've got to get deepenough into the ground to get

(49:38):
that fit.
You're trying to get that 55degree temperature, which, okay,
once you get to a certain depth, um, you know that's, that's
their temperature and so that'swhat you're really trying to
leverage to keep those cropscool.
And also it can, depending uponyour climate, it also will

(49:59):
maintain that temperature in thewinter months.
So, no, I'm not proficient init.
I never actually built one.
I'd love to one day andexperiment with it.

TJ (50:06):
I may have to get you on my property.

Dirk (50:08):
All of these things unfortunately just cost money,
but if money was endless, yeah,I would be experimenting with a
lot of that type of stuff.

TJ (50:19):
That's something I would like to try.
I have a steep hill and so Ican kind of dig into the hill
and do one a little bit easier,so I may try that at some point.

Dirk (50:25):
I mean, if I had yeah, if resources were endless, I would,
I would, I would build it outbasically like a storm cellar
and concrete it out and get itas deep as I can.

Daniel (50:35):
Talking about community a little bit.
We've kind of hit all the otherstuff, I think, but in Colorado
were you part of a communitygarden?

Dirk (50:42):
Yeah, so that's where it started, I was in a yeah, I was
living in a uh, so like thirdstory apartment and I was I
started my first seeds in uh, ona little grow rack.
I still start my gardenseedlings that way, super
efficient, um.
But yeah, I was starting myfirst tomatoes for a community
garden plot and it was probablya three acre community garden in

(51:04):
the city and break it.
You could kind of rent a plotand that's where it all started,
and everybody there's, you know, passionate about growing,
growing a little garden.
I mean you have it's not a hugespace, you've got like a, I
think maybe a 10 by 20 orsomething like that, five by 10.
I can't remember how big it was, but just the perfect
opportunity to get into it andit was so cool that it happened

(51:26):
to be right down the road fromfrom our little apartment and
that's how it all began.

Daniel (51:31):
Have you ever seen the one over at two rivers park
where you can get those littleplots?
Is it kind of like that, verysimilar?
Yeah, it's exactly like that.
That always seemed unique Cause, like my house, just the sun is
not good where where my yard is, is not good where where my
yard is.
But I can't imagine myselfdriving, you know, 30 minutes to
work on the the thing 30minutes back.
Like you know, I grew up we hada farm.

(51:52):
You know had a garden, but Imean working right there was
hard enough, like driving,adding driving time.

Dirk (51:56):
I don't know if I'd ever get that done no, I mean the
only reason I did it because itwas it was literally like two
minutes.
Yeah, I could, I could jogthere, but yeah, I'm not driving
30 minutes a 10.
It's like dude, that makes nosense.

Daniel (52:07):
Yeah, I'm going to go pay at the store for this stuff,
but some organic or fine, youknow, if that's the way it's
selling it.

Dirk (52:13):
Well, I mean in my town, like the first place we bought
we moved back to it was North ofthe rock.
Actually, I was growingtomatoes in my front flower bags
.
That was the best sun spot.
Yeah, um, I had tomatoes andpeppers and arugula and radishes
and all that, but yeah, thatwas, that was our uh landscaping
, yeah yeah, no, I've done thattoo and I know that may not be
everybody's thing, like I don'twant.

(52:34):
I don't want that stuff growing, I want real landscaping.
It's like okay well, that's anoption if you do want it.

Daniel (52:40):
If that's your only sunny spot, you can't do that
yeah, I want to do that in myhouse because we could have some
spots my my middle kid.
She loves growing stuff in theraised beds and the deer just
eat it alive.
I'd have to have some way tolike fence this in and she was
growing some green beans.
They have green beans but theyeat the tops out of that thing
like crazy really yeah, yeah,it's, it's.

Dirk (53:00):
It's fascinating how, because we don't have deer
issued all at our property,which is surprising because I
see them all the time yeah, um,and they can be a real problem,
you know.
But I know some farmers myfarming mentor, when we were
farming commercially.
They use a garlic spray, um,and there's a lot of different
things, but the biggest thingobviously that keeps them out is
an electric fence.

TJ (53:21):
Yeah, electricity deters a lot of animals I've heard human
hair is another good one.

Dirk (53:29):
Yeah, get your hair cut, sprinkling it around it's uh,
yeah, I mean, but just a couple,even just a couple strands of
electric, because a lot ofpeople like I need a 10 foot
high electric fence, like justtwo strands and bait the strand.
Um, they could jump over that,but as soon as they're going to
go in and sniff that, they'regoing to sniff the bait and then

(53:49):
they'll get shocked and then umno, I want to do that again.
Yeah, um, cause obviously peoplego deer can jump over that.
Yeah, they can, but if it'sbaited they're generally going
to get shocked first.

Daniel (54:00):
Yeah, yeah, just cause they're curious.

Dirk (54:02):
Yeah, makes sense or the double.
A lot of people do doublefencing because of the way, from
my understanding, the way thedepth perception of a deer works
.
You've got a fence here and yougot a fence.
You know, three foot in betweeneach fence, they won't jump it.
Yeah, even if it's only likefour foot.
I've heard that works as well,but obviously it's two fences.

Daniel (54:32):
It seems like a pain to me.
Yeah, yeah, that doesn't seemas uh how efficient.
No, yeah, so you started off inthe community garden, it sounds
.
You said you had a farm standat one point.
Y'all shut down.

Dirk (54:37):
It was, uh, like it was a self-serve, self-serve yes
that's what I was gonna honorsystem.
Yeah, yeah, I've had you go in,you chop, you check out on
select what you got on the ipad.
We tried to make it as simpleas possible.
Originally started with just acash box and Venmo and cash app
and we just trusted people thatwe had a menu and what the
prices were and just trustedpeople to add it up.
Now we did have two cameras inthe place, eventually just moved

(54:59):
to an iPad so I could trackeverything and we needed to
collect sales tax.
So just simplified the processand it worked great and we were
we actually were.
I mean, we were profitable, wemade money.
It's just I saw it as like man,in order to make more, the money
I want to make with this, I'mgonna have to triple my sales,
which means chasing more salesoutlets, and because I wasn't

(55:22):
going to do that kind of volumethrough that store in our
geographical location, um, andit was like and then I'm going
to have to hire, and then likeI've just got increased overhead
and I was like it shouldn'tmake sense.
Um, so I was like I'd ratherjust get back to homesteading,
grow food just for us and thefamily and friends and get back
to enjoying it again, cause Iwas just burned out on it, um,

(55:45):
but it was a fantastic learningexperience.

Daniel (55:47):
Yeah, the honor system worked well, honor system worked
great for us.

Dirk (55:51):
I'm not saying that's going to work everywhere, but in
a place like Greenbrier workspretty good, I mean yeah it's
like if you want to come still apound of ground beef, go for it
, but we're not the likelytarget of someone wanting to raw
.
You know the likely target ofsomeone wanting to rob.
You know, rob a place and make500 bucks.

Daniel (56:08):
Cause they're not going to be able to take any cash.
Go resell your meat somewhere.

Dirk (56:11):
You're going to buy a bag of lettuce and and some some
radishes.
It's like, yeah, I mean.

Daniel (56:16):
I've heard you know some places do that kind of thing
with firewood and they do well,yep.
So sometimes they do betterthan you know.
People leave more money thanthe fire would even cost.
So I was curious how thatworked out, or if y'all shut it
down because they weren't doingwell or no.
It was just it was done prettygood.

Dirk (56:31):
It just scales hard.
It wasn't, as you know, justtypically in rural environments.
Just be straight up, peoplecare less about what they eat.
It tends to be I don't want to,I'm trying to use the right
words.
Yeah, it just tends to be alittle bit poorer and typically
people that have less money tendto buy more processed things.

(56:55):
In reality, if you get creative, it's cheaper to actually buy
health foods than a lot of theaddictive processed foods.
But the problem is, if you grewup your whole life eating that
type of stuff and it's just likeany other addiction, man, it's
hard to get off of and and go.
If you've never eaten avegetable, start eating a
vegetable.
It's like it's tough yeah, I'msure.

TJ (57:18):
So you know.
You've talked about the farmstand.
You had talked about umprocessing the chickens and that
kind of stuff, and then thecommunity garden in Colorado.
What do you think those thingshave taught you about community
life with other people?

Dirk (57:33):
Man, I just think that that's the way God made us to
live.
I mean, I'm a Christian, I'moutspoken about it and I just
think that we're we're made forcommunity and we live in,
obviously, such a disconnectedworld nowadays.
Um, and I, you know, I went andvolunteered on a guy's farm
that I was wanting to learn fromit was an urban farm when I was

(57:55):
in Colorado, cause I was like,man, I'll just want to learn,
I'll come out.
Now.
He didn't pay me, he's likeI'll pay you.
I was doing the groundwork, butI was going to do it for free
because I was like I just wantto learn.
Um, but I think, like, even whenwe did our butch, we did a
butchering.
I called a butchering partywhere we butchered, you know, 50
meat chickens.
Everybody took 10 of them homewith them.
Um, man, there was justsomething it was like wow, like

(58:18):
this is what we're made for.
Like it was a blast.
Everybody left there.
They had so much fun, they gotto learn, they got to do
something together.
They got to help me in theprocess.
I mean, cause I wouldn't goingto butcher all 50 by myself.
Yeah, um, and so I think a lotof those, those lessons of just
like man, that's.
We're made for community and todepend on other people.
Um, and I think we get thatwrong in the homestead space,

(58:40):
like.
I want to be completelyself-sufficient and it's like no
, I mean, I think we're made fordependence in ways.
But but to answer the question,I think with everything you
know you people could look atour farm like it was a failure.
It's like wouldn't have failedyou.
I learned a ton and I thinkevery process, even in the
garden, if you're all youranimal, or if you get sheep or

(59:03):
cows and like half your animalsdie, it wasn a failure.
Like everything's a learningexperience and um, that's the
way I kind of view everything.
But I think the community pieceis just huge, um, just having
people that I don't want tolike-minded and see things the
way you do, um, in the realm ofof the homesteading and all that
, but just good to do with otherpeople's a lot of fun.

TJ (59:23):
So do you feel like you have a larger community now that you
have this, oh, instead thanbefore?

Dirk (59:29):
I've got.
So you know, I mean part of itis through social media and that
is the one cool part of like.
I've got some cool friends that, yeah, that are that like I
feel like we're buddies andwe've never even actually met
but we'll hop on the phone allthe time and chat, yeah, just
what's going on in theirhomestead and and connecting so
yeah, I would say for sure.

Daniel (59:48):
So you think most people need these skills or should
learn these skills ofhomesteading?

Dirk (59:54):
It's hard for me to say should everyone homestead or
should everyone be doing this?
Because here's the thing ifsomeone was telling me that I
have to be doing this and I'mnot passionate about it and I've
got zero interest in it, it'slike I'm trying to think like
that would be like someone tellme well, you need to know how to
sew.
Yeah, because like that's aself-sufficient skill.

(01:00:16):
It's like, dude, I'm not sewingbro I'm not.
I'm not, we're wearing rags it'slike I'm not gonna start sewing
.
I mean, if my wife gets intothat, fantastic, I will support
that, that passion all day, butlike so.
But at the same time, yeah, Ido think that I think there's
valuable skills that we've lostin today's day and age that are

(01:00:41):
like we were talking aboutearlier, that like that our
grandparents had, yeah, um, andwe just we live in a different
time um and food is so.
Food is so systematized, it's socorporate and it's so big that
it's like you know, I thinkthere's something empowering
about growing your own tomato orkilling or harvesting your own

(01:01:01):
deer, um to raising your ownchickens for eggs, like and
that's the thing I think peoplethink like I've got to do it all
.
It's like you can't do it all,I'm sorry.
Yeah, just start with some.
Just start with some thingsthat you want to do and just
enjoy it yeah, I think the gritto do it, though, is good for
everybody.

Daniel (01:01:19):
Yeah, but you know, most of us don't have 20 kids now to
run all this, so that's that'show they did it back in the day,
so yeah, yeah.

Dirk (01:01:28):
So it'd be hard for me to say yeah.
Should everyone have it?
Yeah, have the skills, orshould everyone do it?
I think everyone should try,you know, even if it's simple as
grow in your apartment.

TJ (01:01:38):
Just grow a tomato plant out on your patio just something
yeah, I think it teaches you alot about life, yeah, so what do
you think is like the numberone thing that you've learned
about yourself or life throughthis process?

Dirk (01:01:50):
It's a great question.
I think a lot of things.
I think that and we weretalking I know we've talked a
little bit about it, but I thinkyou've just got to try stuff,
you got to be willing to to risk, you got to be willing to for
things to fall flat and to fail,um, and I think it also just
teaches you that death is real.

(01:02:10):
Um, you know, like I lost mydad in high school, my, my wife
lost her mom a few years ago.
Um, all of a sudden, it wasunexpected.
Um, she doesn't have arelationship with her dad at all
.
He's alive, but it's crazy, um,and so it's just taught us, I

(01:02:31):
think, even more so, not onlythrough our own experience of of
losing people, but when you'reon a homestead and you have
animals, they're gonna die.
Yeah, um, either they get killedby a predator or you're just,
you're just butchering it.
So I think for me, it, justlike man, it makes me feel
incredibly connected to just thecycles of life and reality.

(01:02:53):
Yeah, um, and and for me, likeI do, I feel super connected to
my, my relationship with God.
Through it, just that, like,hey, man, this is something that
he created, um, that I get toenjoy.
Um, I'm just a steward of allthis that's been given to me,
whether it's the land, whetherit's money, whether it's the
animals, I'm the steward.

(01:03:19):
And my goal and my role was tosee flourishing come, and so
those are some of the biglessons I would say I think
that's good.

TJ (01:03:26):
Yeah, I think that's some recurring themes that we've
heard from a lot of the otherpodcasts that we've done the
same same kind of things.
People are close to land sayingthe same things that you're
saying.

Dirk (01:03:36):
Just it's real man, you know, and yeah, we, just we, the
day and age we live in and it'snot going anywhere.
We're just going to continuewith technology, to continue to
become more and moredisconnected.
I think, um yeah, and I'm nothere to demonize it like I.

Daniel (01:03:52):
It's been a while either to me, I mean the technology
yeah, well, like we said, we'vetalked about this a little bit
like we wouldn't be able to dothis podcast without technology.
There's things that I think wecan use it to make things better
, but some reason we're using itand our life's getting busier.
It should go the other way andsomehow we've got it reversed.
Yeah.

Dirk (01:04:12):
Yeah, it comes down to us.
The technology is not theproblem, it's our abuse of it
and our addiction to it.

TJ (01:04:19):
Yeah, addiction, yeah, if you had something that you
wanted your kids.
I know you've got one kid rightnow, or grandkids to take away
from this whole process?

Dirk (01:04:30):
is there one thing that you wanted your kids I know you
got one kid right now orgrandkids to take away from this
whole process?
Is there one thing you like?
This is the legacy that I wantto leave.
It's a great question.
I love talking about this typeof stuff because you know there
was a, especially with my dadpassing, when he got diagnosed
with cancer.
It was he like turned into azombie, yeah, and he, up in 47,
had a really rough childhood,man, so like and, and he did a
million amazing things but likehe was, he was emotionally not

(01:04:53):
there and especially once he gotdiagnosed man, he just was like
shut down completely.
So I think for me as a seven Iwas 17 at the time and every, I
think every son and daughter,but son especially longs for
their father's blessing andtheir father's delight over them
.
And for me, I was just longingfor that as a 17-year-old just

(01:05:17):
his parting words and there wasnever any.
And so I think for me, whatwould I want?
My kids I have one son rightnow, we'll see if I have more my
sons and daughters, mygrandchildren.
I think ultimately and I knowthis is getting a little bit
more philosophical.
But I think, at the end of theday, like I want and I say this

(01:05:43):
all the time, because when Istarted homesteading, a lot of
the vision was I want my kids tobe able to grow up around this.
I grew up in the suburbs, whichis great.
I have a ton of great memories,but I want my kids to be able
to be connected to the samethings we've talked about for
the past hour on the podcastright now.
Yeah, they get they're.
They're connected to reality,they're connected to death there

(01:06:03):
, because all those thingsharbor about and make you
question life.
And then, what is the meaningof life?
What is my purpose?
Was I created?
Was I not created?
Um, is there a god?
Is there not like you start tobegin to ask all those questions
that I think everyone needs toask in life um and um.
But I think most of all, like Iwant to just create thousands of
moments and stories andmemories that they have with me,

(01:06:25):
that where it's like, hey, andI've got some of those with my
dad out changing a tire my tirewas flat as a 16 year old, he
comes out there and helps me.
He didn't say a word, but hewas just with me and we just we
had that moment together.
So if I can create a ton ofthose moments with them and and
ultimately teach them how tolive life and be a man or a

(01:06:45):
woman in this world, that's myultimate goal, because I know
that I feel like that's mygreatest contribution to the
generations to come, when no onewill remember my name.
But if I can change thatgeneration through each child,
that's the goal.
That may not have been theanswer.

TJ (01:07:06):
No, I love that answer.
Yeah, that's exactly's the goal.
Um, that may not be the answer.
No, that's no, I love thatanswer.
Yeah, that's exactly what wewant to hear.
I think you know, the more andmore we talk to different people
the whole, the whole premise,mind our podcast is talking to
people who have these stories inthe outdoors and the more and
more we hear about those, youknow it's, it's those memories
that you make, whether it'sdoing hard things like
processing chicken, or whetherit's the the tire that you're
changing or whatever it might be, you know those things are

(01:07:28):
making memories and for somereason, some of those best
memories that we've had are tiedto those hard times being in
outdoors and doing things, andso yeah we get it.

Dirk (01:07:40):
I mean I remember my grandfather raised tons.
He's raised horses his wholelife, trains them, but I
remember as a young boy he hadone that got caught up in barbed
wire at another farm and he wastrying to rehab it and it just
wasn't happening, man.
And so one of the days I wasthere the horse had kind of

(01:08:03):
fallen.
He had it in kind of like awheelchair type deal and he was
like we've got to kill it and sowe drug it, I mean we drug it
out there, and he, yeah, clippedit three times in the head with
a, with a gun, and I was likewith blood splatters all over us
and it was like all right, thatwas uh.
It's ingrained in my memoryforever.

(01:08:24):
But just being with him, I think, was one of the coolest parts.
I always felt his delight, he'drun me around.
This is one of my grand boys.
There's so many unplanned, I'msure with y'all's kids they're
going to have so many memoriesthat you're going to have the

(01:08:46):
intentional moments that theydon't remember.
You thought they would and then, but it's a lot of those
moments that are just unplannedand you're just together, that
that for some reason they justthey.
They remember forever.

Daniel (01:08:57):
Yeah.
So since making this switchover to this, do you feel like
you've slowed down some, or youthink it just got more busy for
you, or think I think I've cutout some things.

Dirk (01:09:08):
Um, I've tried not to.
I've, because I went frommarket, commercial farming to
where it's like mass volume toall right, we've got to scale
this down significantly.
So I've like cut my garden inhalf, like five times, it feels
like.
So just trying to do less withmore.
I'm not trying to produce aninsane amount, because then you
got to preserve and heart topreserve and harvest and
preserve all of it.

(01:09:29):
And even with chickens, it'slike you have a billion chickens
.
It's like you've got to figureout something to do with the
eggs.
So I've started to try to scaledown the systems more so that I
can make the systems moreproductive, and that's probably
been one of the biggest themesand will continue to be.
One of the biggest themes ishow can I scale down and create
better systems so that Iactually can have more abundance

(01:09:51):
from less?
And that all comes down tosystems and maintenance and
things like that, because ifyou've planted a million things
and they've got weeds everywhereand they're out competing it
and then you get a really poorharvest, it's like you'd have
been better off doing half andmaintaining things better for
sure.
Um, or caring for your animalsbetter rotating them sooner, or

(01:10:13):
whatever.

TJ (01:10:14):
So if our listeners want to make maybe this transition like
you've done maybe not as large,with quick or whatever how can
they follow your lead?
And they see that kind of stuffon social media.
I know I think Daniel and Iwere reading that you offer some
consulting on your website anddifferent things like that.
What's the best way for ourlisteners to get in touch with

(01:10:35):
you and benefit from thisknowledge that you've gained
through this process?

Dirk (01:10:39):
Yeah, so obviously online, but short form and long like.
We were across every platformInstagram, facebook, tik TO Like
.
We're across every platformInstagram, facebook, TikTok,
youtube.
So obviously short form content, but obviously that's just a
tiny little clip.
There's a lot of how to longform content that I've put out,
but for most people I got peoplereach out like, hey, I've got
this piece of land, I'm nothomesteaded at all.

(01:11:00):
How do I like kind of lay thisout, yeah and so, yeah, I do
offer consulting and I do thatwith people, kind of help them
lay out and design theirhomestead based on their goals,
cause not everybody wants to dothe same thing.
Yeah, and so we kind of createa system, a layout, how to
design it, where to put this,cause all those things are
really crucial.
You don't want to put yourchicken coop you know it's like

(01:11:31):
that's something you're going tovisit morning and evening and
potentially in the middle of theday, and the garden, it's like
you want that to be close.
You want to design things inzones, um, so, yeah, consulting,
um, and in the future we'llhave some more uh course type
stuff on on laying out designhomesteads and hyper focus stuff
on chickens and sheep andthings like that that are more
digital products.

TJ (01:11:44):
But yeah, right now, if they're wanting some really
one-on-one help, it'd be theconsulting all right, and we'll
include your like social mediahandles all that stuff on
description of the podcast andwe do that oh, that sounds great
what's one small way that ourlisteners can slow down or
rewild, in your view?

Dirk (01:12:03):
man, I think the number one way, like there's something
that my wife and I we we try topractice it more.
Um, we call it sabbathing, butit's it's just a moment to just
disconnect from the busyness ofthe world, and for us that is
turning screens off.
So we'll actually turn thephones off, we put them in a
basket in the house that's cool,um, and we don't, and like tvs,

(01:12:25):
that's like we're not doingscreens.
You can read a book.
You can go outside, um, walkaround, uh, just because I think
that there's those types ofthings reground us, not only
relationally but I think, togetting out in nature.
Because if you don't have a tvand a phone, like what are you
gonna do?
You're probably the weather'snot horrific outside, you're

(01:12:45):
probably gonna go outside.
Yeah, um, horrific outside.
You're probably going to gooutside.
Yeah, or go hunting or fishingor swimming or whatever you know
.
Just get outside.
Yeah, it's what we're made forman.

Daniel (01:12:59):
I like it.
Yep, love it.
I think we try to do that too.
You know, the information ageis just dopamine addicted, so
like if you can just get off ofit a little bit and you enjoy
everything else so much more.

Dirk (01:13:10):
So yeah, and it's so hard to do if it's in your pocket
because we're just, you're on itfor even yeah.

Daniel (01:13:15):
I got this thought here we go.
Let's look at it.

Dirk (01:13:17):
Yeah, so the only way I can break it is if I put it on a
shelf, like it's not on my bodyPhone.

Daniel (01:13:25):
Well, we really appreciate you being here, man,
thank you for having me.

TJ (01:13:28):
I've really enjoyed it yeah.

Daniel (01:13:30):
I haven't talked most.
I feel like I've just listenedand joined the conversation.

TJ (01:13:34):
Because I talk a lot.

Dirk (01:13:36):
That's what he's saying I appreciate you having me on.

TJ (01:13:38):
Yeah, man, we appreciate you .
I look forward to maybe anothertime soon.

Dirk (01:13:41):
Absolutely, let's do it absolutely that's it that's it
for this week's episode.

Daniel (01:13:49):
Thanks for hanging out with us.
If you like the show, you canfind more at natobco or follow
us on instagram at natobpodcast,or find us on facebook at
natural obsession.
We'll see you there.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.