May 21, 2024 • 30 mins
Hey there, Dawn Gorham here, and if you've ever felt the sting of a social media squall or found joy in a mason jar of home-canned strawberries, this episode of the Gorham Homestead podcast is your kind of story. From standing my ground on raw milk debates to sharing laughs over beekeeping acquisitions gone awry, I'm peeling back the curtain on homestead life - the sweet, the spicy, and the unavoidably sticky.
This time around, we're swapping tales from the vibrant trenches of gardening, where tomato plants run wild and bell peppers make for a freeze-drying frenzy. I'm tipping my hat to the local corn supplier while dreaming big about squash and okra expansions. But it's not just about the veggies; it's the heart-pumping thrill of adding more life to the mix - like welcoming my granddaughter Savannah, and those moments of sheer chaos, like trying to outsmart a crafty groundhog with nothing but fishing line and stubborn determination.
Strap in for a candid exploration of homesteading and its dance with daily life. From the practical magic of automated milking to the detailed planning that lets us sneak away for a quick trip (chickens and cows notwithstanding), these stories are a testament to family, resilience, and the power of a well-tended garden. So, whether you're a seasoned homesteader or just bee-curious about the buzz, join us as we keep it real and cultivate a life rooted in tradition and togetherness.
TheGorhamHomestead.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey y'all and welcome to keeping it real, the Gorham
Homestead podcast, where we talkabout real food, real natural
living, the real art of naturalhealing and real life.
Out here on Tennessee Homestead, I'm your host, dawn Gorham,
and today is Tuesday, may the21st Sorry, I had to think about
that just a second and you'relistening to episode number 12.
(00:41):
And today is just going to be a.
What's going on in thehomestead?
T is not with me today.
He is having to work, so I amsolo on this one.
So what's going on?
Well, first and foremost, lookslike I created quite the stink
on social media this weekdealing with Mr Harrison
(01:04):
Butker's comments and his speechthat he made at the Catholic
College, and I'm just reallysurprised at the backlash that
he has received for advocatingfor traditional families.
And I don't understand.
Like I had women tell me to goget back in the kitchen, like
(01:27):
that is an insult, and I'm like,got it, I am going back to the
kitchen.
That's where I'm happiest.
I'm cooking, I'm canning, I'mmaking strawberry jam, I'm
baking bread.
I mean, I'm happy.
Why is that such an insult?
And that's something that Ijust don't understand and part
of me wanted to go.
You know, get back to your desk.
(01:48):
You know how did you get off ofyour chain from your desk, but
I didn't.
I kind of kept the uglies tomyself.
And also, the raw milk trollshave been out Really getting hit
hard by people just coming outof the woodwork.
I don't even know.
Like they're not from here,obviously a couple of them are
(02:10):
from New York and you know areaswhere raw milk is just
apparently unheard of.
Because dude said he was anattorney and that he had
reported me to Facebook foradvocating for raw milk.
That's dangerous and I'm goingto kill people and I'm trying to
catch the bird flu and juststupid stuff.
Yeah, and it would reallysurprise me that dude said he
(02:34):
was a retired attorney and hadplenty of time to advocate for
public health.
And so my husband, you know,came back and said well, I'm a
practicing attorney, not retired, and I have plenty of time to
advocate for food freedom.
He doesn't really have plentyof time to do that.
I do it and then call on him asneeded.
(02:55):
But yeah, it was just reallyreally surprising.
I know that every once in awhile that kind of stuff against
raw milk rears its ugly head,just based on something that
gets out there and people get ahold of it and it gets all blown
out of proportion, like rightnow.
The big concern is the bird fluwith raw milk in cows, and I
(03:26):
think that is again a scaretactic, much like everything
else that we've had over theyears.
The, you know, at the federallevel they hate raw milk.
Um, the usda hates raw milk andthey have done everything,
excuse me, that they canpossibly do.
I'm short of just making itillegal across the board, but
(03:48):
it's just strange.
It's just really strange howthat cycles around like it does.
So some things going on aroundhere.
We had our meeting last monthit was the Dixon County
Homesteaders Alliance meetingthat I talk about that we meet
once a month here on ourhomestead.
We are not having a meetingthis month just because the
(04:12):
monthly meeting falls onMemorial Day weekend and I knew
that a lot of people would beout of town.
Plus, it's chicken processingweekend this weekend.
So we have some people signedup for our chicken processing
workshop and I'm going to goover some of the other things
(04:32):
with those folks that I havelearned over the years, like my
training with for trail feedsthat I did at MPS MPS Farms out
in Centerville.
I'm going to talk about how toyou know how to get the best
growth that you can for yourbirds and what the laws are
regarding harvesting and sellingthose birds, and then we will
actually process the birds andthey'll get to go home with with
(04:56):
a bird for Memorial Day weekendHopefully maybe somebody will
go cook it or smoke it.
So I don't know, bees went in.
Wow, that was an experience.
We went to pick up the bees andso I was thinking, you know,
I've gone and I've helped peopleprocess their not process open
(05:17):
up their hives and inspect andI've got my little bee suit and
got my little bee gloves and alittle smoker.
And you know that's what Ithought I was doing when I went
to go buy my first bee package,which was a full colony, it was
10 frames and it was, you know,queen for sure and already
(05:38):
making honey, and so I broughtthe whole big old thing home.
But we got there and again Iwas expecting five hives, 10
hives, didn't know.
Got there and it was acommercial beekeeper which I was
told that.
I was totally told that it wasa commercial beekeeper, just did
(06:01):
not process in my head whatthat meant, just did not process
in my head what that meant.
So T and Chase and I had leftour granddaughter's birthday
party oh yeah, had to leave thegranddaughter's birthday party,
unfortunately to go pick up thebees.
And got there and it wasbeehives as far as the eye could
(06:31):
see, beehives, everywhereBeehives, which was fun.
But there was also this blackcloud of bees surrounding the
truck and I thought I was goingto get there and put on my
little bee suit and get mylittle bees and put them in the
back of the truck and pay theguy.
And I was going to be on mymerry way.
There's no way I was gettingout of that truck and being able
to put on my bee suit.
(06:51):
There's nowhere to put on mybee suit.
And so I rolled down the windowjust a crack I mean just a hair
and realized bees are, you knowthey're trying to come in, so
I'm rolling that window back up.
(07:12):
And so the beekeeper wasHispanic, which is fine.
His English was good, but youknow it was very like short, uh,
choppy English.
He was like I put the bees inthe back for you.
I put the bees in the back foryou.
I was like okay, so do that.
So he put the bees in the backand he um closes the tailgate
(07:33):
and walks around to T's side ofthe vehicle to get the cash
because T's handed him, you know, the money and cash out the
window.
Well, the dude is in his beesuit and I guess either he
doesn't realize or we don'trealize that bees are like
swarming his head, like swarminghis head, like Linus, with the
dirt just all around his head.
And so T reaches out to handhim the cash and about that time
(07:54):
these bunch of bees, like bees,come into the cab of the truck
and T gets stung like nine timeson the side of his head, in his
temple, and he's trying to rollup the window but he can't.
Of course he's getting stung,so he's panicking.
Well, he can't find the windowto hit the roll-up thing and
(08:17):
he's actually rolling down thewindow in the back seat, where
our son was, and Chase is havinga meltdown saying, you know,
bad words that teenagers can sayas close as he can get to
actually swearing.
And I got stung a couple oftimes on the leg.
T got stung about nine times onthe face, several times on the
(08:39):
legs.
Luckily Chase never got stungin the back seat, I feel like
because he was not happy all theway home.
Why are we getting bees?
I can't believe.
Why did we do this, why did wedo this?
And we got the window rolled up, got the dude paid.
We're driving home and bees arestill like swarming around the
(09:01):
windows trying to get in, eventhough we're moving down the
road.
So we get home and we justleave the truck Like we hop out
and everybody goes running, tand Chase go running into the
house.
I went running into the cannerybecause that's where I had my
bee suit, so I grabbed it andbrought it with me and we just
(09:21):
sit and everybody, they'relooking out the window and I can
see them up there and they'relooking down at me at the window
down here and it's like it'slike there's an army out there
and we're watching them.
So 30, 45 minutes goes by and Idecided I'll get on my bee suit
and I'm going to move the truckover to where the beehive is
(09:45):
going to go, which is over,closer to the garden and the
orchard and my little naturalherb garden, my prairie
recreation, which is about, youknow, 20 feet over behind a big
dirt pile.
And so, um, I backed the truckover there, fully covered, fully
(10:06):
covered in my bee suit, and Iget out and these bees are just
mad.
They are so mad and I know it'sbecause they bounced and
bounced coming up my drivewayand whatever else.
So I get them out and I setthem out on the platform that
they're going to be on.
They're swarming me, they'remad at me, they're letting me
(10:27):
know they're mad at me and T isup feeding the chickens, like
two football fields away from me, from where I'm at, maybe a
football field, at least 100yards though, maybe 150 yards
and before I know it I hear himscreaming up there.
(10:54):
They had gone from all the waydown where we were up there and
started attacking him up tryingto feed and water the chickens.
So they got him again.
I don't know.
I don't know if they smelled,if he still had bee stings, if
he still had pheromones on him.
I don't know what the deal was,but that poor guy, oh my gosh,
they just wore him out that day.
(11:15):
So the next day is when theinstallation was and the bees
were still mad.
I mean, they're still mad now.
They're just an angry littlehive, I think.
But so one of the guys thatknows how to install bees came
and we, you know we goteverything done, got it
installed.
I only have one hive as ofright now and I have.
(11:37):
I did have somebody come andcheck to make sure I had that
I'm queen right, because myfriend John was not able to find
the queen just because theywere so and we had people here
as well watching, and a coupleof those people got stung.
I mean, it was you knowhoneybee stings are not as bad
as some other stings, but it'sstill not fun.
(11:59):
It's not something that youwant to invite and encourage.
So did not find the queenduring the install, but another
gentleman was kind enough tocome and check and tell he's
positive that we do have a queen.
I do need to pinch off somequeen cells though, because we
(12:22):
did see several of those inthere and I don't want them to
swarm.
So I am going to ask one of theguys or gals from my local bee
club or my friend Joe that ownsa bees closet, somebody.
I'm going to get somebody tocome and help me inspect the
hive now that it's been here acouple of weeks.
(12:43):
I fed them, they should besettled in and doing well and
they need an inspection.
So, and I have registered mybees, because here in Tennessee
it is a $500 fine if you do notregister your bees and so I did
go ahead and do that, eventhough I only have one hive, and
so hopefully that will beanother resource for me if I
(13:07):
need help, as my local extensionoffice and my bee club and
other mentors, people who havehad bees forever Everybody's
great in the bee community abouthelping people like that.
So, um, as far as the the garden, um, I have planted, so I
overdid.
Maybe you know how youovercompensate sometimes, like
(13:31):
last last summer, I was tomatopoor, I was begging for tomatoes
.
Um, despite the fact that I hadplanted several you know a lot
of tomato plants, I didn't carefor them like I should have and
I didn't get a good harvest offof them.
Plus, I got busy and a lot ofthat stuff just didn't get done.
So in the summer, about October, I'm realizing I only put up
(13:53):
like 10 jars of tomatoes and wego through about 100 jars of
tomatoes.
So I visited my Aunt Penny at alog house nursery in Camden and
I bought about 100 tomatoplants.
Maybe not that many.
There's a lot, though there area lot of tomato plants and
(14:14):
about 30 or 40 differentvarieties of peppers.
I bought those Um and I gotimplanted.
A lot of those I did are bellpeppers, um, cause I want to
freeze, dry as much or as manybell peppers this year as I
possibly can and freeze some andyou know I like freeze dried
much better than dehydratedthough.
(14:35):
So that's what we're going todo.
And Strawberry Month.
So I did take out looking forstrawberries the place that I
normally get them is in Milanand I knew better.
I don't know what I wasthinking, but I took out driving
on a Friday to go getstrawberries from my line.
(14:58):
Got there, there was nobodythere, like they had opened and
sold out within an hour, and Iknew that.
I knew that that happened.
I don't know why I didn't justtry to get there, you know, as
they opened.
But I can't.
You know, honestly, I can't.
Unless I get up at threeo'clock and milk at four o'clock
(15:20):
, I'm not going to get anywhereby seven or eight o'clock.
It's just not going to happen.
So I didn't get there till like830, nine o'clock, and so after
that I headed out.
I started calling around askingif anybody knew anybody else
that had strawberries and Ifound this place in Clarksville.
So I headed up to Clarksvilleand I bought several flats.
(15:42):
I think I got like 15 gallonsexcuse me, 15 gallons or so and
got back and, you know, put alot of those in the freeze dryer
.
My friend Cindy came over and wegot, you know, we processed
them and cut them up and it wasfun.
It was a lot of fun doing that.
I would much rather do stufflike that with someone,
(16:08):
especially women.
I love canning with other womenand even doing any sort of food
process and food preservation.
It's just more fun with a bunchof women in the kitchen.
It just really, really is.
So I was really thankful thatshe came over and helped me with
that.
I got my green beans planted, soI got a whole row of green
(16:30):
beans.
I really don't need them.
I've still got about 100 jarsof green beans that I've done
over the last two years and thendidn't go through them all.
But I feel like I'm notgardening if I don't do green
beans that I've done over thelast two years and then didn't
go through them all.
But I feel like I'm notgardening if I don't do green
beans, so I put in the greenbeans, put in a row, and my
(17:03):
garden is probably 40 by 100,maybe 100 feet long, so I got
that.
I've still got to put in mysquash, my cucumbers, my
zucchini, my okra If I'm goingto do butter beans this year, or
purple whole peas which Ireally don't need peas either
Still got a bunch of those.
I'm going to have to findsomeone who sells sweet corn.
I love peaches and cream corn,so I'm going to see if I can
find somebody, because I justdon't want to.
I'm not doing all that stuffthat is required to grow corn.
(17:25):
I've heard my mother talk aboutit and complained about it and
all the healing and then havingto go back and add this and you
know hoe that up around it andthen have to go back and no, I'm
not doing all that.
So I did get my garden beds, myraised beds, finally figured out
where I wanted to put them.
I've had these things for ayear and a half put together and
(17:47):
I've moved them around the yardabout 20 times.
I've never put dirt in thembecause I didn't know where I
wanted them and so I finallydecided I'm putting them up
close to the deck.
I have two more to put together, but I'm putting them up close
to the deck.
I have two more to put together, but I'm putting them up close
to the deck so that it's part ofmy zone one.
So when I walk out the door, ifyou know if it needs tending,
(18:09):
it'll be right there in my eyeview and I'm going to use one of
them for a garlic bed, one ofthem for an asparagus bed and
then the other two, for now willprobably be like sweet potatoes
or something that just needs areally loamy soil and I may I
(18:31):
may put some strawberries in one.
I'm not real sure I've got togrow.
It is the dumbest thing that Ido not grow strawberries.
I've tried planting them in thegreenhouse before the
greenhouse got destroyed and notrealizing that free-ranging
chickens and strawberries whoops, there goes my notes.
Free-ranging strawberries andor free-ranging chickens and
(18:52):
strawberries was not a goodcombination.
They ate every strawberry thatpopped on a plant, so I never
got any of them, and so I'mgoing to find me a place to just
make nothing but strawberriesand I'm going to fence it in,
and so hopefully I can keepcritters out and keeping deer
goodness gracious, keeping deerout of my garden.
(19:15):
That is a feat in and of itself.
We last year used fishing lineline and it worked pretty well.
This year I have a bunch of Tposts and some old electric
netting that doesn't workanymore and I know that's
(19:36):
probably not going to keep thedeer out completely.
But what I'm thinking is thatI'm going to run that around the
bottom and then completelyenclose the garden and then up
around the top of the T-postI'll add the fishing line and
some pans or whatever it is thatI need to try to deter them
from going up and over thatfence.
We'll see how it works.
(19:56):
I don't know.
My bigger problem was agroundhog last year that decided
to just get fat and happy in mygarden and I never shot at him
because, so you know, I told youthat my tomatoes didn't do real
well where they were layingover and he was finding his way
to just hide, like I'd see himsitting up eating a tomato and
(20:18):
then he'd be gone, and then I'drun out there and by the time I
got out there he was really gone, gone, and he would just pop
back over into the woods.
So I'm hoping he's gone.
I don't really know, but we'llsee If Mr Groundhog is a problem
again this year.
There's going to have to getcreative.
(20:39):
I'm not sure what I want to do.
The Predator P works okay.
I put it on a foam, like apiece of foam that you would put
down on a floor to do workouts,and it held the smell pretty
well.
But then, you know, storms comethrough and knock that off and
(21:02):
it was gone and that, that wasthat.
But so I'm excited aboutgardening this year.
I'm I want to do better than Idid last year, although I didn't
do bad.
I just didn't do as good as Ihave in years past and I can't
(21:22):
remember what I was doing lastsummer.
I have no idea what took up mytime that I didn't get things
done on the homestead that Iwanted to get done.
So I don't know, and I'm doinga better job about journaling
this year too, so that I know,so I can look back and know what
was taking up my days.
(21:43):
I have a new granddaughter, veryexcited to welcome her.
Her name is Savannah and shewas born on April the 30th, and
we're so excited.
She, my daughter, lives not toofar from me.
She's about 20 minutes from me,and so you know my other
grandchildren live like wellover an hour away and it's just
(22:04):
hard to to get up there andvisit them and get them down
here.
And you know they're both ofthem are under or right at two
years old and under, so it'skind of, you know, it's kind of
hard to to chase them around atthe age that they are.
I'm looking forward to themgetting up a little more, like
three or four years old, so thatthey'll listen and know when
(22:26):
I'm saying something, so thatthey don't get hurt.
But I'm really looking forwardto that, looking forward to Miss
Savannah being my littlesidekick.
Who knows, she might not evenlike me.
That's kind of how that goesyou get all excited and then the
kid doesn't like you.
So that might happen too.
I don't know.
Went to the Amish community lastFriday with my friend Dee Dee
(22:49):
and we went and I bought somemore strawberries there and I
came home and made jam.
So I've got some of mystrawberry jam done.
I only got eight pints out ofthat and that's one of the
things that I give at Christmas.
I give all the kids.
You know we do food boxes, soI've got to get more of that
(23:13):
made up.
You know enough to last for us,more of that made up, you know,
enough to last for us, enoughto give to our six children, or
five, because one is still hereat home 16, he's 16.
So to give to the five kids youknow to have, you know, some
treats from the homestead and wegive them chicken and beef and
(23:36):
pork and canned items andjellies and jams and homemade
butter and homemade bread andall that kind of stuff is what
goes into their Christmas andone of these years, if I ever
actually get to where I'm reallyreally doing well, I would love
to give each child a side ofbeef for Christmas, or a quarter
(24:02):
, whatever I can afford.
But my goal, my goal would beto would love to be able to give
my children enough beef to lastfor a year, every year for
Christmas.
So looking forward to buildingup and hopefully being able to
do that eventually.
(24:23):
What else is going on since mynotes fell off?
So tonight I am going to do atalk at the Hickman County
Homesteaders Alliance group.
Their meeting is at 530 tonightand I'm going to be talking
about food laws in Tennessee andI'm going to cover cottage food
(24:43):
laws, the Food Freedom Act thatwas passed last year and how to
sell raw milk or operate a herdshare.
You can sell raw milk as petmilk in Tennessee and you can
also do it through a herd shareagreement.
And then you know there'sthings that you you know you can
also do it through a herd shareagreement.
And then you know there'sthings that you know you can
sell your canned goods andthings like that now and you can
(25:05):
butcher up to 20,000 chickens,and so I'm just going to kind of
touch on all of that ways thatyou can make money from food off
of your homestead and barterand sell with each other.
So I'm really excited aboutthat and I'm excited that
they're going to have me.
As far as what's coming up, weare, like I said, we're going to
(25:28):
be processing our chickens thisweekend and then after that I
have a couple of beginnerscanning workshops.
They are listed on the website.
If anybody wants to learn how tocan and is local and you want
to, you know, come and be with aclass and have a hands-on, full
day experience.
We do feed you from thehomestead, which is an awesome,
(25:52):
you know.
It's an awesome addition andit's just, it's a camaraderie.
There is so much more aboutlearning in a group experience
because you pick up in person.
You pick up energy, like energyoff of other people.
You are more able to retaininformation.
(26:12):
You know if you're learning anddoing it at the same time.
It's that whole.
You know.
Learn, demonstrate and teach.
That's what I was trying to say.
Learn one or watch one,demonstrate one, teach one.
It's kind of that whole process.
And if you do that in person,you're much more likely to go
(26:35):
and actually can or butcherchickens or do home dairy or
whatever it is that you'relearning.
And also, when you spend themoney to invest in learning a
skill, you're much more likelyto go and do something with it.
Same thing with me with theartificial insemination.
I got certified a couple ofweeks ago through Select Sires.
(26:59):
I took their artificialinsemination class and that cost
me $750.
And you can bet your sweet buttI'm going to use it because I'm
not going to spend that kind ofmoney investing in skills and
knowledge and then not ever doanything with it.
So, and you know it might notever do me anything as far as
(27:21):
making money, but it gives mesome independence.
Like I love my AI guy.
He's wonderful and I'm stillgoing to call him and I'm still
going to have him come help me,and I'm still going to pay him
for a while because I needsomeone to come and give me the
(27:41):
confidence and, you know, standwith me and talk with me,
despite the fact that I gotcertified that was a weekend.
Now I've got to go put it intopractice and it'll make me feel
good to have him come and justbe here with me.
You know, make sure I'm puttingthe gun in the right place,
make sure that you know I'mdepositing the semen in the
right place, and all that kindof stuff.
(28:02):
So so that's what we going on,or what we've got going on Um,
looking forward to the summer,that's.
That's really about it.
Our son's going off for a monthto um wrestling camp at Perler
and when we pick him up fromthere we are going to go to
(28:26):
Colorado for a week.
Our niece is getting married inSteamboat Springs, colorado.
So we've got Honey Bear, oursweet girl.
Honey Bear will be coming andfarm sitting for us and I'm
going to try to find somebody asa backup for her, just in case
something happens.
You know, and it costs me money,it costs me money to go away.
So just kind of keep that inmind when you're thinking about
(28:50):
adding things to your homestead.
Automate what you can and justrealize that if you do have
things like milk cows, and justrealize that if you do have
things like milk cows, um,unless you're calf sharing and
the calf is able to take all ofthe milk, then, um, you know
that's something that you haveto consider when you make those
decisions about what you'regoing to add and if you're going
(29:12):
to travel.
So, but anyway, that's prettymuch all we got going on.
Right now I'm super excitedabout everything going on.
We're going to be really,really busy world.
You know, life takes off,especially in the summer, and it
feels like a whirlwind.
So thank you so much for tuningin and, you know, I hope you
(29:36):
enjoyed today's podcast and ifyou like the podcast, it would
be really great if you couldsubscribe and leave a review.
It helps other people to findour podcast and you can find us
at the gorham homesteadcom andon the socials at the gorham
homestead.
Whatever you've got on thedocket today, keep it real,
y'all.
(29:59):
My daddy was a guitar pickerplaying all the local clubs and
my mama was a waitress wherethey'd park M18 with the trucks.
We didn't have much money.
Times were kind of hard.
Living in a trailer trailer onthe edge of grandpa's farm yeah,
(30:22):
I may not come from much, butI've got just enough.
As long as my baby's in my armsand the good lord knows what's
in my heart, I'll refuse to beashamed.
The baby's in my arms and thegood Lord knows what's in my
heart, I refuse to be ashamed.
(30:46):
It's just a southern thing.
Hey y'all and welcome to keeping it real, the Gorham
Homestead podcast, where we talkabout real food, real natural
living, the real art of naturalhealing and real life.
Out here on Tennessee Homestead, I'm your host, dawn Gorham,
and today is Tuesday, may the21st Sorry, I had to think about
that just a second and you'relistening to episode number 12.
(00:41):
And today is just going to be a.
What's going on in thehomestead?
T is not with me today.
He is having to work, so I amsolo on this one.
So what's going on?
Well, first and foremost, lookslike I created quite the stink
on social media this weekdealing with Mr Harrison
(01:04):
Butker's comments and his speechthat he made at the Catholic
College, and I'm just reallysurprised at the backlash that
he has received for advocatingfor traditional families.
And I don't understand.
Like I had women tell me to goget back in the kitchen, like
(01:27):
that is an insult, and I'm like,got it, I am going back to the
kitchen.
That's where I'm happiest.
I'm cooking, I'm canning, I'mmaking strawberry jam, I'm
baking bread.
I mean, I'm happy.
Why is that such an insult?
And that's something that Ijust don't understand and part
of me wanted to go.
You know, get back to your desk.
(01:48):
You know how did you get off ofyour chain from your desk, but
I didn't.
I kind of kept the uglies tomyself.
And also, the raw milk trollshave been out Really getting hit
hard by people just coming outof the woodwork.
I don't even know.
Like they're not from here,obviously a couple of them are
(02:10):
from New York and you know areaswhere raw milk is just
apparently unheard of.
Because dude said he was anattorney and that he had
reported me to Facebook foradvocating for raw milk.
That's dangerous and I'm goingto kill people and I'm trying to
catch the bird flu and juststupid stuff.
Yeah, and it would reallysurprise me that dude said he
(02:34):
was a retired attorney and hadplenty of time to advocate for
public health.
And so my husband, you know,came back and said well, I'm a
practicing attorney, not retired, and I have plenty of time to
advocate for food freedom.
He doesn't really have plentyof time to do that.
I do it and then call on him asneeded.
(02:55):
But yeah, it was just reallyreally surprising.
I know that every once in awhile that kind of stuff against
raw milk rears its ugly head,just based on something that
gets out there and people get ahold of it and it gets all blown
out of proportion, like rightnow.
The big concern is the bird fluwith raw milk in cows, and I
(03:26):
think that is again a scaretactic, much like everything
else that we've had over theyears.
The, you know, at the federallevel they hate raw milk.
Um, the usda hates raw milk andthey have done everything,
excuse me, that they canpossibly do.
I'm short of just making itillegal across the board, but
(03:48):
it's just strange.
It's just really strange howthat cycles around like it does.
So some things going on aroundhere.
We had our meeting last monthit was the Dixon County
Homesteaders Alliance meetingthat I talk about that we meet
once a month here on ourhomestead.
We are not having a meetingthis month just because the
(04:12):
monthly meeting falls onMemorial Day weekend and I knew
that a lot of people would beout of town.
Plus, it's chicken processingweekend this weekend.
So we have some people signedup for our chicken processing
workshop and I'm going to goover some of the other things
(04:32):
with those folks that I havelearned over the years, like my
training with for trail feedsthat I did at MPS MPS Farms out
in Centerville.
I'm going to talk about how toyou know how to get the best
growth that you can for yourbirds and what the laws are
regarding harvesting and sellingthose birds, and then we will
actually process the birds andthey'll get to go home with with
(04:56):
a bird for Memorial Day weekendHopefully maybe somebody will
go cook it or smoke it.
So I don't know, bees went in.
Wow, that was an experience.
We went to pick up the bees andso I was thinking, you know,
I've gone and I've helped peopleprocess their not process open
(05:17):
up their hives and inspect andI've got my little bee suit and
got my little bee gloves and alittle smoker.
And you know that's what Ithought I was doing when I went
to go buy my first bee package,which was a full colony, it was
10 frames and it was, you know,queen for sure and already
(05:38):
making honey, and so I broughtthe whole big old thing home.
But we got there and again Iwas expecting five hives, 10
hives, didn't know.
Got there and it was acommercial beekeeper which I was
told that.
I was totally told that it wasa commercial beekeeper, just did
(06:01):
not process in my head whatthat meant, just did not process
in my head what that meant.
So T and Chase and I had leftour granddaughter's birthday
party oh yeah, had to leave thegranddaughter's birthday party,
unfortunately to go pick up thebees.
And got there and it wasbeehives as far as the eye could
(06:31):
see, beehives, everywhereBeehives, which was fun.
But there was also this blackcloud of bees surrounding the
truck and I thought I was goingto get there and put on my
little bee suit and get mylittle bees and put them in the
back of the truck and pay theguy.
And I was going to be on mymerry way.
There's no way I was gettingout of that truck and being able
to put on my bee suit.
(06:51):
There's nowhere to put on mybee suit.
And so I rolled down the windowjust a crack I mean just a hair
and realized bees are, you knowthey're trying to come in, so
I'm rolling that window back up.
(07:12):
And so the beekeeper wasHispanic, which is fine.
His English was good, but youknow it was very like short, uh,
choppy English.
He was like I put the bees inthe back for you.
I put the bees in the back foryou.
I was like okay, so do that.
So he put the bees in the backand he um closes the tailgate
(07:33):
and walks around to T's side ofthe vehicle to get the cash
because T's handed him, you know, the money and cash out the
window.
Well, the dude is in his beesuit and I guess either he
doesn't realize or we don'trealize that bees are like
swarming his head, like swarminghis head, like Linus, with the
dirt just all around his head.
And so T reaches out to handhim the cash and about that time
(07:54):
these bunch of bees, like bees,come into the cab of the truck
and T gets stung like nine timeson the side of his head, in his
temple, and he's trying to rollup the window but he can't.
Of course he's getting stung,so he's panicking.
Well, he can't find the windowto hit the roll-up thing and
(08:17):
he's actually rolling down thewindow in the back seat, where
our son was, and Chase is havinga meltdown saying, you know,
bad words that teenagers can sayas close as he can get to
actually swearing.
And I got stung a couple oftimes on the leg.
T got stung about nine times onthe face, several times on the
(08:39):
legs.
Luckily Chase never got stungin the back seat, I feel like
because he was not happy all theway home.
Why are we getting bees?
I can't believe.
Why did we do this, why did wedo this?
And we got the window rolled up, got the dude paid.
We're driving home and bees arestill like swarming around the
(09:01):
windows trying to get in, eventhough we're moving down the
road.
So we get home and we justleave the truck Like we hop out
and everybody goes running, tand Chase go running into the
house.
I went running into the cannerybecause that's where I had my
bee suit, so I grabbed it andbrought it with me and we just
(09:21):
sit and everybody, they'relooking out the window and I can
see them up there and they'relooking down at me at the window
down here and it's like it'slike there's an army out there
and we're watching them.
So 30, 45 minutes goes by and Idecided I'll get on my bee suit
and I'm going to move the truckover to where the beehive is
(09:45):
going to go, which is over,closer to the garden and the
orchard and my little naturalherb garden, my prairie
recreation, which is about, youknow, 20 feet over behind a big
dirt pile.
And so, um, I backed the truckover there, fully covered, fully
(10:06):
covered in my bee suit, and Iget out and these bees are just
mad.
They are so mad and I know it'sbecause they bounced and
bounced coming up my drivewayand whatever else.
So I get them out and I setthem out on the platform that
they're going to be on.
They're swarming me, they'remad at me, they're letting me
(10:27):
know they're mad at me and T isup feeding the chickens, like
two football fields away from me, from where I'm at, maybe a
football field, at least 100yards though, maybe 150 yards
and before I know it I hear himscreaming up there.
(10:54):
They had gone from all the waydown where we were up there and
started attacking him up tryingto feed and water the chickens.
So they got him again.
I don't know.
I don't know if they smelled,if he still had bee stings, if
he still had pheromones on him.
I don't know what the deal was,but that poor guy, oh my gosh,
they just wore him out that day.
(11:15):
So the next day is when theinstallation was and the bees
were still mad.
I mean, they're still mad now.
They're just an angry littlehive, I think.
But so one of the guys thatknows how to install bees came
and we, you know we goteverything done, got it
installed.
I only have one hive as ofright now and I have.
(11:37):
I did have somebody come andcheck to make sure I had that
I'm queen right, because myfriend John was not able to find
the queen just because theywere so and we had people here
as well watching, and a coupleof those people got stung.
I mean, it was you knowhoneybee stings are not as bad
as some other stings, but it'sstill not fun.
(11:59):
It's not something that youwant to invite and encourage.
So did not find the queenduring the install, but another
gentleman was kind enough tocome and check and tell he's
positive that we do have a queen.
I do need to pinch off somequeen cells though, because we
(12:22):
did see several of those inthere and I don't want them to
swarm.
So I am going to ask one of theguys or gals from my local bee
club or my friend Joe that ownsa bees closet, somebody.
I'm going to get somebody tocome and help me inspect the
hive now that it's been here acouple of weeks.
(12:43):
I fed them, they should besettled in and doing well and
they need an inspection.
So, and I have registered mybees, because here in Tennessee
it is a $500 fine if you do notregister your bees and so I did
go ahead and do that, eventhough I only have one hive, and
so hopefully that will beanother resource for me if I
(13:07):
need help, as my local extensionoffice and my bee club and
other mentors, people who havehad bees forever Everybody's
great in the bee community abouthelping people like that.
So, um, as far as the the garden, um, I have planted, so I
overdid.
Maybe you know how youovercompensate sometimes, like
(13:31):
last last summer, I was tomatopoor, I was begging for tomatoes
.
Um, despite the fact that I hadplanted several you know a lot
of tomato plants, I didn't carefor them like I should have and
I didn't get a good harvest offof them.
Plus, I got busy and a lot ofthat stuff just didn't get done.
So in the summer, about October, I'm realizing I only put up
(13:53):
like 10 jars of tomatoes and wego through about 100 jars of
tomatoes.
So I visited my Aunt Penny at alog house nursery in Camden and
I bought about 100 tomatoplants.
Maybe not that many.
There's a lot, though there area lot of tomato plants and
(14:14):
about 30 or 40 differentvarieties of peppers.
I bought those Um and I gotimplanted.
A lot of those I did are bellpeppers, um, cause I want to
freeze, dry as much or as manybell peppers this year as I
possibly can and freeze some andyou know I like freeze dried
much better than dehydratedthough.
(14:35):
So that's what we're going todo.
And Strawberry Month.
So I did take out looking forstrawberries the place that I
normally get them is in Milanand I knew better.
I don't know what I wasthinking, but I took out driving
on a Friday to go getstrawberries from my line.
(14:58):
Got there, there was nobodythere, like they had opened and
sold out within an hour, and Iknew that.
I knew that that happened.
I don't know why I didn't justtry to get there, you know, as
they opened.
But I can't.
You know, honestly, I can't.
Unless I get up at threeo'clock and milk at four o'clock
(15:20):
, I'm not going to get anywhereby seven or eight o'clock.
It's just not going to happen.
So I didn't get there till like830, nine o'clock, and so after
that I headed out.
I started calling around askingif anybody knew anybody else
that had strawberries and Ifound this place in Clarksville.
So I headed up to Clarksvilleand I bought several flats.
(15:42):
I think I got like 15 gallonsexcuse me, 15 gallons or so and
got back and, you know, put alot of those in the freeze dryer
.
My friend Cindy came over and wegot, you know, we processed
them and cut them up and it wasfun.
It was a lot of fun doing that.
I would much rather do stufflike that with someone,
(16:08):
especially women.
I love canning with other womenand even doing any sort of food
process and food preservation.
It's just more fun with a bunchof women in the kitchen.
It just really, really is.
So I was really thankful thatshe came over and helped me with
that.
I got my green beans planted, soI got a whole row of green
(16:30):
beans.
I really don't need them.
I've still got about 100 jarsof green beans that I've done
over the last two years and thendidn't go through them all.
But I feel like I'm notgardening if I don't do green
beans that I've done over thelast two years and then didn't
go through them all.
But I feel like I'm notgardening if I don't do green
beans, so I put in the greenbeans, put in a row, and my
(17:03):
garden is probably 40 by 100,maybe 100 feet long, so I got
that.
I've still got to put in mysquash, my cucumbers, my
zucchini, my okra If I'm goingto do butter beans this year, or
purple whole peas which Ireally don't need peas either
Still got a bunch of those.
I'm going to have to findsomeone who sells sweet corn.
I love peaches and cream corn,so I'm going to see if I can
find somebody, because I justdon't want to.
I'm not doing all that stuffthat is required to grow corn.
(17:25):
I've heard my mother talk aboutit and complained about it and
all the healing and then havingto go back and add this and you
know hoe that up around it andthen have to go back and no, I'm
not doing all that.
So I did get my garden beds, myraised beds, finally figured out
where I wanted to put them.
I've had these things for ayear and a half put together and
(17:47):
I've moved them around the yardabout 20 times.
I've never put dirt in thembecause I didn't know where I
wanted them and so I finallydecided I'm putting them up
close to the deck.
I have two more to put together, but I'm putting them up close
to the deck.
I have two more to put together, but I'm putting them up close
to the deck so that it's part ofmy zone one.
So when I walk out the door, ifyou know if it needs tending,
(18:09):
it'll be right there in my eyeview and I'm going to use one of
them for a garlic bed, one ofthem for an asparagus bed and
then the other two, for now willprobably be like sweet potatoes
or something that just needs areally loamy soil and I may I
(18:31):
may put some strawberries in one.
I'm not real sure I've got togrow.
It is the dumbest thing that Ido not grow strawberries.
I've tried planting them in thegreenhouse before the
greenhouse got destroyed and notrealizing that free-ranging
chickens and strawberries whoops, there goes my notes.
Free-ranging strawberries andor free-ranging chickens and
(18:52):
strawberries was not a goodcombination.
They ate every strawberry thatpopped on a plant, so I never
got any of them, and so I'mgoing to find me a place to just
make nothing but strawberriesand I'm going to fence it in,
and so hopefully I can keepcritters out and keeping deer
goodness gracious, keeping deerout of my garden.
(19:15):
That is a feat in and of itself.
We last year used fishing lineline and it worked pretty well.
This year I have a bunch of Tposts and some old electric
netting that doesn't workanymore and I know that's
(19:36):
probably not going to keep thedeer out completely.
But what I'm thinking is thatI'm going to run that around the
bottom and then completelyenclose the garden and then up
around the top of the T-postI'll add the fishing line and
some pans or whatever it is thatI need to try to deter them
from going up and over thatfence.
We'll see how it works.
(19:56):
I don't know.
My bigger problem was agroundhog last year that decided
to just get fat and happy in mygarden and I never shot at him
because, so you know, I told youthat my tomatoes didn't do real
well where they were layingover and he was finding his way
to just hide, like I'd see himsitting up eating a tomato and
(20:18):
then he'd be gone, and then I'drun out there and by the time I
got out there he was really gone, gone, and he would just pop
back over into the woods.
So I'm hoping he's gone.
I don't really know, but we'llsee If Mr Groundhog is a problem
again this year.
There's going to have to getcreative.
(20:39):
I'm not sure what I want to do.
The Predator P works okay.
I put it on a foam, like apiece of foam that you would put
down on a floor to do workouts,and it held the smell pretty
well.
But then, you know, storms comethrough and knock that off and
(21:02):
it was gone and that, that wasthat.
But so I'm excited aboutgardening this year.
I'm I want to do better than Idid last year, although I didn't
do bad.
I just didn't do as good as Ihave in years past and I can't
(21:22):
remember what I was doing lastsummer.
I have no idea what took up mytime that I didn't get things
done on the homestead that Iwanted to get done.
So I don't know, and I'm doinga better job about journaling
this year too, so that I know,so I can look back and know what
was taking up my days.
(21:43):
I have a new granddaughter, veryexcited to welcome her.
Her name is Savannah and shewas born on April the 30th, and
we're so excited.
She, my daughter, lives not toofar from me.
She's about 20 minutes from me,and so you know my other
grandchildren live like wellover an hour away and it's just
(22:04):
hard to to get up there andvisit them and get them down
here.
And you know they're both ofthem are under or right at two
years old and under, so it'skind of, you know, it's kind of
hard to to chase them around atthe age that they are.
I'm looking forward to themgetting up a little more, like
three or four years old, so thatthey'll listen and know when
(22:26):
I'm saying something, so thatthey don't get hurt.
But I'm really looking forwardto that, looking forward to Miss
Savannah being my littlesidekick.
Who knows, she might not evenlike me.
That's kind of how that goesyou get all excited and then the
kid doesn't like you.
So that might happen too.
I don't know.
Went to the Amish community lastFriday with my friend Dee Dee
(22:49):
and we went and I bought somemore strawberries there and I
came home and made jam.
So I've got some of mystrawberry jam done.
I only got eight pints out ofthat and that's one of the
things that I give at Christmas.
I give all the kids.
You know we do food boxes, soI've got to get more of that
(23:13):
made up.
You know enough to last for us,more of that made up, you know,
enough to last for us, enoughto give to our six children, or
five, because one is still hereat home 16, he's 16.
So to give to the five kids youknow to have, you know, some
treats from the homestead and wegive them chicken and beef and
(23:36):
pork and canned items andjellies and jams and homemade
butter and homemade bread andall that kind of stuff is what
goes into their Christmas andone of these years, if I ever
actually get to where I'm reallyreally doing well, I would love
to give each child a side ofbeef for Christmas, or a quarter
(24:02):
, whatever I can afford.
But my goal, my goal would beto would love to be able to give
my children enough beef to lastfor a year, every year for
Christmas.
So looking forward to buildingup and hopefully being able to
do that eventually.
(24:23):
What else is going on since mynotes fell off?
So tonight I am going to do atalk at the Hickman County
Homesteaders Alliance group.
Their meeting is at 530 tonightand I'm going to be talking
about food laws in Tennessee andI'm going to cover cottage food
(24:43):
laws, the Food Freedom Act thatwas passed last year and how to
sell raw milk or operate a herdshare.
You can sell raw milk as petmilk in Tennessee and you can
also do it through a herd shareagreement.
And then you know there'sthings that you you know you can
also do it through a herd shareagreement.
And then you know there'sthings that you know you can
sell your canned goods andthings like that now and you can
(25:05):
butcher up to 20,000 chickens,and so I'm just going to kind of
touch on all of that ways thatyou can make money from food off
of your homestead and barterand sell with each other.
So I'm really excited aboutthat and I'm excited that
they're going to have me.
As far as what's coming up, weare, like I said, we're going to
(25:28):
be processing our chickens thisweekend and then after that I
have a couple of beginnerscanning workshops.
They are listed on the website.
If anybody wants to learn how tocan and is local and you want
to, you know, come and be with aclass and have a hands-on, full
day experience.
We do feed you from thehomestead, which is an awesome,
(25:52):
you know.
It's an awesome addition andit's just, it's a camaraderie.
There is so much more aboutlearning in a group experience
because you pick up in person.
You pick up energy, like energyoff of other people.
You are more able to retaininformation.
(26:12):
You know if you're learning anddoing it at the same time.
It's that whole.
You know.
Learn, demonstrate and teach.
That's what I was trying to say.
Learn one or watch one,demonstrate one, teach one.
It's kind of that whole process.
And if you do that in person,you're much more likely to go
(26:35):
and actually can or butcherchickens or do home dairy or
whatever it is that you'relearning.
And also, when you spend themoney to invest in learning a
skill, you're much more likelyto go and do something with it.
Same thing with me with theartificial insemination.
I got certified a couple ofweeks ago through Select Sires.
(26:59):
I took their artificialinsemination class and that cost
me $750.
And you can bet your sweet buttI'm going to use it because I'm
not going to spend that kind ofmoney investing in skills and
knowledge and then not ever doanything with it.
So, and you know it might notever do me anything as far as
(27:21):
making money, but it gives mesome independence.
Like I love my AI guy.
He's wonderful and I'm stillgoing to call him and I'm still
going to have him come help me,and I'm still going to pay him
for a while because I needsomeone to come and give me the
(27:41):
confidence and, you know, standwith me and talk with me,
despite the fact that I gotcertified that was a weekend.
Now I've got to go put it intopractice and it'll make me feel
good to have him come and justbe here with me.
You know, make sure I'm puttingthe gun in the right place,
make sure that you know I'mdepositing the semen in the
right place, and all that kindof stuff.
(28:02):
So so that's what we going on,or what we've got going on Um,
looking forward to the summer,that's.
That's really about it.
Our son's going off for a monthto um wrestling camp at Perler
and when we pick him up fromthere we are going to go to
(28:26):
Colorado for a week.
Our niece is getting married inSteamboat Springs, colorado.
So we've got Honey Bear, oursweet girl.
Honey Bear will be coming andfarm sitting for us and I'm
going to try to find somebody asa backup for her, just in case
something happens.
You know, and it costs me money,it costs me money to go away.
So just kind of keep that inmind when you're thinking about
(28:50):
adding things to your homestead.
Automate what you can and justrealize that if you do have
things like milk cows, and justrealize that if you do have
things like milk cows, um,unless you're calf sharing and
the calf is able to take all ofthe milk, then, um, you know
that's something that you haveto consider when you make those
decisions about what you'regoing to add and if you're going
(29:12):
to travel.
So, but anyway, that's prettymuch all we got going on.
Right now I'm super excitedabout everything going on.
We're going to be really,really busy world.
You know, life takes off,especially in the summer, and it
feels like a whirlwind.
So thank you so much for tuningin and, you know, I hope you
(29:36):
enjoyed today's podcast and ifyou like the podcast, it would
be really great if you couldsubscribe and leave a review.
It helps other people to findour podcast and you can find us
at the gorham homesteadcom andon the socials at the gorham
homestead.
Whatever you've got on thedocket today, keep it real,
y'all.
(29:59):
My daddy was a guitar pickerplaying all the local clubs and
my mama was a waitress wherethey'd park M18 with the trucks.
We didn't have much money.
Times were kind of hard.
Living in a trailer trailer onthe edge of grandpa's farm yeah,
(30:22):
I may not come from much, butI've got just enough.
As long as my baby's in my armsand the good lord knows what's
in my heart, I'll refuse to beashamed.
The baby's in my arms and thegood Lord knows what's in my
heart, I refuse to be ashamed.
(30:46):
It's just a southern thing.
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