August 29, 2025 • 30 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Said, no, it was that. That's the outro, not the intro.
Freset will pretend that didn't happen. That was awful, very weird,
very weird. Try that again. Yeah, is that true? Ramone
(00:29):
said on August twenty ninth in The Terminator of the
Machines take Over. Oh okay, man, uh huh, I'll wait
while you do that. I got to tell you a
story though. No, this isn't about the Bonnet Circle yet.
We're gonna get to that in the moment. But well,
(00:53):
hold on, I want to tell you this though. Yesterday
I'm listening to the song mister Robot toe by Sticks
from nineteen eighty three. Now you think about nineteen eighty three,
we got no cell phone, no personal computer, so these
lyrics seem really weird because you're thinking, well, what'd you
have a toaster? But there's a line where he said
(01:17):
he's talking about computerized Here we go. Thank you very much,
mister Roberto for doing the jobs that nobody wants to.
And thank you very much, mister Roberto for helping me
escape when I needed to. That's not it. Well, just
trust me. There's a line in there about high tech,
and I can't find a damn thing. Now here we go.
(01:42):
I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin.
My heart is human, my blood is boiling my brain IBM.
So if you see me acting strangely, oh, here we go,
you're wondering who I am? Machine or mannequin with parts
made in Japan? I am this modern man. Well anyway,
a better yesterday. But I was got to thinking while
(02:02):
I'm driving. It kind of foretells the life we're living now.
But what kind of what they have? A microwave and
a toaster? What kind of machines and technology? You don't
even know what they can do?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
All right, here's our proper opening.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So Michael Verie Show is on the air. Here's Johnny.
All right, we'll go right to it. So we push
that one to the next hour. Let's go back to
Heather real quick. Heather, Yes, you've got quite the title
vice President of Health Strategies.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I was afraid.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I looked you up on the Facebook machine and do
you know beautiful family, by the way, beautiful family, Your
kids are adorable, just beautiful family, great photos. But there's
something about your photos that that stuck out like something
that that is shocking. Do you know what that is?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I have no clue.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Your dog is as big as a horse. What is
that dog's name?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
His name is Harry Potter. But yeah, Harry Potter butcher, Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
My goodness, he uh uh. You can tell that that
family loves that dog. There's a there's a picture of
the four of y'all. Guess it's that. It's at Halloween
or kind of a pumpkin patch kind of thing. And
your boy is behind him and he can barely be
seen because the dog is bigger than him. And your
daughter has her her hand on him, but it's like
(03:51):
putting your hand on the on a submarine. It's like
she couldn't stop him from moving if she wanted to.
His tongue is hanging out, and y'all both look exhausted
by trying to corral him into a photo.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
That is the very accurate description of every day.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yes, he is glorious. I love I love the photos
of Harry Potter. Make sure he's in every family photo.
All right, what did you call about, sweetheart?
Speaker 5 (04:17):
So I did call it that.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I've actually caught a carps before and it's a great story.
And again very serendipitous because today is a four year
anniversary of my sweet dad passing. And so when you
started talking about this, I went, oh, mister McBee, he
just Randy. I mean, he was just the greatest dad.
So I was a tomboy and I went fishing all
the time. We would fish off of the Texas City
(04:39):
Dyke and one of our great and plashes bay and
all over Southeast Texas and one of our favorite fishes. Yeah,
one of our fish favorite fishing spots was American Legion
Parks there off of Murphy Road in Lexington. You're familiar
with that area. There's you've been over there a lot,
but it's they stalk that pond and so we used
(05:02):
to go there a lot. So you can still go
on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website and see they
stalk it with rainbow trout. But my dad, this is
before the internet, this was the early nineties or so,
found out that they also had carps. And I'm assuming
this is the same fish that you're talking about, because
he was really intrigued because they get so big, and
he really wanted me to catch a big fish. You know,
(05:24):
we'd caught flounder and stuff like that. So he was like,
I want you to just catch a real big fish.
This is gonna be the one. So he bought some
books and read up on how to fish them. So
one Friday night we put together we make you. He
found this recipe for the bake. You mix together big
red and cornflakes and make them into balls. And actually
(05:45):
we were like this is so gross. You know, we
did a couple of times other bread over with you
are doing it smells kind of sweet, almost like vitamins.
So you mix that up into balls. You go out
to where you've done a fish the night before and
you put out dear pellets. You put out dear like dear,
you put out pelletts. Dump that in the water. So
then the next morning you got to get there really
(06:06):
early because you got to keep your spot, you know there,
so if somebody takes your spot, you know, a you're off.
So we got up early the next morning and got
out there, and sure enough I caught probably he was
about two and a half feet long. Their bottom fears
because they eat the grass, you know, so they he
was about two and a half feet long. That that
big carp I got to catch that day. I got
(06:26):
my big fish. A carp brought it home. You could
you could take them home, so we.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Brought him home.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They got lots of pictures with them, and I got
my big fish and big carts that day.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Heather, you are exhibit A in what I have said
to men for years. For some stupid reason, men often
come to me for dating and marital advice. And I
always say, if you I have friends who've been married
four or more times, and the patterns repeat, and I
(06:59):
always say, you do not want a woman who you
are with because a you think she's too pretty for
you. You never could believe she would be with you. And
you always wanted the girl in seventh grade and she
didn't want you. You're compensating for something. And number two,
you don't want the girl who you want people to
see you with because you think she's pretty and that
(07:19):
with some way affect you. You want the girl who
when you come home from work and y'all are having
people over, she's pressure washed the house. You want the
girl who if you're sick and things have to be
done around the house, she's gonna do them. When you
say you are a tomboy growing up, I tell fellas
(07:41):
all the time. You do not want a princess. A
lot of dudes think, well, I want a princess. You
are just replacing their daddy. You will never be enough.
You want a woman who is comfortable in who she
is and does not now she will enjoy when she spoiled.
But a woman who can fend for herself, take care
of herself, take care of you, uh, and and is
(08:04):
unafraid to get her hands dirty to to get in
there and and get after it. I love that, Heather,
You're the call of the week, sweetheart.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
The four year death anniversary of Randy McBee. Rest in peace,
Randy McBee. We didn't get nothing the hard times the
Michael Berry Show. It's a damn shame. It's a damn shame.
It's a damn shame. It's Oh the late, great mean
Jeane Kilton. When Heather mentioned the Texas City Dyke one
(08:36):
of the great UH infrastructure systems of the region, I
remember his tribute to that bit of industrial engineering. Let's
go to Sue. Sue, you're on the Michael Berry Show.
What say you, good morning, ma'am?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Michael? How fair is the state boris Texas? When you
report a lawyer or a judge.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know why, Why don't you give me enough
details I can make a judgment. These kind of questions
make me crazy. Don't you tell me what happened, and
I'll give you an answer.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I'll start with a bad landlord who retaliated for me
standing up from my rights. I was given a least
renewal notice and shortly thereafter followed a non renewal notice.
(09:43):
Lone store.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Legal Aid.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Sent them a letter saying you cannot non renew a
lease without good cause on a low income text credit property.
Well they did. The lawyer brought no proof, no evidence.
(10:08):
It was a zoom hearing, brought no proof, no evidence,
and me not being a lawyer. Every time the lawyer
started lying, I was opening my big mouth. And the
judge just hipped saying, overruled, overruled, over ruled anyway I've
heard you say before. And when all else fails, they
(10:31):
pulled the race card. That was done.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I was are you black about it?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
No?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I'm not, Oh, I thought you said they pulled the.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Well the landlord was. She worked for Sila Jackson Lee
at one point, the attorney was white and the judge
was black.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So two whites against two blacks.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Okay, Well, but he was for the other white person
was the Lmord's representative, okay?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And what religion was he? Could you tell?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Maybe he spoke to the devil? I don't know, Okay.
I couldn't tell you that, Okay. So I was adamant
about what day was it, what time of the day,
what was I wearing? What was the conversation? What led
up to that? She said, when you were behind your
(11:46):
closed door, I was mopping the floor and you called
me that. The attorney spoke up and said, told you what?
And she said the N words, oh, nefarious. Now, I
(12:07):
always had the kitchen radio on seven point am, twenty
four hours a day. Whether the TV was on in
the living room or not, the kitchen radio was always on.
So she's expecting an ordinary person to hear her mopping
(12:33):
behind the closed door. No, it was her, by the
way she swung that mop, and by the way I
can see through walls and doors that are closed. So
I've sent a complaint to the Bar Association about the
(12:55):
eternal I had a judicial I'm just complaint motorized yesterday.
I just haven't made my copies and I'll get it
in the mail this weekend. But I'm scared that I'm
just complaining to a brotherhood of people that are all
(13:17):
going to stick together. Is this going to be on
the up and up? What I got done to me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
And when I called the court because I'm accusing somebody
of something, I have no truth, no evidence. So when
I called the court to ask them how much some
court reporters records which cost me, they said there are none.
(13:48):
I said, what do you mean there are none? She said, well,
neither party requested them prior to the hearings, so there
was no court reporter in a new cattle Cattle, I
had a fine box.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
And Michael Barry, all right, don't let me forget to
tell you the bonnic circum story.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So I'm talking to my buddy three Hunt and he's
that said, what you're doing this weekend? He said, I'm
going up to my brother Charlie's place in Brenham, and
my brother Joe and I are going to ride up
Joe and his wife Debbie, and and I and his
(14:42):
and Ray's wife Amy up to Charlie's place and fish.
And I said, oh, he got a pawnies. He's got
three oh, I should have been a cop. So he said,
I'm really excited. Have you you've seen these grass carps?
(15:02):
I said, no, tell me about it. You see, these
things can go up six feet long, fifty sixty pounds.
So I said, where'd you get it? Because remember we
had our buddy Ken was it Heckney Kopecney, the guy
from Howlettsville. He was Sheriff Friar's dad, Ken Hinnicky Ken Hinnikey.
He was my fisheries guy. That's who I bought everything from.
(15:25):
But I don't think they had grass carp back then.
But apparently the lady's name is Carol at Brenham Fisheries,
and Ray really liked her, so we have tracked her
down and found out she's a listener. Carol, Yes, sir,
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So I asked Ray to call and clear the deck
for me to make my call. And he said that
you told him you're under oath, so be honest that
you don't normally listen till nine, but you would turn
in earlier, if you'd tune in earlier, if we were
going to be talking about you. Is that true?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, it is. I I've been listening to you since
your kids were in diapers.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But the last several years I have not been as
faithful because I've been busier with the business.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So you know, that's like when that's like when people
tell me they used to tithe, but then they got
real busy and then they You still have to be
committed to the program, Carol. Okay, first, let's talk about this.
This this grass carp you selling a lot of those.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We saw quite a few, so.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Ray told me it's seventeen dollars for one of them.
But you have, at that point neutered him and you've
you've it's about a pound. He weighs about a pound,
and he's ready to go. He's going to hit the
water and start start eating the grass right off. Tell
me about this seventeen dollars a fish. But by the
(16:56):
time he was finished with it, it sounded like it
was a deal.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well compared to chemicals, it is a deal because you know,
chemicals can cost you like one thousand dollars an acre.
Uh and somals Carol, Well, I don't. I don't either,
especially with what we're using what we're seeing used now.
But the but grashcarporo really good deal. They they have
(17:24):
been altered genetically at a certain stage in their egg
development with either heat or chemicals, so that they have
an odd number of chromosomes, and so they are sterile.
That's because you know, they put the non sterol ones
in Lake Conro years and years ago and they just
overproduced and stripped the lake clean. And so anyway, now
(17:47):
these are regulated. We buyers out of Arkansas from a
particular farm. And there's here's the there is the process.
You've got to go online to Texas Parks and Wildlife
and put grass car permit in the search box to
get to it. There's so on that page is a
(18:07):
link to a weed i D page so you can
see if the weeds you've got the fish are going
to eat, because there's a couple that they either can't
or won't eat. Like what and like what kind of
we asked my husband. He's the he's the real weed expert.
He's a real expert. I've learned everything from him over
all the years.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
He knows a lot about weeds.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
He knows a lot about fish.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I just Mike, what's he doing right now?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
He's out delivering fish all.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Right, Well, how come Ray had to come pick his up.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well, so here's here's how the process works. You get
your permit, they email it to you. You have to
print it off and bring it with you because we
have to sign on the paper. And then you can
take your fish home and we can bag them up
depending on how far they go with how many is
in a bag. And so we bag them up depending
(19:04):
on how far you're going and do all the paperwork.
But on the other end, here's here's something interesting. Before
the before they can leave the fish farm, there's actually
a federal inspector who checks each fish individually by hand
to make sure it's sterile. And that's one reason that
costs much.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
And they do that at your site.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
No, they do that at the fish farm before they
can leave the fish farm.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Oh, before you get him? Yes, yeah, okay, so so
Ray told me that, I guess. So when you submit
the application, the big thing is they want to look
at your spillway and make sure you're not going to
be pushing out to some river and basically, you know,
this thing spreads and then we've got grass carp all over.
(19:53):
And he said that rather than come out and do
a site visit with the biologist. They did it by drone,
and he sent me the email exchange. He said, if
you end up talking about this, the only thing I
asked is that you say something nice about the Texas
parks and wildlife and how nice they were to deal with.
(20:14):
So I'm reading the email exchanges. It's a woman named
Lauren Reynolds, permit coordinator in Land Fisheries, and I'm looking
at the timelines. You know, he's sending in his application.
She's jumping right on it, sir. I've made a I've
numbered your pawns to make sure that your application is correct,
and I've done this for you, and I've done this
for you, and I've done this for you. If that
(20:35):
all looks good, then you're good to go and I
can issue your permit. And I'm thinking, wow, man, this
is I guess she's out in Austin County. You're probably
in Washington County right, Well, we are.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think she's actually works out of Austin.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, it looks out of Austin, Texas. Yeah, not Austin County.
Huh Okay, what she looks like. I mean, she's Johnny
on the spot. She's saying, well, you can do this
and do this, and here's this, and here's how you
do this, and like she's she's actually helping the guy
fill out his permit. He's not the sharpest pencil in
the pack, but he's got a great heart. And she's here,
(21:11):
she is, she's helping him answer the questions, not not cheating, lying,
and she's helping him get to the point. We all
want everybody to be able to get their permit and
answer the questions correctly. It's just so nice to see
somebody that works for the government who has this kind
of attitude. So I am going to be sending messages
(21:31):
all over Lauren Reynolds if any of y'all know the
Texas Parks and Wildlife, Lauren Reynolds, permit coordinator Inland Fisheries.
Put a gold star on that one right there. Carol
hold On, It's Carol with Brenham.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Fisheries, Michael Berry Chocolate.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Out You in the dark, line on the backs, counting
the stars, grass Road.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Down by the river, in the.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Full in love in the middle of the night, just
move and slow stand the whole night through.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Dupe.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Do you know ed? Bruce covered? The song doesn't feel
like an ed Bruce song doesn't doesn't sound like it's
in his register. Not at this pacing. Carol is the
owner well co owner with Mike fifty to fifty co
owner of Brenham Fisheries in Brenham. So Ray said he
(22:52):
pulled up, y'all live right there on the site. Y'all
live in a trailer right next to the place. Or
how does this work?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Oh, we don't tell people that show up at.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Oh yeah, we don't want that they want to go
fishing in the dark. I like that. I think I
think living where you work is cool.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You can't afford to be gone because should the power
go off for some reason, you've got to get out
there and start the generator.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Mm hmm m. I didn't think about that. You got
all your live stock. So walk me through your biggest
sellers by percentage? Maybe your top five? Where is grass
carp in that top five?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Oh, it's it's up there.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
What's your number one seller?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Fat head? Minutes to feed everything else?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
By the way, I want to put in a word
for Lauren. I want to go back to that because
sometimes some years ago, not that many years ago. Uh,
it was taken up to three months for people to
get their permits, and every once in a while people
can hit it just right and get it that same day,
so they're done. They're done. A great job on the
(24:07):
permits these days.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Ray said he got his in three hours.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know what makes me crazy? Most of these things.
You know you somebody said, oh, it'll take three months
to do this. The actual task that needs to be
performed is probably five minutes. So it's amazing how often
I don't care if it's car repairs, whatever it is,
how longen people say, well it's going to be a while.
It's not that it takes any time, it's I'm not
(24:35):
going to get to it for a long time. Well,
why don't you get caught up and start doing things
in real time. I can't stand that. It makes me crazy,
But that's people that that's how they live their whole life.
Everything is on a delay. Everything is unresponsive, all right.
So our number one seller is fat head minutes. What's
number two?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Probably? Let me see, well, blue ge ill, because that's
the other feeder fish, because you have to have you
can't have bass without having a lot of feeder fish
hold in your pond.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I'm not going to ask her, what about Vince Gil? Okay,
I'm sorry that those two. Then what would be next? Carol?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yes, what would be I'm sorry, I thought you were
still talking to Ramon.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
No, he thought answer to blue Gill would be Vince Gill.
They think since kind of stuff's funny. Well, I'm trying
to think about, all right, what would be the third
best seller?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
So the fat head menaces the bottom of the food chain,
Bluegill are next, and then after that it's probably bass
and catfish, you know, the on the pond stock and
that's pretty much it. But the grass car prank up
there really high because so many people don't want to
put chemicals in and basically you've got an underwater lawnmower,
(25:57):
and so they keep them down. And I would I
will say this that because they're genetically damaged, they only
live about seven or eight years. After that they'll die
and you have to replace them.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, but Carol, that's good for us. We got kind
of a planned obsolescence. They got to keep coming back.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, that's true, and it's better than chemicals every year,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I bet you we could get in the lab and
tweak around on them and get them where they don't
live but for about a year.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Oh, let's not do that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I'm serious, Carol, I'm not even kidding you talk about
a business plan. I want to get into the fisheries business.
Did you marry into this business?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I did so, Mike was in it. Mike was in it,
and he started the live catfish business in Houston. You
know where you can go in and buy your live
catfish at the store like Fiesta's.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Carol, you don't know this about me, but I probably
eat more fried catfish other than my father, than any
human being in the world every evening. It's my joke
with my wife. When we're driving, I'll go by and
see him in the afternoon and at night, if we're
coming home from something, or if we're sitting around the house,
I'll call just check on him before he goes to bed,
(27:14):
and I'll say, Dad, how are you doing? And he'll say, oh, good,
And I said, how was dinner? He said it was good?
I think, And I'll say what did you have? And
we play this little song and dance little game every
day and he'll say what did I have? What did
I have? And I've already said to my wife before
that I've nudged her and said catfish and sweet potatoes
(27:34):
and fried catfish and sweet potatoes. And he'll say, I can't.
I said, was it the fried kid?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yees?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Fried catfish? Okay, because you've had that the last sixty
five days in a row. I love fried catfish, do you.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Do? I? Yeah, Well we sold that office. You know,
as you get older, you don't you don't have quite
the energy to do that. That's that's heavy labor, is it.
But that's how long. That's how long we've been doing this.
And so anyway, we lost our lease at the place
we were at and this place was available. So we've been
(28:08):
here right around forty years.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
What you been in this Brenham Fisheries location for forty years? Yes, sir, Wow,
you don't sound old enough to have done to have
had two careers in catfish. So Ray said, you're off
thirty six north of Brenham, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's right about three miles out of ten.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Okay, drive me there. I'm coming up to ninety. I
don't want to take that jug handle turn, so I'm
going to go up to ninety like I'm going up
to Lake Summerville.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right, correct?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And then what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Just stay on the highway and from there's two lights.
The second light is business thirty six connection and from
that light we're about three miles on the left hand side.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And you're so you're on thirty six.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We are on thirty six.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Oh well, okay, all right? Can you can you have
a sign out front?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It's actually up on our building because when we first
moved here, you know, you know how small town politics go,
I do, And so the highway department was chicktatus because
of something with the previous owner. I don't know. But anyway,
every time we put up a sign out for the road,
(29:27):
they made us come take it down. So we just
gave up and put it on our office up by
the fence.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
All right, Brenda, all right, Carol, let me do you
a favor. I'm going to cut you off so I
can give your phone number out because there's probably a
lot of business for you in our audience, and that
is Brenham Fisheries. You can find them online. It's a
very basic website and you'll see their phone number on there.
But here is Carol and Mike's number nine seven nine
eight three six fifty four seventy one. Ramon nine seven
(29:58):
nine eight three six fifty four seventy one. You got
the nine seven nine part down, That's easy. Eight three
six fifty four seventy one eight three six fifty four
seventy one. I like to I just like to imagine
her phone is blowing up.
Said, no, it was that. That's the outro, not the intro.
Freset will pretend that didn't happen. That was awful, very weird,
very weird. Try that again. Yeah, is that true? Ramone
(00:29):
said on August twenty ninth in The Terminator of the
Machines take Over. Oh okay, man, uh huh, I'll wait
while you do that. I got to tell you a
story though. No, this isn't about the Bonnet Circle yet.
We're gonna get to that in the moment. But well,
(00:53):
hold on, I want to tell you this though. Yesterday
I'm listening to the song mister Robot toe by Sticks
from nineteen eighty three. Now you think about nineteen eighty three,
we got no cell phone, no personal computer, so these
lyrics seem really weird because you're thinking, well, what'd you
have a toaster? But there's a line where he said
(01:17):
he's talking about computerized Here we go. Thank you very much,
mister Roberto for doing the jobs that nobody wants to.
And thank you very much, mister Roberto for helping me
escape when I needed to. That's not it. Well, just
trust me. There's a line in there about high tech,
and I can't find a damn thing. Now here we go.
(01:42):
I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin.
My heart is human, my blood is boiling my brain IBM.
So if you see me acting strangely, oh, here we go,
you're wondering who I am? Machine or mannequin with parts
made in Japan? I am this modern man. Well anyway,
a better yesterday. But I was got to thinking while
(02:02):
I'm driving. It kind of foretells the life we're living now.
But what kind of what they have? A microwave and
a toaster? What kind of machines and technology? You don't
even know what they can do?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
All right, here's our proper opening.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So Michael Verie Show is on the air. Here's Johnny.
All right, we'll go right to it. So we push
that one to the next hour. Let's go back to
Heather real quick. Heather, Yes, you've got quite the title
vice President of Health Strategies.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I was afraid.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I looked you up on the Facebook machine and do
you know beautiful family, by the way, beautiful family, Your
kids are adorable, just beautiful family, great photos. But there's
something about your photos that that stuck out like something
that that is shocking. Do you know what that is?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
I have no clue.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Your dog is as big as a horse. What is
that dog's name?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
His name is Harry Potter. But yeah, Harry Potter butcher, Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
My goodness, he uh uh. You can tell that that
family loves that dog. There's a there's a picture of
the four of y'all. Guess it's that. It's at Halloween
or kind of a pumpkin patch kind of thing. And
your boy is behind him and he can barely be
seen because the dog is bigger than him. And your
daughter has her her hand on him, but it's like
(03:51):
putting your hand on the on a submarine. It's like
she couldn't stop him from moving if she wanted to.
His tongue is hanging out, and y'all both look exhausted
by trying to corral him into a photo.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
That is the very accurate description of every day.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yes, he is glorious. I love I love the photos
of Harry Potter. Make sure he's in every family photo.
All right, what did you call about, sweetheart?
Speaker 5 (04:17):
So I did call it that.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I've actually caught a carps before and it's a great story.
And again very serendipitous because today is a four year
anniversary of my sweet dad passing. And so when you
started talking about this, I went, oh, mister McBee, he
just Randy. I mean, he was just the greatest dad.
So I was a tomboy and I went fishing all
the time. We would fish off of the Texas City
(04:39):
Dyke and one of our great and plashes bay and
all over Southeast Texas and one of our favorite fishes. Yeah,
one of our fish favorite fishing spots was American Legion
Parks there off of Murphy Road in Lexington. You're familiar
with that area. There's you've been over there a lot,
but it's they stalk that pond and so we used
(05:02):
to go there a lot. So you can still go
on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website and see they
stalk it with rainbow trout. But my dad, this is
before the internet, this was the early nineties or so,
found out that they also had carps. And I'm assuming
this is the same fish that you're talking about, because
he was really intrigued because they get so big, and
he really wanted me to catch a big fish. You know,
(05:24):
we'd caught flounder and stuff like that. So he was like,
I want you to just catch a real big fish.
This is gonna be the one. So he bought some
books and read up on how to fish them. So
one Friday night we put together we make you. He
found this recipe for the bake. You mix together big
red and cornflakes and make them into balls. And actually
(05:45):
we were like this is so gross. You know, we
did a couple of times other bread over with you
are doing it smells kind of sweet, almost like vitamins.
So you mix that up into balls. You go out
to where you've done a fish the night before and
you put out dear pellets. You put out dear like dear,
you put out pelletts. Dump that in the water. So
then the next morning you got to get there really
(06:06):
early because you got to keep your spot, you know there,
so if somebody takes your spot, you know, a you're off.
So we got up early the next morning and got
out there, and sure enough I caught probably he was
about two and a half feet long. Their bottom fears
because they eat the grass, you know, so they he
was about two and a half feet long. That that
big carp I got to catch that day. I got
(06:26):
my big fish. A carp brought it home. You could
you could take them home, so we.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Brought him home.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They got lots of pictures with them, and I got
my big fish and big carts that day.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Heather, you are exhibit A in what I have said
to men for years. For some stupid reason, men often
come to me for dating and marital advice. And I
always say, if you I have friends who've been married
four or more times, and the patterns repeat, and I
(06:59):
always say, you do not want a woman who you
are with because a you think she's too pretty for
you. You never could believe she would be with you. And
you always wanted the girl in seventh grade and she
didn't want you. You're compensating for something. And number two,
you don't want the girl who you want people to
see you with because you think she's pretty and that
(07:19):
with some way affect you. You want the girl who
when you come home from work and y'all are having
people over, she's pressure washed the house. You want the
girl who if you're sick and things have to be
done around the house, she's gonna do them. When you
say you are a tomboy growing up, I tell fellas
(07:41):
all the time. You do not want a princess. A
lot of dudes think, well, I want a princess. You
are just replacing their daddy. You will never be enough.
You want a woman who is comfortable in who she
is and does not now she will enjoy when she spoiled.
But a woman who can fend for herself, take care
of herself, take care of you, uh, and and is
(08:04):
unafraid to get her hands dirty to to get in
there and and get after it. I love that, Heather,
You're the call of the week, sweetheart.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
The four year death anniversary of Randy McBee. Rest in peace,
Randy McBee. We didn't get nothing the hard times the
Michael Berry Show. It's a damn shame. It's a damn shame.
It's a damn shame. It's Oh the late, great mean
Jeane Kilton. When Heather mentioned the Texas City Dyke one
(08:36):
of the great UH infrastructure systems of the region, I
remember his tribute to that bit of industrial engineering. Let's
go to Sue. Sue, you're on the Michael Berry Show.
What say you, good morning, ma'am?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Michael? How fair is the state boris Texas? When you
report a lawyer or a judge.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know why, Why don't you give me enough
details I can make a judgment. These kind of questions
make me crazy. Don't you tell me what happened, and
I'll give you an answer.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I'll start with a bad landlord who retaliated for me
standing up from my rights. I was given a least
renewal notice and shortly thereafter followed a non renewal notice.
(09:43):
Lone store.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Legal Aid.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
Sent them a letter saying you cannot non renew a
lease without good cause on a low income text credit property.
Well they did. The lawyer brought no proof, no evidence.
(10:08):
It was a zoom hearing, brought no proof, no evidence,
and me not being a lawyer. Every time the lawyer
started lying, I was opening my big mouth. And the
judge just hipped saying, overruled, overruled, over ruled anyway I've
heard you say before. And when all else fails, they
(10:31):
pulled the race card. That was done.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I was are you black about it?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
No?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I'm not, Oh, I thought you said they pulled the.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Well the landlord was. She worked for Sila Jackson Lee
at one point, the attorney was white and the judge
was black.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So two whites against two blacks.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Okay, Well, but he was for the other white person
was the Lmord's representative, okay?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And what religion was he? Could you tell?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Maybe he spoke to the devil? I don't know, Okay.
I couldn't tell you that, Okay. So I was adamant
about what day was it, what time of the day,
what was I wearing? What was the conversation? What led
up to that? She said, when you were behind your
(11:46):
closed door, I was mopping the floor and you called
me that. The attorney spoke up and said, told you what?
And she said the N words, oh, nefarious. Now, I
(12:07):
always had the kitchen radio on seven point am, twenty
four hours a day. Whether the TV was on in
the living room or not, the kitchen radio was always on.
So she's expecting an ordinary person to hear her mopping
(12:33):
behind the closed door. No, it was her, by the
way she swung that mop, and by the way I
can see through walls and doors that are closed. So
I've sent a complaint to the Bar Association about the
(12:55):
eternal I had a judicial I'm just complaint motorized yesterday.
I just haven't made my copies and I'll get it
in the mail this weekend. But I'm scared that I'm
just complaining to a brotherhood of people that are all
(13:17):
going to stick together. Is this going to be on
the up and up? What I got done to me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (13:24):
And when I called the court because I'm accusing somebody
of something, I have no truth, no evidence. So when
I called the court to ask them how much some
court reporters records which cost me, they said there are none.
(13:48):
I said, what do you mean there are none? She said, well,
neither party requested them prior to the hearings, so there
was no court reporter in a new cattle Cattle, I
had a fine box.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
And Michael Barry, all right, don't let me forget to
tell you the bonnic circum story.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So I'm talking to my buddy three Hunt and he's
that said, what you're doing this weekend? He said, I'm
going up to my brother Charlie's place in Brenham, and
my brother Joe and I are going to ride up
Joe and his wife Debbie, and and I and his
(14:42):
and Ray's wife Amy up to Charlie's place and fish.
And I said, oh, he got a pawnies. He's got
three oh, I should have been a cop. So he said,
I'm really excited. Have you you've seen these grass carps?
(15:02):
I said, no, tell me about it. You see, these
things can go up six feet long, fifty sixty pounds.
So I said, where'd you get it? Because remember we
had our buddy Ken was it Heckney Kopecney, the guy
from Howlettsville. He was Sheriff Friar's dad, Ken Hinnicky Ken Hinnikey.
He was my fisheries guy. That's who I bought everything from.
(15:25):
But I don't think they had grass carp back then.
But apparently the lady's name is Carol at Brenham Fisheries,
and Ray really liked her, so we have tracked her
down and found out she's a listener. Carol, Yes, sir,
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So I asked Ray to call and clear the deck
for me to make my call. And he said that
you told him you're under oath, so be honest that
you don't normally listen till nine, but you would turn
in earlier, if you'd tune in earlier, if we were
going to be talking about you. Is that true?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, it is. I I've been listening to you since
your kids were in diapers.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But the last several years I have not been as
faithful because I've been busier with the business.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So you know, that's like when that's like when people
tell me they used to tithe, but then they got
real busy and then they You still have to be
committed to the program, Carol. Okay, first, let's talk about this.
This this grass carp you selling a lot of those.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We saw quite a few, so.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Ray told me it's seventeen dollars for one of them.
But you have, at that point neutered him and you've
you've it's about a pound. He weighs about a pound,
and he's ready to go. He's going to hit the
water and start start eating the grass right off. Tell
me about this seventeen dollars a fish. But by the
(16:56):
time he was finished with it, it sounded like it
was a deal.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well compared to chemicals, it is a deal because you know,
chemicals can cost you like one thousand dollars an acre.
Uh and somals Carol, Well, I don't. I don't either,
especially with what we're using what we're seeing used now.
But the but grashcarporo really good deal. They they have
(17:24):
been altered genetically at a certain stage in their egg
development with either heat or chemicals, so that they have
an odd number of chromosomes, and so they are sterile.
That's because you know, they put the non sterol ones
in Lake Conro years and years ago and they just
overproduced and stripped the lake clean. And so anyway, now
(17:47):
these are regulated. We buyers out of Arkansas from a
particular farm. And there's here's the there is the process.
You've got to go online to Texas Parks and Wildlife
and put grass car permit in the search box to
get to it. There's so on that page is a
(18:07):
link to a weed i D page so you can
see if the weeds you've got the fish are going
to eat, because there's a couple that they either can't
or won't eat. Like what and like what kind of
we asked my husband. He's the he's the real weed expert.
He's a real expert. I've learned everything from him over
all the years.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
He knows a lot about weeds.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
He knows a lot about fish.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I just Mike, what's he doing right now?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
He's out delivering fish all.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Right, Well, how come Ray had to come pick his up.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well, so here's here's how the process works. You get
your permit, they email it to you. You have to
print it off and bring it with you because we
have to sign on the paper. And then you can
take your fish home and we can bag them up
depending on how far they go with how many is
in a bag. And so we bag them up depending
(19:04):
on how far you're going and do all the paperwork.
But on the other end, here's here's something interesting. Before
the before they can leave the fish farm, there's actually
a federal inspector who checks each fish individually by hand
to make sure it's sterile. And that's one reason that
costs much.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
And they do that at your site.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
No, they do that at the fish farm before they
can leave the fish farm.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Oh, before you get him? Yes, yeah, okay, so so
Ray told me that, I guess. So when you submit
the application, the big thing is they want to look
at your spillway and make sure you're not going to
be pushing out to some river and basically, you know,
this thing spreads and then we've got grass carp all over.
(19:53):
And he said that rather than come out and do
a site visit with the biologist. They did it by drone,
and he sent me the email exchange. He said, if
you end up talking about this, the only thing I
asked is that you say something nice about the Texas
parks and wildlife and how nice they were to deal with.
(20:14):
So I'm reading the email exchanges. It's a woman named
Lauren Reynolds, permit coordinator in Land Fisheries, and I'm looking
at the timelines. You know, he's sending in his application.
She's jumping right on it, sir. I've made a I've
numbered your pawns to make sure that your application is correct,
and I've done this for you, and I've done this
for you, and I've done this for you. If that
(20:35):
all looks good, then you're good to go and I
can issue your permit. And I'm thinking, wow, man, this
is I guess she's out in Austin County. You're probably
in Washington County right, Well, we are.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think she's actually works out of Austin.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, it looks out of Austin, Texas. Yeah, not Austin County.
Huh Okay, what she looks like. I mean, she's Johnny
on the spot. She's saying, well, you can do this
and do this, and here's this, and here's how you
do this, and like she's she's actually helping the guy
fill out his permit. He's not the sharpest pencil in
the pack, but he's got a great heart. And she's here,
(21:11):
she is, she's helping him answer the questions, not not cheating, lying,
and she's helping him get to the point. We all
want everybody to be able to get their permit and
answer the questions correctly. It's just so nice to see
somebody that works for the government who has this kind
of attitude. So I am going to be sending messages
(21:31):
all over Lauren Reynolds if any of y'all know the
Texas Parks and Wildlife, Lauren Reynolds, permit coordinator Inland Fisheries.
Put a gold star on that one right there. Carol
hold On, It's Carol with Brenham.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Fisheries, Michael Berry Chocolate.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Out You in the dark, line on the backs, counting
the stars, grass Road.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Down by the river, in the.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Full in love in the middle of the night, just
move and slow stand the whole night through.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Dupe.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Do you know ed? Bruce covered? The song doesn't feel
like an ed Bruce song doesn't doesn't sound like it's
in his register. Not at this pacing. Carol is the
owner well co owner with Mike fifty to fifty co
owner of Brenham Fisheries in Brenham. So Ray said he
(22:52):
pulled up, y'all live right there on the site. Y'all
live in a trailer right next to the place. Or
how does this work?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Oh, we don't tell people that show up at.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Oh yeah, we don't want that they want to go
fishing in the dark. I like that. I think I
think living where you work is cool.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You can't afford to be gone because should the power
go off for some reason, you've got to get out
there and start the generator.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Mm hmm m. I didn't think about that. You got
all your live stock. So walk me through your biggest
sellers by percentage? Maybe your top five? Where is grass
carp in that top five?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Oh, it's it's up there.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
What's your number one seller?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Fat head? Minutes to feed everything else?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
By the way, I want to put in a word
for Lauren. I want to go back to that because
sometimes some years ago, not that many years ago. Uh,
it was taken up to three months for people to
get their permits, and every once in a while people
can hit it just right and get it that same day,
so they're done. They're done. A great job on the
(24:07):
permits these days.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Ray said he got his in three hours.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know what makes me crazy? Most of these things.
You know you somebody said, oh, it'll take three months
to do this. The actual task that needs to be
performed is probably five minutes. So it's amazing how often
I don't care if it's car repairs, whatever it is,
how longen people say, well it's going to be a while.
It's not that it takes any time, it's I'm not
(24:35):
going to get to it for a long time. Well,
why don't you get caught up and start doing things
in real time. I can't stand that. It makes me crazy,
But that's people that that's how they live their whole life.
Everything is on a delay. Everything is unresponsive, all right.
So our number one seller is fat head minutes. What's
number two?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Probably? Let me see, well, blue ge ill, because that's
the other feeder fish, because you have to have you
can't have bass without having a lot of feeder fish
hold in your pond.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I'm not going to ask her, what about Vince Gil? Okay,
I'm sorry that those two. Then what would be next? Carol?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yes, what would be I'm sorry, I thought you were
still talking to Ramon.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
No, he thought answer to blue Gill would be Vince Gill.
They think since kind of stuff's funny. Well, I'm trying
to think about, all right, what would be the third
best seller?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
So the fat head menaces the bottom of the food chain,
Bluegill are next, and then after that it's probably bass
and catfish, you know, the on the pond stock and
that's pretty much it. But the grass car prank up
there really high because so many people don't want to
put chemicals in and basically you've got an underwater lawnmower,
(25:57):
and so they keep them down. And I would I
will say this that because they're genetically damaged, they only
live about seven or eight years. After that they'll die
and you have to replace them.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, but Carol, that's good for us. We got kind
of a planned obsolescence. They got to keep coming back.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Well, that's true, and it's better than chemicals every year,
you know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
I bet you we could get in the lab and
tweak around on them and get them where they don't
live but for about a year.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Oh, let's not do that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I'm serious, Carol, I'm not even kidding you talk about
a business plan. I want to get into the fisheries business.
Did you marry into this business?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I did so, Mike was in it. Mike was in it,
and he started the live catfish business in Houston. You
know where you can go in and buy your live
catfish at the store like Fiesta's.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Carol, you don't know this about me, but I probably
eat more fried catfish other than my father, than any
human being in the world every evening. It's my joke
with my wife. When we're driving, I'll go by and
see him in the afternoon and at night, if we're
coming home from something, or if we're sitting around the house,
I'll call just check on him before he goes to bed,
(27:14):
and I'll say, Dad, how are you doing? And he'll say, oh, good,
And I said, how was dinner? He said it was good?
I think, And I'll say what did you have? And
we play this little song and dance little game every
day and he'll say what did I have? What did
I have? And I've already said to my wife before
that I've nudged her and said catfish and sweet potatoes
(27:34):
and fried catfish and sweet potatoes. And he'll say, I can't.
I said, was it the fried kid?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yees?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Fried catfish? Okay, because you've had that the last sixty
five days in a row. I love fried catfish, do you.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Do? I? Yeah, Well we sold that office. You know,
as you get older, you don't you don't have quite
the energy to do that. That's that's heavy labor, is it.
But that's how long. That's how long we've been doing this.
And so anyway, we lost our lease at the place
we were at and this place was available. So we've been
(28:08):
here right around forty years.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
What you been in this Brenham Fisheries location for forty years? Yes, sir, Wow,
you don't sound old enough to have done to have
had two careers in catfish. So Ray said, you're off
thirty six north of Brenham, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That's right about three miles out of ten.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Okay, drive me there. I'm coming up to ninety. I
don't want to take that jug handle turn, so I'm
going to go up to ninety like I'm going up
to Lake Summerville.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right, correct?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And then what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Just stay on the highway and from there's two lights.
The second light is business thirty six connection and from
that light we're about three miles on the left hand side.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
And you're so you're on thirty six.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We are on thirty six.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Oh well, okay, all right? Can you can you have
a sign out front?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
It's actually up on our building because when we first
moved here, you know, you know how small town politics go,
I do, And so the highway department was chicktatus because
of something with the previous owner. I don't know. But anyway,
every time we put up a sign out for the road,
(29:27):
they made us come take it down. So we just
gave up and put it on our office up by
the fence.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
All right, Brenda, all right, Carol, let me do you
a favor. I'm going to cut you off so I
can give your phone number out because there's probably a
lot of business for you in our audience, and that
is Brenham Fisheries. You can find them online. It's a
very basic website and you'll see their phone number on there.
But here is Carol and Mike's number nine seven nine
eight three six fifty four seventy one. Ramon nine seven
(29:58):
nine eight three six fifty four seventy one. You got
the nine seven nine part down, That's easy. Eight three
six fifty four seventy one eight three six fifty four
seventy one. I like to I just like to imagine
her phone is blowing up.
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