Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on news radio eight forty whas Terry Miners here.
Mike Bailey's in the studio. You may have heard that
name thirty years ago running for Congress. Actually I think
he ran twenty five years ago too, but in the
nineties and maybe eighties. Mike, welcome back. It's good to
see you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Am I to call you Mike anymore? Is should I
call you Old Man Bailey?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You can call me whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I once had a I was building a cabin from
the eighteen thirties for a school and the teachers asked
me what should the kids call you? And I said, well,
they can call me old Man Bailey, they can call
me mister Bailey, or they can call me, oh great one.
So every day when the kids were coming through, they
(00:41):
would holler out in Unison, oh great one, Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh great one. Your website is Oldman Bailey dot com
and it says giving history a future, expert, cabin barn
and stonework craftsman. So when I knew you a long
time ago, you were in advertise.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
When did the switch come for you?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well after my last race in two thousand, I had
built by that time two barnhouses for my family, and
the book that I wrote tells the story of but
basically how I was thirty eight years old. I was
tired of being stupid. I didn't know anything about building.
(01:24):
I you know, if I step broke on my deck,
I hired somebody to fix it. I had never done anything,
but the Lord had given us by that time six
or seven kids, and I was determined to change my
life trajectory and teach them how to work with their hands.
Truth is, I didn't know anything, and so we took
(01:47):
a barn in southern south of Cordon, Indiana and turned
it into our home.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But that's what you do, now, don't you teach people
how to do this to transform old buildings into their
primary suitable housing for now? Yes, their primary home, for instance,
is going to get really cold on Sunday. Are they
weather proofed enough so that we're.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Not that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, okay, I'm just making not a thing where you're
gonna have two fires going on.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh no, these homes are beautiful. Like my barn house
is nine thousand square feet, Okay, it's huge. We of course,
we raised ten children in it. And homes built out
of historic materials are just gorgeous. They're beautiful, and it's
(02:34):
the cheapest way to build. If you get a barn,
you get a cabin from the eighteen hundreds, and you
do the work and you turn it into your home.
It is the cheapest way to build there is.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But you're using his old, you know, historical infrastructure. But
what do you add beyond just the well. If it's
a insulation, you can you use neoprene or something that
one of those plastic things that keeps the wind down.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, most people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Most cabins, especially the ones that are still preserved for today,
they were covered pretty soon after they were built. If
you see an old farmhouse out in a field, it's
covered with like clapper board horizontal siding. Typically there's a
cabin underneath that. And if you are able to negotiate
getting that from the owner, you can tear it down
(03:25):
with crowbars, put it back up on your land, and
it's just a wonderful way to interest to build a
primary house.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So it's like it's considered unusable to somebody, some person,
and you can dismantle it.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yes, a lot of times people will buy property they
don't want the old barn on it. They don't want
the old farmhouse on it, and you can negotiate to
get that material, often for free or under three or
four thousand dollars, move it to your property, turn it
into your primary home. But the richness in it is
(03:59):
that if you do it together with your family, you
develop something in the family as far as camaraderie and
working together. It changes you and it changes your family.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I know that you're a very religious person. You have
your ten kids, and you and your wife have been
blessed in so many ways. But what if one of
your ten kids said, you know what, I want to
be an astronaut. I don't want to be a bar builder.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, I don't dictate what my children do, but I
did want to teach them a work ethic. You know,
in Suburvia, it's really hard to teach your children or
work ethic. And so we made the decision to, you know,
buy eighty two acres in southern Indiana and raise our
children on a farm so that they would learn how
to work. I always tell young girls, if you want
(04:49):
to marry a responsible man, find a man who loves
God and owns a crowbar, and you'll never go hungry.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
He's have a crow bar. I hadn't thought about it
adding that to the list to tell my daughter a
crow bar because a guy like that knows how to
dismantle something.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes, and you learn a lot when you take buildings apart.
All the pioneers didn't build their cabins and their barns
the same, and they're just majestic structures. They make beautiful homes.
And yeah, it's just a great, great thing to do.
And then people will say to me, I've never built
anything in my life, like you're looking at me, and
(05:32):
that's me. And I raised my hand, I say that
was me. Every morning, before we begin work, we would
go to the Lord and we would say, Lord, if
you don't send your angels today, we're gonna die. And
I need wisdom way far beyond my pay grade. And
(05:54):
the Lord showed up every day and we learned as
we went and lo and beholden, I make this.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Book you've created is astounding. How big it is, I
mean just it's called Old Man Bailey. The story and
the text book building a new life by rebuilding pioneer
era cabins and barns your whole heart and soul and
story is poured into this thing because there's not a
lot of the illustrations. It's a whole lot of your
(06:22):
story to tell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, the first part is the story how I went
from advertising to building my own home, and then the
middle part is actually how to do the work.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, what is a chinking tear?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Like that's the phrase I'm unfamiliar with. But this is
a guide book too for people who would be interested
in something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And there's a chapter at the end that said, stupid
things we did that you don't want to do.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That's the whole trick to life is learning from others
and opening your ears and eyes so that you don't
have to destep it. You know, teenagers oftentimes I don't
listen to what you tell them. They're going to do
it anyway. But in a building process, this would be
a way to save yourself a lot of blisters and
bad moments.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Let me say this, my kids, many of them have
built their own homes out of historic buildings and they
put them on our farm. So seventeen of my twenty
five grandkids actually live on the farm. I see them
all the time, and there the homes they built. I
did not help with and they're astounding. We have barn houses,
(07:30):
we have log cabins, we have highbreds of modern building,
and some of that have a son in law who
built a cabin up in Michigan, and I've trained him
to do this work.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Is there an underground? Is there a basement or you're
building above ground?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, you can build on a slab, yeah, maybe three
foot high, or you can build a basement.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Most of these homes have basements.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
People always think about storms and they think I need
a safe place to be in case.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
You can design it that way.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, that's just a question. I ask why don't you
hang around here and we'll continue our conversation. Will that
be all right? Old man Bailey? Sure, I'm glad you've
survived all the things you've been through all these years.
You look great. You look like a hearty guy who
walked out of the woods. But you're you know, I mean,
you're clean, you look good.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I took a shower for a game.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
But you look like a guy who could survive in
the woods for six weeks without any provisions. Am I right?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You're correct? Yes, God's grace and favor.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
God's grace and favor always Michael Everett Bailey, known as
old Man Bailey. That's the website Oldman Bailey dot com.
We'll continue again in about fifteen minutes here on news
radio Wave forty WHS. Well, it's pretty fascinating if the
human and building were to be transformed into a hotel,
I would take obviously a lot of infrastructure change, but
(08:54):
the bones of the building are there as opposed to
building this thousand room hotels all we've been hearing about
for months at the site where a museum plaza was
going to go. So well, to see if that story develops.
But that's breaking news. Out of business first this afternoon
in the studio with Me's a guy who knows a
thing or two about building. He's Mike Bailey, Michael Everett Bailey,
(09:17):
now known as old Man Bailey. That's his website, Oldman
Bailey dot com. Mike's good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Nice to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Thanks for hanging around to continue our conversation. You ran
for Congress four times in Indiana, and you know I
met you a long time ago. I know you made
a lot of appearances on this station. You're completely transformed now,
You've got your beard and your long hair, and you
are a really clean cut guy. When I first met
you a long time ago. You're still clean cut. It's
just it's a matter of your beard now makes you
(09:45):
look like a guy who can tough it out in
the woods.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, I always tell people, back in the day when
I was running, people anonymously would pay for my bill.
Of course I never knew who it was because they
supported me, And now they pay my bill because they
think I'm homeless.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You are speaking of home. I know that you and
your wife, your parents of ten and you've got a
lot of Grandkids' photo on the back of your book
is astounding. How beautiful all these faces are, all these
people in that beautiful home you built this home. Yes,
you're standing. This is a total switch in your life
from a decade ago or so. But back in the day,
(10:26):
weren't you guys the ones the first time I'd ever
heard the phrase home schooling? Yes, that was you, Well,
it was the first time I heard it.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, we were definitely pioneers in the homeschool movement. We
weren't the first, but we were definitely of the first
big wave of it, and we just were concerned about
the direction of the country direction of the public schools.
Wanted to school our kids at home. Of course, everyone
thought you're going to ruin your children, and the opposite
(10:59):
is true.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
They said they Yeah, they wouldn't have the engagement with
other kids, they wouldn't learn, they wouldn't grow emotionally and
all that. So update U now this many decades later.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Right, Well, I'm at the stage now My kids are
all older and they've been successful followers of Christ, just
real solid citizens. They're having children. I have twenty five
grandkids and counting.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
In fact, three of my sons are on the Louisville
Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Awesome, Yeah, first responder heroes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yes they are.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
In fact, both of the bridge incidents with trucks, h
my sons were there and involved.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Oh that's amazing. Those stories made worldwide news, particularly the
one the truck dangling over the edge of the cab.
But yeah, firefighters are heroes, no doubt about it. But
you've raised a bunch of quality children. Do you have
any that are a little bit of a renegade somebody?
You know, I want to.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Hey, I need to go home when I well, I mean,
every family has junk from time to time.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And our family isn't perfect, and their dad's not perfect. Yep,
that'd be me.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
But they all are just respectful, honest, hard workers. Of course,
we moved into the country so they'd learn a work ethic,
and we homeschool them because we wanted their primary education
to be their devotion to God into the Bible.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And so when it was what time for college, were
they accepted into a new environment?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
No issues?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Interesting?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yes, In fact, I have one of my sons. He
was a marine officer, came back and he went to
Baptist seminary here in Rosville, was in the ministry for
a while, and now he's a chaplain in the Navy
and he trains all the chaplains coming into the Navy.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
He's their instructor.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Awesome, it's just interesting to hear this update. But your
story now really is about teaching people how to build
on a better economic scale so they can avoid debt. Essentially, Yes,
then in the best way they can.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
And I would say I'm targeting people who were like me,
who knew nothing with it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Like if your friends say.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
To you, you tell them you're going to build a
house and they just start laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That was me.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Because you got a plumb for a toilet and a
sink and all the other things that go into that.
That gets complicated electrical work.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Right, But you approach life in everything that you do
with faith in the Lord, that you admit your weakness
and then you move on from there and you ask
the Lord for help. And one thing I did in
the beginning was I actually would have guys in the
trades come out and they would work with me for
(14:00):
a couple of weeks. And I told them not to
do the work, but to train me. And I said,
you can sit in the chair and have a cigar
and watch me for all I care. I just want
you to make sure I don't kill myself.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And after they were there a week or two.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Then we learned what we needed to learn and we
cut them loose.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
What happens though, with a code inspector shows up and says,
oh you did this yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, historical restoration, they get treated differently. People want these
buildings saved, they want barn saved, they want cabin saved.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The building instruct.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Code guys, they're nice, they but I always tell.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
People, you're not trained in this.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
You overbuild massively, overbuild, you know, if.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You think it's going to take it two by use
the two by twelve.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
And of course most of the timbers were building with
or five by elevens or you know, ten by tens
or or what have you.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's that old school stuff that somebody used a one
hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yes, and it's amazing the structures that go up. And
I've seen people I've trained, I've seen my kids build
their homes. It is a wonderful way to preserve our
history and you get to live in it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And so I'm trying to picture this. It's not little
house on a prairie. Are you only heating with pot bellies, stoves? Fireplaces?
Is there electricity? Is their Wi Fi?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Tell me, well, it's not an easy life. Our house
is nine thousand square feet. We have an outdoor stove.
We have stoves on the inside. I have to cut firewood.
If you want an easy life, then don't do what
right teaching you.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
But it's a rich life, oh, no doubt. And you
get to do it with your family.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And in my case, many of my adult children, my
grandkids are living on the same farmers us and I
get to see them all the time. They help me
out when they can. But preserving these structures and doing
it with your family just adds a richness to family
life that most people never get to experience.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It sounds like the ponderosa and there's a reference for
you from wayback, but interesting in that obviously we all
move through the timeline of life. There's a time you're
sixty eight years old like me. There's a time in
your life when you can't swing an axe, so you
got to have somebody around. It's going to get the
firewood right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I've told my sons.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I said, I'm going to work as long as I
can with my body, and then when that quits, I'll
use my mind to make money. And when that quits,
if you see me on the land and I look hungry,
please feed me.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The economic portion of this, though, is for those who
didn't hear us a little earlier, is to you're getting
old billings. Lots of times people don't want structures that
are out in somewhere. Somebody buys a farm somewhere and
they're like, I don't want that old barn around there.
It's falling down.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Oh yeah, you can get barns for free.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Or just get it out of it.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Us are three or four thousand dollars, and.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
It can be intimidating, but that's what the book is
really teaching people is that there's nothing so big that
God can't give you the strength to do it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
But you haul this stuff away and then you take
it to land that you own, right and obviously use
the prime pieces.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, yeah, we actually put the structures up exactly as
we found.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh you do you recreate exactly?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well yeah, and then we turn it into a house.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That's incredible. All right, Well, we're going to run out
of time here. What do just want people to know?
The book is called Old Man Bailey, The Story and
the Textbook, So it's your story and then guidance on
how to get this stuff done right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And the only place to buy it is Oldman Bailey
dot com, which is our website. Amazon takes sixty percent
of the profits. What yeah, it's crazy. So we just
have it available on our website which is Oldman Bailey
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And it's.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It could transform people's lives if they read it and
just say, okay, lord, I'm weak, i don't know how
to do this, but I'm gonna trust you and move ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And then you do speaking engagements too. People can invite
you to come and talk to.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Their group, and they can reach me from their website.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I see that. Yeah, that's all. They're homeschooling, big families,
fleeing suburbia, pro life activism, politics and the Christian family,
Bible teaching, all kinds of topics you're able to handle
and appear before groups. Well, good for you, old man Bailey.
That's just so funny to call you old man because
(18:46):
we're the same age.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I know. Just don't call my wife old woman Bailey.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Don't I know that. Okay, it's great to talk to
you again, Mike after all these years, Yes, all right right.
The website is Oldman Bailey dot com. Fascinating front to back.
Appreciate great seeing you again. Back in the minute on
news Radio eight forty whas
You're on news radio eight forty whas Terry Miners here.
Mike Bailey's in the studio. You may have heard that
name thirty years ago running for Congress. Actually I think
he ran twenty five years ago too, but in the
nineties and maybe eighties. Mike, welcome back. It's good to
see you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Am I to call you Mike anymore? Is should I
call you Old Man Bailey?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You can call me whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I once had a I was building a cabin from
the eighteen thirties for a school and the teachers asked
me what should the kids call you? And I said, well,
they can call me old Man Bailey, they can call
me mister Bailey, or they can call me, oh great one.
So every day when the kids were coming through, they
(00:41):
would holler out in Unison, oh great one, Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh great one. Your website is Oldman Bailey dot com
and it says giving history a future, expert, cabin barn
and stonework craftsman. So when I knew you a long
time ago, you were in advertise.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
When did the switch come for you?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well after my last race in two thousand, I had
built by that time two barnhouses for my family, and
the book that I wrote tells the story of but
basically how I was thirty eight years old. I was
tired of being stupid. I didn't know anything about building.
(01:24):
I you know, if I step broke on my deck,
I hired somebody to fix it. I had never done anything,
but the Lord had given us by that time six
or seven kids, and I was determined to change my
life trajectory and teach them how to work with their hands.
Truth is, I didn't know anything, and so we took
(01:47):
a barn in southern south of Cordon, Indiana and turned
it into our home.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But that's what you do, now, don't you teach people
how to do this to transform old buildings into their
primary suitable housing for now? Yes, their primary home, for instance,
is going to get really cold on Sunday. Are they
weather proofed enough so that we're.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Not that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, okay, I'm just making not a thing where you're
gonna have two fires going on.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh no, these homes are beautiful. Like my barn house
is nine thousand square feet, Okay, it's huge. We of course,
we raised ten children in it. And homes built out
of historic materials are just gorgeous. They're beautiful, and it's
(02:34):
the cheapest way to build. If you get a barn,
you get a cabin from the eighteen hundreds, and you
do the work and you turn it into your home.
It is the cheapest way to build there is.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But you're using his old, you know, historical infrastructure. But
what do you add beyond just the well. If it's
a insulation, you can you use neoprene or something that
one of those plastic things that keeps the wind down.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, most people don't know that.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Most cabins, especially the ones that are still preserved for today,
they were covered pretty soon after they were built. If
you see an old farmhouse out in a field, it's
covered with like clapper board horizontal siding. Typically there's a
cabin underneath that. And if you are able to negotiate
getting that from the owner, you can tear it down
(03:25):
with crowbars, put it back up on your land, and
it's just a wonderful way to interest to build a
primary house.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So it's like it's considered unusable to somebody, some person,
and you can dismantle it.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yes, a lot of times people will buy property they
don't want the old barn on it. They don't want
the old farmhouse on it, and you can negotiate to
get that material, often for free or under three or
four thousand dollars, move it to your property, turn it
into your primary home. But the richness in it is
(03:59):
that if you do it together with your family, you
develop something in the family as far as camaraderie and
working together. It changes you and it changes your family.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I know that you're a very religious person. You have
your ten kids, and you and your wife have been
blessed in so many ways. But what if one of
your ten kids said, you know what, I want to
be an astronaut. I don't want to be a bar builder.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, I don't dictate what my children do, but I
did want to teach them a work ethic. You know,
in Suburvia, it's really hard to teach your children or
work ethic. And so we made the decision to, you know,
buy eighty two acres in southern Indiana and raise our
children on a farm so that they would learn how
to work. I always tell young girls, if you want
(04:49):
to marry a responsible man, find a man who loves
God and owns a crowbar, and you'll never go hungry.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
He's have a crow bar. I hadn't thought about it
adding that to the list to tell my daughter a
crow bar because a guy like that knows how to
dismantle something.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes, and you learn a lot when you take buildings apart.
All the pioneers didn't build their cabins and their barns
the same, and they're just majestic structures. They make beautiful homes.
And yeah, it's just a great, great thing to do.
And then people will say to me, I've never built
anything in my life, like you're looking at me, and
(05:32):
that's me. And I raised my hand, I say that
was me. Every morning, before we begin work, we would
go to the Lord and we would say, Lord, if
you don't send your angels today, we're gonna die. And
I need wisdom way far beyond my pay grade. And
(05:54):
the Lord showed up every day and we learned as
we went and lo and beholden, I make this.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Book you've created is astounding. How big it is, I
mean just it's called Old Man Bailey. The story and
the text book building a new life by rebuilding pioneer
era cabins and barns your whole heart and soul and
story is poured into this thing because there's not a
lot of the illustrations. It's a whole lot of your
(06:22):
story to tell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, the first part is the story how I went
from advertising to building my own home, and then the
middle part is actually how to do the work.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, what is a chinking tear?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Like that's the phrase I'm unfamiliar with. But this is
a guide book too for people who would be interested
in something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And there's a chapter at the end that said, stupid
things we did that you don't want to do.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
That's the whole trick to life is learning from others
and opening your ears and eyes so that you don't
have to destep it. You know, teenagers oftentimes I don't
listen to what you tell them. They're going to do
it anyway. But in a building process, this would be
a way to save yourself a lot of blisters and
bad moments.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Let me say this, my kids, many of them have
built their own homes out of historic buildings and they
put them on our farm. So seventeen of my twenty
five grandkids actually live on the farm. I see them
all the time, and there the homes they built. I
did not help with and they're astounding. We have barn houses,
(07:30):
we have log cabins, we have highbreds of modern building,
and some of that have a son in law who
built a cabin up in Michigan, and I've trained him
to do this work.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Is there an underground? Is there a basement or you're
building above ground?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well, you can build on a slab, yeah, maybe three
foot high, or you can build a basement.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Most of these homes have basements.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
People always think about storms and they think I need
a safe place to be in case.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
You can design it that way.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Okay, that's just a question. I ask why don't you
hang around here and we'll continue our conversation. Will that
be all right? Old man Bailey? Sure, I'm glad you've
survived all the things you've been through all these years.
You look great. You look like a hearty guy who
walked out of the woods. But you're you know, I mean,
you're clean, you look good.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I took a shower for a game.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
But you look like a guy who could survive in
the woods for six weeks without any provisions. Am I right?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You're correct? Yes, God's grace and favor.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
God's grace and favor always Michael Everett Bailey, known as
old Man Bailey. That's the website Oldman Bailey dot com.
We'll continue again in about fifteen minutes here on news
radio Wave forty WHS. Well, it's pretty fascinating if the
human and building were to be transformed into a hotel,
I would take obviously a lot of infrastructure change, but
(08:54):
the bones of the building are there as opposed to
building this thousand room hotels all we've been hearing about
for months at the site where a museum plaza was
going to go. So well, to see if that story develops.
But that's breaking news. Out of business first this afternoon
in the studio with Me's a guy who knows a
thing or two about building. He's Mike Bailey, Michael Everett Bailey,
(09:17):
now known as old Man Bailey. That's his website, Oldman
Bailey dot com. Mike's good to see you again.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Nice to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Thanks for hanging around to continue our conversation. You ran
for Congress four times in Indiana, and you know I
met you a long time ago. I know you made
a lot of appearances on this station. You're completely transformed now,
You've got your beard and your long hair, and you
are a really clean cut guy. When I first met
you a long time ago. You're still clean cut. It's
just it's a matter of your beard now makes you
(09:45):
look like a guy who can tough it out in
the woods.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, I always tell people, back in the day when
I was running, people anonymously would pay for my bill.
Of course I never knew who it was because they
supported me, And now they pay my bill because they
think I'm homeless.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You are speaking of home. I know that you and
your wife, your parents of ten and you've got a
lot of Grandkids' photo on the back of your book
is astounding. How beautiful all these faces are, all these
people in that beautiful home you built this home. Yes,
you're standing. This is a total switch in your life
from a decade ago or so. But back in the day,
(10:26):
weren't you guys the ones the first time I'd ever
heard the phrase home schooling? Yes, that was you, Well,
it was the first time I heard it.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, we were definitely pioneers in the homeschool movement. We
weren't the first, but we were definitely of the first
big wave of it, and we just were concerned about
the direction of the country direction of the public schools.
Wanted to school our kids at home. Of course, everyone
thought you're going to ruin your children, and the opposite
(10:59):
is true.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
They said they Yeah, they wouldn't have the engagement with
other kids, they wouldn't learn, they wouldn't grow emotionally and
all that. So update U now this many decades later.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Right, Well, I'm at the stage now My kids are
all older and they've been successful followers of Christ, just
real solid citizens. They're having children. I have twenty five
grandkids and counting.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
In fact, three of my sons are on the Louisville
Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Awesome, Yeah, first responder heroes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yes they are.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
In fact, both of the bridge incidents with trucks, h
my sons were there and involved.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Oh that's amazing. Those stories made worldwide news, particularly the
one the truck dangling over the edge of the cab.
But yeah, firefighters are heroes, no doubt about it. But
you've raised a bunch of quality children. Do you have
any that are a little bit of a renegade somebody?
You know, I want to.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Hey, I need to go home when I well, I mean,
every family has junk from time to time.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And our family isn't perfect, and their dad's not perfect. Yep,
that'd be me.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
But they all are just respectful, honest, hard workers. Of course,
we moved into the country so they'd learn a work ethic,
and we homeschool them because we wanted their primary education
to be their devotion to God into the Bible.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And so when it was what time for college, were
they accepted into a new environment?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
No issues?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Interesting?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yes, In fact, I have one of my sons. He
was a marine officer, came back and he went to
Baptist seminary here in Rosville, was in the ministry for
a while, and now he's a chaplain in the Navy
and he trains all the chaplains coming into the Navy.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
He's their instructor.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Awesome, it's just interesting to hear this update. But your
story now really is about teaching people how to build
on a better economic scale so they can avoid debt. Essentially, Yes,
then in the best way they can.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
And I would say I'm targeting people who were like me,
who knew nothing with it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Like if your friends say.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
To you, you tell them you're going to build a
house and they just start laughing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
That was me.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Because you got a plumb for a toilet and a
sink and all the other things that go into that.
That gets complicated electrical work.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Right, But you approach life in everything that you do
with faith in the Lord, that you admit your weakness
and then you move on from there and you ask
the Lord for help. And one thing I did in
the beginning was I actually would have guys in the
trades come out and they would work with me for
(14:00):
a couple of weeks. And I told them not to
do the work, but to train me. And I said,
you can sit in the chair and have a cigar
and watch me for all I care. I just want
you to make sure I don't kill myself.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And after they were there a week or two.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Then we learned what we needed to learn and we
cut them loose.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
What happens though, with a code inspector shows up and says,
oh you did this yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, historical restoration, they get treated differently. People want these
buildings saved, they want barn saved, they want cabin saved.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The building instruct.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Code guys, they're nice, they but I always tell.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
People, you're not trained in this.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
You overbuild massively, overbuild, you know, if.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You think it's going to take it two by use
the two by twelve.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
And of course most of the timbers were building with
or five by elevens or you know, ten by tens
or or what have you.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's that old school stuff that somebody used a one
hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yes, and it's amazing the structures that go up. And
I've seen people I've trained, I've seen my kids build
their homes. It is a wonderful way to preserve our
history and you get to live in it.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And so I'm trying to picture this. It's not little
house on a prairie. Are you only heating with pot bellies, stoves? Fireplaces?
Is there electricity? Is their Wi Fi?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Tell me, well, it's not an easy life. Our house
is nine thousand square feet. We have an outdoor stove.
We have stoves on the inside. I have to cut firewood.
If you want an easy life, then don't do what
right teaching you.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
But it's a rich life, oh, no doubt. And you
get to do it with your family.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And in my case, many of my adult children, my
grandkids are living on the same farmers us and I
get to see them all the time. They help me
out when they can. But preserving these structures and doing
it with your family just adds a richness to family
life that most people never get to experience.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It sounds like the ponderosa and there's a reference for
you from wayback, but interesting in that obviously we all
move through the timeline of life. There's a time you're
sixty eight years old like me. There's a time in
your life when you can't swing an axe, so you
got to have somebody around. It's going to get the
firewood right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I've told my sons.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I said, I'm going to work as long as I
can with my body, and then when that quits, I'll
use my mind to make money. And when that quits,
if you see me on the land and I look hungry,
please feed me.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
The economic portion of this, though, is for those who
didn't hear us a little earlier, is to you're getting
old billings. Lots of times people don't want structures that
are out in somewhere. Somebody buys a farm somewhere and
they're like, I don't want that old barn around there.
It's falling down.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Oh yeah, you can get barns for free.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Or just get it out of it.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Us are three or four thousand dollars, and.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
It can be intimidating, but that's what the book is
really teaching people is that there's nothing so big that
God can't give you the strength to do it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
But you haul this stuff away and then you take
it to land that you own, right and obviously use
the prime pieces.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, yeah, we actually put the structures up exactly as
we found.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh you do you recreate exactly?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well yeah, and then we turn it into a house.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That's incredible. All right, Well, we're going to run out
of time here. What do just want people to know?
The book is called Old Man Bailey, The Story and
the Textbook, So it's your story and then guidance on
how to get this stuff done right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And the only place to buy it is Oldman Bailey
dot com, which is our website. Amazon takes sixty percent
of the profits. What yeah, it's crazy. So we just
have it available on our website which is Oldman Bailey
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And it's.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It could transform people's lives if they read it and
just say, okay, lord, I'm weak, i don't know how
to do this, but I'm gonna trust you and move ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And then you do speaking engagements too. People can invite
you to come and talk to.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Their group, and they can reach me from their website.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I see that. Yeah, that's all. They're homeschooling, big families,
fleeing suburbia, pro life activism, politics and the Christian family,
Bible teaching, all kinds of topics you're able to handle
and appear before groups. Well, good for you, old man Bailey.
That's just so funny to call you old man because
(18:46):
we're the same age.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I know. Just don't call my wife old woman Bailey.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Don't I know that. Okay, it's great to talk to
you again, Mike after all these years, Yes, all right right.
The website is Oldman Bailey dot com. Fascinating front to back.
Appreciate great seeing you again. Back in the minute on
news Radio eight forty whas
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