Welcome to Barnyard Language.

We are Katie and Arlene, an Iowa sheep farmer, and an Ontario dairy

farmer with six kids, two husbands, and a whole lot of chaos between us.

So kick off your boots, reheat your coffee, and join us for

some barnyard language, honest.

Talk about running farms and raising families.

In

case your kids haven't already learned all the swears from being in the barn,

it might be a good idea to put on some headphones or turn down the volume.

While many of our guests are professionals, they

aren't your professionals.

If you need personalized advice, consult your people.

Welcome to another episode of Barnyard Language.

We're happy that you're joining us here on the podcast again today.

Katie.

What is

happening in Iowa this week?

It's cold.

It's real fricking cold.

It's actually warmer today, but it's been real fricking cold.

Um, what?

February and Iowa lot.

Lots of of snow.

I, I know, right?

Um, and my passport finally came, so I bought some plane tickets cuz I'm getting

the hell out of here and because I apparently don't understand how to get the

hell outta here, I'm going further north.

Um, so there's that.

That's right folks.

Do you wanna tell I go in Darlene's house where you're going?

Yeah.

We're gonna actually meet each No, I'm going each other in person.

In the real, in the real.

I'm outta here.

I'm going to Arlene's.

Um, yeah, for anyone who's missed this, we've only spent time together

in person once and that was only for lunch and cheese shopping.

So I'm going to, I'm gonna go see our baby.

And that was back in 2019, her family.

19, is that right?

Was it 2019?

I think it was 2018 ago.

That's a while ago.

Oh yeah.

Anyway, it's a long time.

A little boy was a baby.

So that was 20.

Yeah, he's sat on my lap for, so Katie could finish

her sandwich.

So yeah, he was definitely a little bit, yeah.

Yeah, so very

excited.

So I'm filling up our, our weekend, Katie.

I don't have any, uh, final plans for you yet, but uh, if there are

Eastern Ontario listeners who wanna join us for, uh, I don't know,

supper or something, I'm gonna put

it in the Facebook group.

So join the Facebook.

Well, that'd be a lot of fun.

And then you could hang out with both of us in real life.

I did have a good laugh too, Arlene, you posted on Instagram a, a couple weeks

ago, I think, about going to Costco and that you had stocked up and for a

minute I thought it was stacks of toilet paper and I was like, geez, what is it?

Like, how long does she think I'm staying?

And then I realized it was paper towels cuz you're a dairy farmer and

that made a hell of a lot more sense.

Yeah, that's cause I was, wow.

She's really stocking up there.

Uh, Arlene, what's going on in.

Well,

exam week is done, so that is good.

People got through their first round of exams and uh, today is actually,

we're recording on Wednesday.

They threw in a midweek day off, which

I didn't realize was happening so, well, I guess I, I saw it.

Maybe they, the school emailed last week to, to

remind us about this day off.

Um, so it was not as much of a surprise, but yeah, I wasn't

really expecting a Wednesday with the kids home from school and

I am back to

volunteering in the

grade three classroom.

I had to pause there for a

second then remind myself

what grade my youngest child is in.

I've got four kids so I can't always remember.

So I've

been

doing some reading with those little people and it's so cute because they're

still at the age where they're excited when someone's mom comes in and they

like fight over who gets to read with me and that probably isn't gonna last for

too much longer cause they're all eight.

Turning nine

in, in the

grade that they're in.

So they're starting to turn into big kids, but for now, they still

line up to read with me.

So that's pretty fun.

And I don't think there's too much else.

We've had a run of bull calves in the barn lately, but we did get,

uh, one nice heifer out of a, a cow.

So the grandmother, her name is Apple Crisp, and we

bought

her at a sale for

a family who we're, um, going out of, out of dairying.

So we, uh, bought her and she's

kind of

special.

She, um, not like in a bad way, but she's always in a

box stall because she needs a bit more lunch space.

So she's our, our one cow that

kind of gets her own housing.

And so

she's very spoiled and you have to go in and pet her when you arrive her swing in

the morning, cuz she likes attention too.

And so her, she's Apple crisp, her daughter's name is Strawberry Crisp.

And then this year our naming convention is back to a.

She wasn't born here.

She started with an A, but we are back around at A's, so we've been,

um, strategizing on all the Apple based desserts for this cast's name.

So we settled on the apple dumpling.

So the whole dessert, oh, I would've assumed it would've

been applejack, but, okay.

Is applejack an, uh,

cereal?

What is Apple jack?

There is an apple Jack's cereal, but Okay.

Apple Jack is, I want to say apple brandy.

Oh, okay.

Which I think is a dessert, but, okay.

Yeah.

Um, I don't even know

if we have that.

Oh yeah, maybe we do have that.

Anyway, brand differences again, Katie . I don't think we

have Apple Jack cereal either,

but yeah, we went with it.

Dessert.

Yeah.

Well, that's good.

At least I can, I can sleep out in a barn with, uh, with Apple Crisp while I visit.

Yeah.

I'm just kick it in her box stall with her.

Yeah.

That'll be nice.

So on the, uh,

teacher front, I think our guest today, I know our guest today is a

teacher, so you guys

will be happy to listen to her.

Yeah.

Awesome.

That's

today on the podcast, we're talking to Mon Melissa Nelson, who's

joining us from Northwest Iowa.

So Melissa, we start each of our interviews with the same question,

and this is a way for you to introduce yourself to our listeners,

and we ask, what are you growing?

So this can cover crops, livestock, kids, businesses, and all kinds of other stuff.

So, Melissa, what are you growing?

Uh, right now we are growing a couple kids and some fat cattle

and, um, a few businesses too.

That is exciting.

Okay, so we need all the details.

How old are the kids?

Um, I have two right now.

They are two and a half.

And four and a half.

Uh, Little and fun, but also a little insane at the same time.

But

, absolutely.

And, uh, what kind of, uh, cattle are we talking about?

Um, so my husband and I, um, my husband works full-time with

his dad and brother and we have, uh, two feedlots and a cow herd.

Um, right now we are feeding out calves that we bought from my parents, which

is kind of fun, um, for the two of us to, um, kind of work with, work

on together as a family I suppose.

Um, so we've got black calves, baldy calves, um, my parents sell black

bulls, so, um, there's a lot of black calves in the feed lot right now.

And do you guys grow some crops as well?

Obviously not this time of year cuz we're, uh, yeah, we're

recording in January, but the rest

of the year, uh, yeah, it's a little, it's a little chilly.

Um, by the time we listen to this, we'll be, uh, really getting in the

groove of getting ready for planting.

Uh, on our farm we grow corn and soybeans and, uh, we grow, grow some hay too.

That's great.

And you mentioned businesses.

Do you wanna tell us what they are?

Yeah.

Uh, my husband and I are kind of, uh, serial entrepreneurs a little bit.

So we've each had our own small businesses.

We've had small businesses together.

We've got small businesses with friends and family members.

Um, right now the businesses that I am a part of is, uh, my business,

hungry Canyon, which I think we're gonna talk more about later.

But that's, um, farm and ranch related greeting cards and gifts.

And, um, I also just started a new business with a friend of mine

called Meet Me on Main Street.

And that business is all about bringing experiences to small towns that you might

find in, um, larger, more urban areas.

. Um, we like to take part in too in small rural life.

So, um, doing small town events and highlighting small businesses

and just bringing fun to main streets across rural America.

Ooh, that sounds really fun.

I think we'll have to get more into that one too while we're talking.

Yeah.

Melissa, I'd love to hear more too about your, was it rural route rambles?

Is that the correct name?

Yes.

Um, I actually looked up coming over for it before I remembered that I was

six hours from one side to the other.

And that wasn't really tiny detail in the cards for a day trip, , um, you

know, 12 hours of driving round trip.

Yeah.

So do you, obviously you come from a farm background yourself.

I do, yeah.

Um, I grew up on a farm and Angus cattle operation in Nebraska.

Um, I have two younger sisters.

The three of us were very involved in the farm and cattle operation growing up.

Um, and still are to some point a little bit each of us in our own ways today.

Um, My parents had, I mean, they were also serial entrepreneurs.

We kinda, that's kind of where I got it from.

They, we had, we lived right outside of Omaha, um, in a

small town called Springfield.

It was about five miles outside of the suburban area of Omaha.

And so we took advantage of every niche market that you can imagine.

So sold freezer beef.

We raised broilers and dressed them out ourselves and sold broilers.

We sold eggs.

We had like 800 lane hens that we sold eggs in a fridge on the

side of our house, um, to people.

Uh, my parents had a pumpkin patch.

They had a trucking company, hay grinding business.

Like the list could go on of the little side businesses that fit into the greater,

you know, overarching theme of the farm.

Um, but that's kind of where I think I get a little bit of that itch for

doing extra little things on the side.

Um, . So yeah, grew up in agriculture.

Um, I went to the University of Nebraska Lincoln and got a, a degree in ag

communications, um, leadership, education and communications technically, which I

think all those things work with what I do today in my, in all areas of my life.

Um, and then after college I came up to Northwest Iowa and married my husband.

And, um, I've had a, I've had two jobs up here, full-time jobs on

the, on the side of these, these are side businesses, you know.

Um, but yeah, that's, that's kind of where my agriculture background

started, was at home on the farm.

And then do you and your husband both work off farm or,

um, yeah, so I do full-time.

Um, my husband, he.

. He farms and feeds cattle and has the cow herd with, um, his dad and his brother.

Um, so he farms full-time.

And, um, I work actually at Morningside University in the

ag agriculture department.

Um, and that's in Sioux City.

So Morningside is a small private college that has an ag program that's

been growing for the last 10 years.

We, they've always had an ag program in the past.

It was centered around the stockyards.

Um, and a lot of students, um, in that program at the time, they

would work in the stockyards and learn commodity trading, livestock

grading, buying, selling, all of that through work at the stockyards.

And so, um, when the Stockyards died in 1997.

So did the ag program at Morningside and eventually there is, I mean, this is a, a

very heavy ag related, uh, industry area.

Um, like much of rural America, anybody, you guys listening,

everyone, um, similar to that.

And so there's people in the area that said, we need an ag program at

one of the schools in Sioux City.

And so Morningside said, let's start it back up again.

So, um, I actually oversee all of our ag students that we require to work

in industry for seven full months.

Um, they work full-time for seven months doing something that is hopefully related

to what they wanna do when they leave.

And so that's kind of my job.

I get to be a little bit of a life advisor to those college students in ag.

And I've really, I've been doing this for about six years, five years.

Um, and so I've really enjoyed it and I love getting to do

that with these students.

So how much shit does your family give you for moving to Iowa?

I mean, I know how much shit we give people from moving to

Nebraska, so I assume it's fairly, fairly, even the other direction,

, I grew up like almost on the border

So like the animosity is pretty real.

Um, and I always like, I felt like there's more animosity to people in

Iowa, like in Nebraska, you know, like, ugh, Iowa, like you're moving to Iowa.

And I legitimately cried for like every day for two weeks leading up to

it because I knew when I left, when I moved to Iowa, I was never coming

back home cuz I was gonna marry Mark.

I was gonna live there.

The farm is there, like you don't just up and move that.

And so I did.

I cried like every day knowing I was moving across the

state or across the river.

Um, but like the thing is everyone talks about football.

Like obviously Nebraska football is huge, but the thing is

we don't have other teams.

In Nebraska to support.

We're in Iowa.

It's kind of different, you know, people who like Iowa seek can hate

the hawkeys and back and forth.

Um, so it's just, it's kind of fun.

But yeah, I, I'm barely in Iowa.

If I can, uh, throw that in there.

I'm barely across the border.

. I think one of the best things I've heard

seasons is how common that grief is about marrying into somebody else's family farm.

That I had no idea how hard it would hit me, that it's very unlikely that

we'll ever go house shopping, you know?

Or if we do, we'll be old and yeah.

Retiring, you know, it won't be a like, oh, we're starting our family together.

It'll be a, this is where we're gonna die, kind of a thing.

, pretty much.

Yeah.

Which is not as exciting as, you know, oh, we're a young married

couple looking to start our family.

It's, you know, it'll be a very different transition and, , it is hard to remember,

no matter how much you love the farm, this is where you're gonna be unless

you, you know, split your family up.

This is, this is it.

And that that is, yeah.

The goal is for this to be it.

Um,

so I, let's get impress earlier that, yeah.

Wait, I said earlier we're feeding out my dad's calves from, um, and I guess

another side story, but my parents moved.

They have two places in Nebraska.

There's one by Omaha.

And then just in the last few years, they bought a ranch out in

central Nebraska, um, and moved all the cows out there because,

like I said, living close to Omaha.

Like it was great for all these niche markets, but it also was miserable

to raise cows outside of the city.

And the city just kept growing.

Um, my hometown is actually now home.

A Facebook data center and very close to a Amazon fulfillment center

and a, like all these data centers.

And that's actually part of the reason that, uh, most of the reason that we

moved to the ranch, um, was because a data center purchased our farm.

And so it's like very bittersweet that my, the farm I grew up on is gone,

but we got to move our cows to where they're supposed to be, quote unquote.

And, um, I forgot where I was going with that.

What was I saying?

Maybe, sorry, I, this is where I'm clubbing.

That's okay.

Um, maybe something about like being tied to Oh yes.

Physical place.

So my parents moved all the cows out to the ranch and now we get

to feed the calves out in the feed lot that my husband and I work on.

And he goes to work every day.

And it's, so, it's, it's fun to mesh those.

Family businesses together, because when you leave your own farm, when you grow

up with that, it's almost like you have to like refind your identity just like

moving to a new area, but like refinding your identity in ag as someone who's

doing something and, and um, that's, so that's been really cool for me to

mesh those two operations together.

Well, and I think too, and I don't know how universal this is, but I bet

it's fairly universal, that there's this sense as the wife coming in

that you're not really part of it.

That you're either, you know, marrying for money or you're just putting up

with it, you know, and that those are kind of your two options and that it's

not possible that you might want to be there even on days that you resent it.

You know?

I mean, it's, there's always hard days, but

I remind my boys, my little boys, cuz some, every once in a while they'll

say, well mom, you're not a farmer mom.

, you know, you don't have cows.

And I'm like, uh, yes I do.

I, my name is on the note just as much as your dad's.

I may not go there every day, but I go to my own job that provides

a lot of benefits so that we can do what we're doing on the farm.

So that's something that I'm very adamant about in, you know, incorporating

into my kids at two and four.

Hopefully by the time they're, and they know mom drives tractors and can work

cattle and do all that, but I, they don't see me get to do it every day.

So I remind them often.

I think that it's a really hard thing to remember too, is how much that off-farm

income makes the on-farm income possible.

And it is really important for our children and for everyone

else to see how critical that is.

Um, I know it certainly is for our family, so

definitely, I definitely agree with that.

So one of the things we wanted to talk to you about today and the

way that we actually found you is through Hungry Canyon Designs because,

uh, some of them are hilarious.

And, uh, so tell us about the inspiration behind Hungry Canyon and,

uh, what you, what you're creating.

Yeah.

So Hungry Canyon is, um, a place for pe.

I, I say people like us, and when I say that, I mean people

who, um, relate to agriculture.

We live the life and I think when you do, when you know what I mean about people

like us, you understand what I'm saying?

Um, and card, I wanted cards for people like us.

When I was dating Mark in college, I, um, went to go find a card for him

for, um, Valentine's Day and anything I found that spoke to us, Car or, um,

cows or tractors or whatever, they were always the wrong color or breed.

And so like anything with a cow was always a dairy cow.

And we don't raise dairy cows, we raise beef cows.

And, uh, anything that was a tractor was a green tractor.

I could never give a green tractor card to my husband, um, who is

completely red tractor blooded.

And so I, um, with that ad communications degree, I knew just enough to be dangerous

about graphic design and art and website design and all, like all those little

things that go into like the branding and building of little businesses.

And I thought first I'm gonna start by making cards and I would give

Mark a homemade card every year.

Um, and then friends would ask me like, Hey, can I buy this

for my own significant other?

And so I started, uh, an Instagram page, a Facebook page.

I started a website, um, and started selling these cards and it turned in.

To a full fledged business.

So, uh, that's what I do.

I, I make cards for people like us that, um, relate agriculture to, in

a funny or cute or meaningful way.

Um, for people to give greeting cards and gifts to people like themselves.

Melissa, I think the first card of yours that I saw was the one that says,

I love you more than $7 corn, which very certain is totally people like us,

um, , because yeah, I feel like all the ag content I see is very, you know, so

God made a farmer and live, laugh, love, and like those things are all great and

they all have their place, but it's.

My husband knows me well enough after 11 years together to know that

that is not the kind of card that I would be buying if I had other

options, let's put it that way.

Yep.

So I was, was very excited to see other

options.

When I, when I talk about that card, I love you more than $7 corn.

I always follow that up with, and that's a lot cuz I really love $7 corn.

Although, you know, in the feed lot business, we don't love it quite

as much, but taking grain to the co-op or you know, selling it in

town, you, you like that $7 corn.

But um, yeah, and that's the other thing is like, yes, the, so God made

a farmer and the, like, the cutesy.

I don't know, I always, I say it's almost like a little bit hokey and my

business, I say it's a little hokey.

It is.

But it, like, I get the guys to giggle and laugh and like the gals,

they see it and you're like, wow.

Yeah.

That's like exactly what it's like.

I like some of my favorite cards that I make are, um, It's like farm wife

advice and one of 'em, and it's to be given for like bridal showers, um,

weddings, things, friends, whatever.

Um, but some of 'em, like the one that makes me laugh the most is, um, men are,

men are only capable of multitasking when operating a loader tractor cuz they're

running their feet pedal in their hand.

The joystick at the same time.

And if you've been married or you have a long-term husband, boyfriend, spouse,

friend, like, you know, sometimes it's difficult for men to multitask, but

when they're running the loader tractor man, they know what they are doing.

And so like the, you get it, like, it makes you laugh and chuckle and it's true.

There we go.

And I know what you mean too about tractors being the wrong color.

We're, uh, I married into an Alice family and every time our little boy

says John Deere, it's like, I can see my husband just dying a little every time.

And, you know, trying to find anything with Alice Chalmers on it.

It's, it's hard.

Um, noted.

I'll, I'll make a note here.

Orange kids, just, my kids love the orange tractors, so Yeah.

Bust

out the colored pencils and just color it yourself.

Make a little DIY set maybe.

Mm-hmm.

So how do you come up with your ideas?

They

come straight from the farm, um, I feel like, and my husband is a very big help.

Like you wouldn't think.

, you know, some red-blooded, God-fearing American Farm Boy is gonna be like

the creator of all these poetic cards because some of 'em are pretty

poetic and like heart heartfelt.

Um, but Mark is very creative and he's the one that, he's on the farm every day.

So he's, and he kind of knows the style of cards that we come up with.

And so he'll, there'd be days when he's scraping yards at the feed

lot or running the green card or whatever and he'll send me just a

tents in a row of all these ideas.

But they come from the farm.

So like sometimes I feel like when I don't get to go work cattle or don't go

get to help with harvest or go work on the farm very often, cuz I'm preoccupied

with a full-time job and my kids in the house and all that kind of stuff.

Like I get into these creative dry spells.

But when I'm on the farm, like that's where we come up with the

ideas and, and when Mark has these ideas and he'll send 'em to me.

It's.

my job to kind of make 'em into something that I know people will

buy or something that will, um, speak to people in a, in a pretty way.

So we, we make a good team that way.

So what's

your favorite thing that you've made?

That's like, you gotta say, pick your favorite kid, right?

That's what everyone says.

Well, that was actually my next question is for you to pick your favorite child.

So it's

a good warmup for you.

The second, the minute

. Yeah.

Um, the one who's causing fewer problems at the, at the moment.

Right.

Um, I think one, it's like probably one of the very first cards that I

ever made, and actually I think my sister actually helped come up with it.

But, um, year and I have different, I have different favorites throughout

the year, depending on the season of life or the season of whatever.

Um, but one, it was love is getting the.

and then love is signing the operating note.

And the little line that I always say is, people like us understand that getting

the love is getting the gate, but even truer love is signing the operating note

like you are signing your life away.

You are just as much a partner in that operation as anyone else

who signed that operating note.

But that's a it, that's love on the farm.

Um, so that's a favorite.

Um, some of the baby cards I've made have been really fun.

Um, there's one, it's, uh, things a cattleman should keep to

himself when his wife is pregnant.

And it's all the things that I won't, uh, admit if my husband said these things are

not, which, yes, he actually has some of 'em, but like, um, you're not supposed

to say anything about like average daily gain or utter score or taking the.

Chains to the hospital, uh, pulling chains to the hospital.

Like those are little things on there.

But yeah,

Katie and I are both nodding because we're both from, uh, livestock.

Yeah.

Backgrounds too.

Yeah.

Uh, a one line I think I've heard before was, well, it's

nothing I haven't seen before.

Yeah.

. Yeah.

Excuse me.

I'm a bovine midwife.

Let me just step in there.

Yeah.

It's

very similar to, uh, yeah.

All the other caving I've,

I'll say if you mention back fat thickness, um, that's

not gonna go over well.

It's just not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cavies.

. Yeah.

Yeah.

Cavies, uh, estimated progeny difference was one I heard.

No, no, nobody.

So

like, those are fun and I think that they don't, and I, I will say a lot of

my cards have puns, which I think are very clever and I like to be clever.

Um, but the ones that I really like, love the most are the ones that are just.

Say like relating something on the farm in a, in a meaningful,

cute way that we just get.

So those are kind of my favorites.

I have to say too, one of the things I appreciated was that looking through

your catalog, I didn't see anything that was too like, oh men, they're

so helpless and stupid and useless.

Because there's a lot of things where our husbands just don't get the practice.

You know?

We see so much crap about, you know, men can't dress babies.

And I'm like, well, if I do it 99% of the time, why do I expect

him to know what he's doing?

But there's so much negativity towards letting men figure stuff

out, and I mean, there's definitely a time and a place to make fun of.

But it's kind of obnoxious when people are making money off, making fun of them.

Like, yeah, I can make fun of my husband, but Hallmark cannot, like,

you could make fun of my husband because you have a husband who is the

same sort of person, I would guess.

Yeah.

But,

but yeah, I totally agree with that.

And there's like, I mean, I, I am, can only do the things that I do because my

husband is as involved in the family and in the home and me on the farm opposite.

Like we could, the, all, the two of us can only do all the things that

we do because of the other, like there's no, you know, I don't know.

And we all have our jobs.

We each have the things that we do that are, the other one doesn't,

but I can't do it without him.

You know, any, any AC accolade or project or anything that I complete

or get is because I have a supportive husband who's able to do that.

Yeah.

And

that gendered, you know, like whether it's in good fun or not, but some of

that gendered, you know, like, oh, women are this way, men are this way.

Women can't do this kind of stuff.

Like when we complain about being typecast as women or men, you know,

it comes from that place, right?

Like we, if we're, if we're trying to assert ourselves a, as women and finding

roles for ourselves in agriculture, then we have to both fight against those

stereotypes about us, as well as not play into the stereotypes about men too, right?

Like we, yeah, it comes from both sides.

Like we, we need to, to kind of lay off on some of that.

, you know, that judgment or that negativity around, well, you know, they can't do

this or we can't do that kind of stuff because we all know people who are

doing it no matter what exactly what

gender they're, except for that one about, sorry, the one about,

um, being able to multitask when they drive a loader tractor.

I prefer to think that it is proof that they are capable of

multitasking and they're just not being their best selves and applying

They have it within them.

They really do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a skill, right.

. I'll say I'm the first person

You can do it like you can do anything.

You said to mind your mind too.

But I say that about anybody.

Yeah.

And I like, I'm not like that.

You can, I listen to some people on the radio or on TV and you hear all

this feminism monologue and I like, I'm not a, you know, Woman hater.

Like I think women can do anything, but I think we also do so many

things because of, and men have the things that they can do too.

And so there's like, we can't do it without the other, so there's

just a lot of stuff out there.

Yeah.

Um, so you mentioned your other business.

Remind me, is it Meet Me on Main,

meet me on Main Street Meet, meet me on

Main Street.

So I'm curious about this.

Are you hired by small businesses to run events or chambers of commerce or both?

Or what kind of, what is the, the model?

That's a good question.

Okay.

, we've, uh, we we're just getting started

Marissa, um, also lives in, she lives in town in Mobile, in the town that we claim.

Um, and the two of us have over the last two or three years, put together some

events that highlight small businesses in small towns, and like I said, bring like.

Experiences that you would find in an urban setting to a rural area.

And so, um, the first event that we put together was

called the Rural Route Ramble.

We put it on three years ago in 2020.

It was a, a weekend before the holidays where it kind of started

out where we said, Hey, let's get, we both had party buses at the time.

We, my husband and I had a small business where um, he and his brother owned a

party bus and we would be rented out and people could drive it around or

we would drive it around for people.

Um, and Marissa, her family also had a party bus for, uh, personal use.

And so we're like, we both have buses.

Let's get together and find some friends and we'll go visit small businesses.

Cuz in our area in northwest Iowa, we have some incredible small

businesses in teeny tiny towns that are just doing amazing things both

online and in brick and mortar.

And so we thought, let's get on the bus, take our friends, we'll go.

Visit these businesses.

And then the more we got into planning it, we're like, this

is bigger than just a bus.

We need to tell everybody about this.

So I think we started planning it like in October and the weekend

was one of the first or second in December, um, in 2020 where people,

like small businesses were hurting.

There is so many people who, they had very little business the months ahead of that.

And so we wanted to make a, a big, you know, difference for these

small business owners and friends.

And so, um, we put it together, put it out online, um, and said, here's

the towns that were showcasing.

Here's the vendors.

We charged a, a little vendor fee that we used.

Um, we used that vendor fee to.

Promote the event.

Um, and then people really, really loved it.

And so we did it again last year and it was even bigger and better.

I think we went from having 35 vendors the first year to about 50 last

year, and then this year was even bigger and better and we had over 75

different vendors in 13 small towns across Northwest Iowa and it was a r.

It's really fun and we like, we kind of jokingly call it the magic of the real

route ramble, but it does feel magical.

You're out there with thousands of other shoppers visiting these small businesses

in tiny towns, or even not in towns.

We have businesses that are out.

On their farm in rural areas that are just killing it in the small business world

and showing people who may not know about that business before, um, show them who

they are and then get a, give them a taste of it during that weekend and then they

know about 'em the rest of their life.

Like they can go shop there anytime.

It doesn't have to be the Ramble or Christmas.

Um, so that's kind of where it started.

It technically we were kind of funneling all of that, uh, funding

through my Hungry Canyon business and it got big enough where we're

like, this has to be its own thing.

We have to have its own business.

Um, we do other events as well, kind of playing on the same theme

of small business highlights.

Um, but we have, um, my, this Marissa, she has a small business space in Mobile on

Main Street that is available for rentals.

And so, um, it's a boutique rental space and it's just a really nice

thing to have in our small town where people can rent it for.

A baby shower or a work meeting or whatever.

But we host small business pop-up shops and charcuterie workshops, and

we have a list of ideas of all these things that we can host in there.

But eventually we'd love to, um, be hired by, maybe, possibly

she also has a full-time job.

We gotta see where this goes.

But, you know, like, uh, one thing we're, we're working on this quarter

is, um, community event kits.

And that's something that I've worked on personally in the past with, uh,

some other projects that I've done.

But like, I wanna take the things that I'm doing here, these events, these

projects, these promotional things for commodity organizations and ag.

Like take what we're doing here, put it into a kit and sell it to

someone so that they can do that too.

Because there's movers and shakers in every town.

They just maybe don't have the resources or the know-how or.

, um, they want a step-by-step process of how to do what we

did here in where they live.

So that's kind of the next steps of that, that model.

But, um, it's been a really fun thing and it's really cool to do

the things that we're doing in small town America, in the country.

I'd love to hear you.

Yeah, that's really neat.

Sometimes because it's someone who's also, oh, go ahead, Arlene.

Okay, well now I'm just gonna keep talking.

Um, you know, as someone who's involved in a lot of community stuff, when you're

trying to get relatively younger folks involved, you know, I think we're more

likely to still have full-time jobs.

We are more likely to have little kids, especially if

you're talking about farmers.

We've got all of that going on, and so I think for a lot of folks, there's enough

energy to do the thing, but there's not enough time and energy to reinvent,

reinvent all the wheels to do the thing.

Absolutely.

And it's, that's

exactly it.

Like here's what we purchased and where, here's how much we spent.

Here's what you think about when you think about this, this, and this.

Here's what you say when you call a business to ask them to donate

something for this project, here's like, that's what I want to give.

So that you can take that and just literally recreate it and you can,

I'm absolutely open to people re like putting your own spin on things.

You absolutely should, but here's the basics of what it takes to do

the bare minimum and just go do it.

Like, let's just do more good, let's do cool things wherever you are.

Well, and I think even when you're, you know, talking about multiple groups

in the same community, there's so much, well, our group is doing this

and this group is doing this, and they might be doing, you know, the things

they're doing might be 95% the same, but because they're different groups,

they can't possibly work together.

And it's, it's a waste of time.

It's a waste of resources.

It's frustrating for sure.

So what are some of your future goals when it comes to Hungry Canyon and to the farm?

Um, hmm.

That's a good question.

I, I am.

Uh, the personality type that likes to set goals and have goals,

but I also don't really like take dedicated time to set them.

It's just like, oh, I think that would be cool.

Let's do it.

Um, so I, I don't have like legit set goals especially, and we're

recording what, January 4th.

So like, I should have, if you're the personality type set goals,

I would've done that recently.

But, um, I think my goals are just to do as, like I said earlier, like to do good.

Like my, I feel like my, my business is, is a fun, it's a creative outlet for me.

Um, when I'm teaching college kids, I'm not, I don't get to be

as hokey and, uh, creative as I maybe was in my first job, which was

teaching elementary kids about ag.

Like I got to do the creative stuff and the crafts and the things and

I don't get to do that as much.

So Hung Keenan has been a great creative outlet that way.

Um, and then, just to like, keep, keep on keeping on.

I , I think someone, you know, people talk about like, oh, I

wanna thrive in the next year.

I'm just trying to survive.

Like we're, we're getting by, you know, be the best that I can for my

kids and my husband and at my job and, and try to do all the things,

but knowing full well that that's not possible in every area of every life.

So, um, I think with Hungry Canyon, like I would love to create more

of these community event kits.

Um, and it meshes really well with that.

Meet me on Main Street and so it's kind of a, a joint project there, but

like, I want to be able to, to do cool things in other people's towns too.

Um, that's kind of a motto that Mark and I have at home for the last few years is

if you want cool things to happen in your small town, you have to do cool things.

You sit around and no one's gonna do 'em for you if you're not gonna do

it, you know it's not gonna happen.

So that's why we're involved in Farm Bureau and cattlemen and local

politics and church and fair and all, like all these little things, these

volunteer opportunities because we want these things to be around for

our kids and also for us to enjoy too.

So being able to emulate that in these kits and help other people

do that in their own areas, I think is, is one of my main goals

for the next, the next little bit.

That makes a lot of sense.

I mean, a lot of those activities, I mean, it's easy to complain

about, oh, well they, they don't think about young families or

they're, they're not catering to us.

But if you're not at bare minimum providing input and you know, like you

said, hopefully finding ways to be.

More involved than just providing input, then we can't really blame

organizations for not catering to us if, if they don't know what we want or

what works or how things have changed or, you know, being, being willing to,

to change what they're doing to meet, meet the expectations of the community.

I agree.

I completely agree with that.

Yep.

So I was thinking about your, um, your job at the, the school and,

um, I'm someone who's got a couple of teenagers and I'm wondering if

you have any, uh, job search tips.

It sounds like you would be, uh, the kind of person who would

be, uh, good at, uh, helping our teens and young adults find work.

Do you have any, uh, any tips for us?

Yeah, I, yeah, I do.

Um, , I.

That's my job here at Morningside.

So, um, these, I get these students that come in as freshmen in college and, and

I'm in the ag department specifically.

So the kids that I have, kids, the young adults that I'm working

with specifically know that they like agriculture for some reason.

And so, uh, some of them come in and they're like, I know I'm

gonna go home to the family farm.

I'm just here to get the degree.

Mom and dad told me to do it.

Or I know I wanna learn X, Y, and Z when I'm here and then

leave, um, and go do this job.

Um, but some students have no idea what they wanna do and that's okay too.

I tell 'em, it's no matter where you're at, you can always figure it out.

Um, but a lot of times I tell, I start, I teach my students, I get them freshman

year in a class, and then one of the first things I have 'em do is a job shadow.

No cons, low consequence.

Um, you're not contracted, you're not getting paid, you're not doing a job,

you're just there to over to see.

what that job is like.

So maybe someone knows that they like the food industry, the food

service industry, or they like greenhouses or they like whatever.

Go see what someone does in that job for a few hours.

I make 'em do 12 hours for the assignment, and then I have questions

and an assignment that goes along with it, but it's no consequence.

Like you don't have, you can leave and never go back again.

Um, and then the next step is if you liked it.

Okay.

Let's see if you can do an internship or a part-time job if you didn't like it.

Okay, cool.

That's really good to know.

I'm glad you know that you don't like that.

Let's do something different.

Maybe it's related to what you were looking at first, because you obviously

were interested in that for some reason.

So what part of it did you like?

Was it the people?

Was it the, um, the industry?

Was it the topic?

Like what part of it was it?

And, and let's find something that's relatable but not the same.

and see if you like that.

And so helping them go through that step and um, do the internship and then the

more ex like, experience that they get.

And that's our, our slogan or motto at Morningside is experience matters.

And the whole institution is very in tune to giving students

experience because you leave school.

And what do job seekers or people who you wanna do business with, what

do they look at your experience?

What have you done?

Where have you been?

What have you learned?

Like, not necessarily what have you learned in a class or what

does your degree say, but what have you done and experienced?

And so getting out there and doing that, I think is probably the best advice that

anyone could, could give someone who's looking for, um, career advice, whether

you're in high school or out in adult.

Like if you're not happy with the job that you have, what part of it do you like?

And what parts do you not?

. If there's other things out there, ask the questions, follow someone around.

Do like, do the same thing.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

Cuz sometimes knowing what you don't want to do is just as important

as knowing what you do want to do.

Right.

Cross Absolutely.

Crossing a few things off the list is, is a good, is a good step.

And better to do that before you get a degree and decide at

the end that yes, that it really isn't the path you want to take.

It's, it's so sad to me to see students leave after paying

for four years of college.

And still not know what they wanna do.

And I, I like to think that we know enough about what we're doing here.

I've been in my job for five years now, so I've seen five groups of students leave.

And the longer I've been here, the more it's been like, okay, those

kids know what they're doing.

Like they have a good idea, they're gonna go out and they're gonna

move mountains in whatever part of the industry they're going into.

And, and I can see that, and I'm, I'm thankful that I, I get to be part

of that, but that we are really in tune to doing that here specifically.

But yeah, it's sad for me to see people leave and not know what they're doing.

Yeah.

I think it's also important, I'm, I'm guessing in the, the internship

program that the kids, even the ones who are going back home to farm,

have to work for somebody else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

. Well, and with them, I, I say,

for the Ag department too.

So like when I'm meeting with students that are in high school looking to

come to Morningside to get an ag degree, I say the ones that say they're

gonna go home to the farm, like, I have a soft spot in my heart for you.

That's what my husband does.

That's what my sisters have done.

Like that's what we all married farmers.

Like we all, that's what we do.

We, we did that.

And so I'm gonna work with you specifically to find out what do you

need to learn to take back to your farm?

Mm-hmm.

, you're not gonna go home and be a hired man.

You're gonna go home and be a partner in your operation.

Like, is it marketing?

Is it crop scouting?

Is it.

Livestock, is it like, what piece of ag do you need to learn about

to take back with you and let's do that while you're here at school.

So when you leave, you can go out and be a force on your own

operation.

Yeah, that's right.

And make the context that you need for the future, right?

Not, not just the context that your, your, your mom has, that your dad has

that, that you already have in your community, but a wider range of, of

people that you can draw on in the future.

So yeah, that, that, that place is yours and just the experience of, of, you know,

having to listen to someone other than mom or dad or, that's a big piece too.

Grandma or grandpa or . Yeah.

Mom and dad aren't so bad after going somewhere else.

There's something like, yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Well, and I think it's so great too to talk about job shadowing because it

seems really unfair that we're asking 18 year old kids to pick what they're

going to do forever with most of them.

Very, very little experience at the thing that they're picking, you know?

And so it seems pretty uncool to be like, Hey, just come up with something

that you think sounds interesting or that somebody might pay you for, and

then commit the rest of your life to that with no real understanding of

what that's going to mean for you.

Yeah.

Um, so you're raising two little ones on no farm, and one of the reasons

we started the podcast is because of the isolation that comes with being

a parent, especially in rural areas.

Um, so what was that transition like for you to, to move into being a mom as well

as a complete human in your own right?

Um, I think that, We talked about this earlier, but like my

husband had a big part in that.

He has, as much as he's involved on the farm, like he is the one that

comes home and if he makes supper, he makes or gets home in time for supper.

He's there and he is someone that's, you know, helping mind the kids and tell them

that they have to eat their vegetables and helps with bath and bedtime and, you

know, that kind of stuff and takes him to daycare of the mor like he does all

the things that you would hope would be in like a 50 50 parenting, uh, situation.

And so that's been a, that was really helpful, especially because I moved away

from my family and I had two sisters who, um, we, we all three are having

kids at the same time and all three of us live in completely different places.

I'm two hours from the one and seven from the other.

And so, um, the three of us, you know, we talk about how we each

don't have help in our own way.

Um, Whether that's being close to home or not close to home.

And my husband's family is very in, um, helpful and involved as well.

So, um, they're, they're very helpful.

So that has been good.

Um, the part about like watching kids grow up on the farm, ha was

always like, I don't know, I a dream.

Um, like Mark and I both did that.

We lived that life growing up and we wanted that for our kids.

And so it was important to, um, do the things that we do so that we can live on

the farm and raise our kids on the farm.

And, um, I, when I, when I first had both kids, um, I feel like

social media is different today than it was even two years ago.

Um, Instagram specifically, Have built a lot of my business through Instagram and

have quite like a, a good following and felt like I had a really good community on

Instagram leading up to, um, the pandemic.

And then I don't know what happened with social media, like algorithms

and community and it's just, it's different today for me and I think for

a lot of people too than it was before.

And that's, I really found community in farm moms on social media because

like you say, it's isolating.

Like you don't have, you don't go to town and, you know, go to a tennis

club or to a, like, you maybe make it to story time at the library, but you

don't have all these things that these, these podcasts are telling you to do.

And so, um, I found those people on Instagram and my second kid,

Charlie, he was so colicky when he was a baby and he cried constantly.

And I would share about that on social media.

And I don't know how many moms.

Messaged me and would like talk me off the ledge of, you know, how

hard it is because they went through it too and here's what they did.

And so having that community like that was a real thing.

I felt like I had to like, explain myself when I would tell my husband what I

learned from someone on the internet, even though they're just like us.

They just live in a different place.

And it's like, you found that community and it's, I, I'm like mourning

Instagram a little bit because it's not the same as it used to be because

I really loved that about social media.

Um, so that was helpful in that transition.

But yeah, I think, um, having kids on the farm is, to me it is living the dream,

being able to take 'em outside and, you know, see the farm like through their

eyes just like we did when we were kids.

I love that.

There's nothing, nothing better for me.

So have they started telling you guys how to run on a farm yet?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that I was just, it's funny, I was just going through all

my posts on Instagram from last year as like a nostalgic rabbit hole thing

I did yesterday, and one of 'em was, it was gonna be really soon before we

could leave the boys in charge, uh, of the farm and leave for the weekend

because they, yeah, they know a lot

, lot, lots of opinions, right?

Yes.

. So, I mean, this feels like a good place to put in a plug, not

just for you Melissa, but for our listeners, that one of the things

that Katie and I did start along with the podcast is a Facebook group.

Um, so if you look up, it's in the show notes, but the Barnyard Language podcast

group is hopefully a place where we can have those kinds of conversations

and look for support and also share the, you know, funny stuff that maybe.

Non-farm parents don't really understand

. Arlene and I actually met in a Facebook

a spinoff from another parenting podcast.

But one of the, the things I remember the most about having that first kid

was all these people who were like, well, I can't cloth diaper because I'd

never put poop in my washing machine,

And I was like, I wouldn't have a washing machine if I had to

replace it, if it got poop in it.

Like , we are not samesies.

Yeah, obviously.

And.

Parenting is hard enough without having to explain stuff like that to people.

, um, we just did it.

Yeah.

Like where people, we have to buy new clothes every day.

Like that would just be the

opposite.

Sometimes I do try to keep the barn clothes and the other clothes

in separate cycles, but I mean, even that doesn't always happen.

Right.

Depends how I at least try to keep the, the chore clothes separate

from like dish towels, . Yeah.

That seems Yeah.

You're delicate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I try to separate, but yeah, the whole like, I would never

watch, watch anything with poop.

I was just like, yeah, that's exactly it.

Like, how dirty is it?

And with what, like that's what I separated by.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So

you kind of already mentioned this, but what for you is the best

part of raising kids on the farm?

Other than kicking them outside Whenever they, uh,

yeah, that is great.

Yeah.

Um, I think it's being able to see the farm through their eyes, um, and like.

. I don't know.

They just, it's so funny.

Like they, and I think every kid does this, but like collect rocks or like

they find the manure pile that maybe accidentally had a dead animal in it

and they go find dinosaur bones or they like drag stuff in the house or

what, you know, it's just like funny.

Yeah, because you know your mom and your grandma and your great grandma,

they all had the same experience with their kids when it was their age.

No matter what time

of life the collection of cow teeth.

Does anyone else

Yeah.

That's funny.

They are very funny looking

My child is only collecting live animals at this point, so that's, you're so lucky.

That is what it is.

? Um, yeah, the girl child is lobbying for another cat.

Arlene, uh, listen, we already have five cats in the house, but

she thinks that we should bring biscuit in from a barn as well.

That's how it works.

Yeah.

You start with one.

Yeah.

Uhhuh.

. So what do you find to be the most challenging part of farming,

of parenting on the farm?

The most challenging part of parenting on the farm?

Um, I think that winters are hard.

Um, the I this year, when you talk about New Year's resolutions, there's, I, I saw

someone post something recently that was like, I'm not counting numbers in 2023.

And I thought, I really liked that.

You know, you're not counting calories, you're not counting your

weight, you're not counting, you know, how many hours of this you did.

But I did.

I just printed out a calendar because I am keeping track of

a couple of things this year.

And one of 'em is number of hours outside.

Um, because we, that's how good is it for your kids?

Just go be outside.

How many problems do we have in life?

Because there's too many people that sit inside too much.

So I am tracking that.

And I'm tracking, um, the number of volunteer hours we do this

year just to have an idea.

But like the winters are so hard inside when your kids

just wanna be outside so badly.

Um, so I think that's, that's maybe the most challenging part.

at this age, at my, my toddler stage,

our almost five year old son has a fork stick that he keeps all summer

to plow the front yard so that he can prepare it for planting.

And he went out yesterday and plowed snow with it, so, well, yeah, it's right

It's getting to that point that I'm like, I don't, if it's above

zero, you're going outside.

I don't, I don't care.

Sorry, kids, it's, I can't, with both of them in the house.

So I was looking at your Instagram.

We've already talked a little bit about social media and I noticed that you

talked about your mom being diagnosed with cancer this past fall, and I was

wondering if that was something, um, I know that's her medical stuff and I

don't wanna know details necessarily, but I was just wondering how she's doing.

And, um, you mentioned that it was cervical cancer and I just, as another

woman, I was wondering, you know, like what types of things we should be looking

for, like what's a symptom and Yeah.

How she's doing and how you're being a supportive daughter from a distance

and with all the other stuff that you're doing in your busy life.

Yeah.

Um, I don't think I am an expert by any means in any of those categories.

And there's a lot of growth that I can do in each of them as well.

Um, but just like over overarching, I can say, Mom is doing fine for now.

She's, um, going through chemo treatments.

So those are about every three weeks and she's doing that, um, with the hope

that we can do some surgery to remove some masses from inside, um, here

in the next month, two months or so.

Um, so that's, we're being hopeful that way.

Um, as far as like keeping a, a watch out or symptoms, I'm not, I

don't know if I have any specific advice except to go to your doctor.

Um, I think a lot of times like, okay, here we are, we live, how many, you

know, and I live an hour from the doctor.

Um, I know there's people that live way farther than that.

You get busy with life, you get busy with your kids, you get busy with work.

Go to your doctor's appointments every year.

They are important.

They are.

Um, another thing I think we can think of as people in agriculture,

farmers and um, people in rural life, like, oh, I don't need to know.

I don't need that.

I don't need that person.

I don't need to go to the hospital.

I don't need medicine.

Um, and that's not what they're gonna tell you every single time, but go to

the doctor, find one that you trust and, um, keep up on your appointments.

And then if you think something's wrong, go get it checked out.

Like the worst they're gonna tell you is, or the best they're gonna tell

you is, oh no, you're totally fine.

Everything's good.

Um, but what if it's not?

So, um, go to the doctor.

And, um, as far as being a supportive daughter, I talk to my mom on the phone.

We text the, the sisters and I and mom and dad, we all have Snapchat

groups and send pictures of the kids and that kind of stuff.

And we were just home for Christmas, which is really good to get everyone together,

um, and do that for a couple of days.

And.

. Um, but yes, technology is amazing.

My kids talk with grandma on FaceTime and check in with grandpa on FaceTime and

um, you know, they do all those things.

So we're just, everyone's trying to make the best of it and be

optimistic and, um, hopeful.

Yeah.

So we, uh, we will hold space for her too and hope that all of the

treatments that she has coming up go well and that, that her and her doctors

have a good plan moving forward.

I appreciate that.

Thank you guys.

Yeah, I think it's critical to point out too that I know so many people

who've been in that position and they don't wanna waste the doctor's time

because they're sure it's nothing.

And I guarantee that your doctor would much rather see you when it's

nothing than to have something.

I think

that's true too.

Circling back to like New Parenthood, you, your kid, like

kids are just sick constantly.

No matter how much you try to build their immunity by letting them eat

dirt and manure and play in the barn, , they still get sick all the

time and go take 'em to the doctor.

Like they're not gonna shake their head at you for coming in and getting checked out

And so I think that is relatable in every age of life.

In, in all parts of this conversation is just

go . Well, and it's absolutely a privileged thing to say too, because I

know not everybody has health insurance or good health insurance and not

everybody has a choice of other doctors.

But if your doctor's a dick and makes you feel like you're being stupid for

being there, for whatever you're there for, you need a new doctor that's

not on you, that's on your doctor.

Um, you know, I just 100%.

Even if you are overreacting, , your doctor should still

not be a dick about it.

, we ask all of our guests, if you are going to dominate a category at

the county fair, what would it be?

And categories can be real or made up to ensure that you win.

Oh gosh.

Um hmm.

Well, I, every year I do try to enter something in the county fair.

Uh, one of the, another one of those things like they're not gonna keep

having the open class building at your county fair if people don't keep taking

stuff in, no matter how old you are.

Um, so my, I make sure my kids and I always enter a few things

and I always take cinnamon rolls.

And this year I was, uh, beat by a third grader.

I'm not happy about that.

But, uh, was, um, I do try to take a baked good.

Um, so I probably have to say some kind of baking, even though

I was just, you know, routed from my champion Cinnamon roll role.

At the county fair.

But

are you gonna have like a grudge match?

I am situation next year with this kid.

I think grandma made

' em, I think her grandma made 'em.

She didn't even live in the county, so.

Mm-hmm.

sounds like a ringer.

I'm not holding a grudge.

That's not at all.

Seems, seems questionable.

Yes.

Simon rolls are pretty complicated.

, I mean, fine if you're gonna make them, but at least put

your own name on them, right?

Like I know.

Go ahead.

Go ahead grandma.

You can meet Melissa, but not your granddaughter.

Yeah.

So I guess we'll move into our cussing and discussing segment.

We've registered for an online platform called SpeakPipe, where you can leave

your cussing and discussing entries for us and we will play them on the show.

So go to speakpipe.com/barnyard language, leave us a voice

memo or check the show notes.

I think the links in there.

Or you can always send us an email@barnyardlanguagegmail.com

and we will read it out for you.

So Katie, have you remembered what you're going to cuss and discuss this week?

No.

And now I'm gonna get a little meadow about it.

, I am cussing and discussing, having to remember what I was gonna cuss and

discuss because I had some really good thing to cuss and discuss this week.

And it's totally gone.

It's disappeared.

So yeah, we'll probably

remember as soon as we stop recording,

oh, I'm sure I will.

Or I'll wake up at like 3:00 AM and be like, this was the thing, you know,

at my normal waking up with music from Encanto stuck in my head time.

I'm sure I can also wake up with the cussing and discussing topic in my head.

Um, Melissa, what do you have to cuss and discuss?

So is this

anything like a anything, Eddie?

Okay.

I have something that I just thought of.

This is something that I will fight to the death and it is when people are on TV

and they say they're from a small town.

And you Google their town and it's like 20,000 people

Because that is not a small town.

Yes.

Not is a city.

So people who say they're from a small town who aren't, that's what I cuss.

Yeah.

Not fair.

No, they don't know

what is the population boundary for a small town.

Oh.

And

I'm probably gonna get heat for that, but No, do it.

I feel like a small town is like 2000 or less.

And that's like, that's like big, like a 2000 is like the cutoff.

Because if you're like over 2000 or 2,500, like you probably have a like

a, a big grocery store, a couple gas stations, a McDonald's, maybe some

kind of fast food restaurant, 2000.

That's what I'm going

with.

Yeah.

I think that's it.

That's a decent number.

20,000 is not even close.

That's not even a town.

That is the city.

So, Melissa, other, other hard-hitting, uh, hot take.

When you take your kids to state fair for the first time, will you be

going to Des Moines or to Lincoln?

Ooh.

Oh, yes.

This is a, that's a big question.

You know, big Midwestern question

right there.

So this is, this is maybe the hot take in Iowa.

We took 'em to the Clay County Fair this summer, and we consider that

better than the state fair in Iowa, but that's the Western Iowa in me talking.

Um, so we haven't taken 'em to either state fair, but I don't know.

It's about the, it's about the same distance to both.

So I did grow up going to the Nebraska State Fair a lot.

Yeah.

But the Iowa State Fair has the butter cow.

I

know they do.

Which is pretty

cool.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Well, you could take 'em to both.

I'm not discriminated.

I'm sure they're not the same weekend

All right, Arlene, what do you have for cussing and discussing this week?

So

I am cussing, uh, toll roads because I just got a letter in the mail.

Um, recently my daughter and I went prom dress shopping in New York, and

I accidentally drove on a toll road.

I forgot to put into my g p s that I did not want to drive on any toll roads.

And it was on like Dr.

I drove on and then back off again because that was like the way that it rooted me.

And they're just obnoxious.

Like, why can we not just like, have roads that everybody can use?

Like, let's just like drive on the roads and not have to pay for them.

I don't like it.

I feel like they're unfairly biased against country people too.

because you always look like a jackass when you're like, I

gotta find change for this thing.

What is this new fan called thing?

And

that does give me anxiety.

Yeah.

And like yeah, when we're , yeah.

These ones are just like, they, they take your license plate and

then send it to you in the mail.

So, but still it's like, oh wait a second, that's a scanner thing.

I didn't wanna go on this road but too late.

And then you get charged for not having a transponder.

Well, yeah, cuz I don't wanna drive on this road.

I've never planned to, so now I have to pay a US $2 and some kind of

cent bill that I've gotta figure out how to, uh, to pay online someday.

But yeah, just like, let's just use our taxes for roads

that everybody gets to use.

I was gonna ask if you need to me to mail your $2 in for

you earlier , I'm, I'm sure I can figure it out.

It seems like there's an option, so I think we should be good.

All right.

So thank you so much for joining us today, Melissa.

If people want to find out more about you and your farm and your

business, where should they find you

online?

They can find me on Hungry Canyon, on Instagram and Facebook

and um, I have a website.

It's hungry canyon design.com and you can find all the Hungry Canyon

goods your heart desires on there.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you guys.

Thanks for coming on.

Melissa, thank you for joining us today on Barnyard Language.

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